With several clubs opening up this past spring, the inauguration of the New York Comedy Festival in November, smaller venues and comedy rooms popping up weekly, and two comedy festivals that began last fall, New York City's comedy scene is booming.

April saw the opening or reopening of four major clubs: the Comedy Company, the Improv and the Laugh Factory in the Times Square area, and the Laugh Lounge in the Lower East Side.

"New York is the Mecca of comedy", said Jamie Masada, an owner of the Laugh Factory. "That's where it all started. People want to go back to the roots."

"It has a lot to do with the television shows," said Delilah Ramos, an owner of the Laugh Lounge. "It gets generated by shows like Last Comic Standing, and by people's general needs to laugh. There's so much talent in New York."

This boom has not spread to the other key entertainment city, Los Angeles, where no major clubs have opened lately.

Al Martin, who reopened the Improv, and either owns or co-owns several other clubs in New York, pointed toward the number of tourists who walk by foot as a reason for the comedy clubs' success. In contrast, tourists in Los Angeles are more likely to go from place to place by car.

"That's why people walk into comedy… it's easy," said Josh Spear, co-owner of the Comedy Company. "It's always light entertainment. It's cheap and easy, and it's mostly fun."

With the influx of all of these new clubs, the question becomes whether all of the clubs can survive and whether some of the clubs may start trying to distinguish themselves from other clubs.

Club owners themselves were split on the issue, with some saying that it would become survival of the fittest, and others saying that New York is big enough for all of the comedy clubs to survive. They pointed toward the fact that there are so many different Broadway shows and that many of those manage to survive.

Some of the clubs are trying to carve a niche for themselves. The Laugh Lounge seeks comfort and diversity while the Comedy Company is comic-run and pushes crowd-work.

"In terms of design, and atmosphere, [the Laugh Lounge] is very different than the other clubs," said Ramos. "We also have an atmosphere that encourages diversity. We play hip music. You have a very relaxed and loungy atmosphere," he added.

"In the newer clubs, it's very organized, and you have to do what's expected of you. Your best 15 minutes, not a lot of crowd-work," said Bob Juergins, a co-owner of the Comedy Company. "The audience is involved, and they're sharing the experience, not just a lot of jokes," he added.

"We're fully run by the comics," said Dave Rubin, Spear's and Juergins' partner at the Comedy Company. "There is no management here. We split all of the profits. Because of that, there's no bullshit. There's investment in each of us getting better. It's healthy competition; it's not competition to tear each other down."

None of the clubs said that they censor their comedians, although they try to match the comics to the audience. They are also all making plans for the future.

The New York City Laugh Factory is going to do some of the things that its Los Angeles club does, such as having a comedy camp for underprivileged kids, which was the subject of a two-hour documentary on PBS, and doing a lot of philanthropy. It is also hoping to have a TV show, as its Los Angeles club did in the early 1990s.

The Improv is going to be adding a second 80-seat room that will feature one-man shows, improvisational comedy, sketch comedy and overflow shows.

Linda Corke, the general manager and talent coordinator at the Improv, said that the additional space is going to "help develop young talent." The club is also negotiating to have a television show, as the Hollywood Improv does.

Ramos said that the Laugh Lounge's goals for the future include, "Ideally… to get a show televised out of the club. For me, that would be the ultimate." She added that Greg Wilson's Comedy Smackdown would be a good choice for the show.

How the clubs find comedians varies.

Spear said, "We find the tightest non-conventional comics…that aren't working at other clubs…and let them work with us to tighten their craft here. They remain undiscovered because of their originality. And they come over and rip it up, that's it."

The Laugh Factory caters to up and coming comics and helps them develop their talent. Masada mentors and manages comics as they come up through the ranks.

"I have old relationships with most of them," Ramos said, referring to her comedians. "I do look at new talent sometimes; I like to have a mix of veterans and fresh blood."

Rich Brooks, a house comic and the new talent director at the Improv said, "One of our goals here for the new talent shows on Saturdays, is to find opportunities for beginning…and intermediate comics. For example, we just got 20 of our comics into the Ladies of Laughter Festival. We're getting bookings for some of our comics at other Improvs, and our new talent showcase is another place we look for comics for our (three) sitting rooms."

New York City is seeing its biggest comedy boom since the 1980s, and it is expanding in all directions. There are numerous new clubs, more comedians, new festivals, and a brand new comedy newspaper that is covering all of it.

You can also e-mail Jerry L. Kahn at jerry@thecomical.com or visit him at www.BorderingOnTheRidiculous.com.