(keep reading to learn what happened)
Season: 3 | View All Season 3 Episodes
Original Episode Air Date: April 14, 2013
The Bar's Original Name Was: Stand Up, Scottsdale
The Laugh Factory Address: 6820 E 5th Ave Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Episode Recap
Stand Up, Scottsdale, later renamed to The Laugh Factory, was a Scottsdale, Arizona bar/comedy club that was featured on Season 3 of Bar Rescue.
Though the Laugh Factory Bar Rescue episode aired in April 2013, the actual filming and visit from Jon Taffer took place before that.
It was Season 3 Episode 10 and the episode name was “Meat Sauna”.
Stand Up Scottsdale is a comedy club in Scottsdale, AZ.
Howard Hughes is the owner. No, not the famous businessman and airline pilot.
After divorcing, Howard opened the club because he had a passion for comedy.
Nathan, an investment banker, helped Howard open the club.
Because Howard performed in the club nightly, the bar started to fail due to a lack of leadership.
He was more of a comedian than a businessman and it started to show.
The bar now has a lousy reputation with both customers and comedians, which is a big part of why the Stand Up Scottsdale Bar Rescue episode exists.
Expert mixologist Franky Marshall and comedian Gianluca Rizza join Jon Taffer to help save the club.
The experts and Jon look at the bar’s exterior and notice there is no marquee, which seems odd for a comedy club looking to promote its shows.
Franky is tasked with going into the bar. The bartender ignored Franky, who tried for over ten minutes to gain his attention.
Eventually, Franky is taken to the VIP area, where she is then given a drink.
Howard, the Stand Up Scottsdale owner, gets on stage and makes rude Jokes about wasting his investor, Nathan’s, money.
Food is being grilled on a grill near the front of the bar, which makes the atmosphere smoky.
Twenty minutes later, Franky still has not received her drink, and when she does, it is terrible.
Jon Taffer calls Franky, who answers her phone and isn’t told to put her phone away during the show.
Jon is fed up and enters the bar.
Howard is full of excuses for the state of the bar, which is filthy.
When Jon goes into the office to look at the paperwork, it is a mess and disorganized.
The following day Jon returns to meet the rest of the staff.
Howard tells Jon he thinks it is more important to be the face of the business.
The experts are then introduced to the team so they can begin training and prepping for the stress test.
Franky shows the bartenders how to make drinks quickly and quietly so the attention can stay on the performers.
Gianluca gives pointers to the staff about customer service.
There is a two-drink minimum for the club, but the experts change it to a two-item menu, with guests more likely to order a drink if they order food.
Jon has made a small menu for the stress test for test.
The goal is to have every customer seated with a glass before the show starts, but the bar starts slowly.
Comedians come to perform for the test, but the green room has a strange smell.
There is a heckler in the audience, and the bartenders can be heard talking over the show.
Customers start to walk out after a mic blows out in the middle of a performance.
While everything is falling apart, Howard hides in the office.
Owen Benjamin, a well-known comedian (at that time – he’s kind of gone off the rails now), comes into the bar.
Owen thinks the green room is too small and needs to be more significant.
Franky shows the bartender’s high-end cocktails.
Shannon, Howard’s sister, joins Nathan in trying to get through to Howard.
Jon sends Nathan and Howard to Hollywood’s Laugh Factory. Jon wants the bar to be the local franchise of The Laugh Factory rather than its own thing.
The staff gathers to see the remodel and the new Laugh Factory branding.
In addition to the branding change, the club finally has a marquee to advertise upcoming shows.
Owen Benjamin will perform for the relaunch.
The green room is more significant, and the stage has been updated.
The bar has also been gifted a new POS system.
The bar makes quality drinks, and the customers are happy.
Owen Benjamin walks on stage to loud applause.
So was the Stand Up Scottsdale Bar Rescue episode a success? Keep reading our update to learn what happened and how the bar is doing in 2024.
The Laugh Factory Update - What Happened Next?
Now that we’ve recapped the Laugh Factory Bar Rescue episode, let’s talk about what happened to the bar after Jon Taffer and his crew left Scottsdale, AZ.
There was a lot of drama with this one, including an absolutely crazy Back to the Bar episode. But let’s start at the beginning…
First off, it wasn’t known as The Laugh Factory for very long.
Shortly after Jon Taffer left, the owner went back to the original Stand Up, Scottsdale name.
Howard, the Stand Up Scottsdale owner, also seems to have had a horrible time on the show.
Howard admits that he basically signed up to get publicity, but the experience wasn’t what he wanted.
He talked a lot of bad stuff about Bar Rescue and there was so much drama that he was featured on a Back to the Bar episode in Season 4.
In this episode, he got into a screaming argument with Jon Taffer, culminating with him getting in Jon Taffer’s face and needing to be separated by security.
You can see a clip of this interaction below:
For these reasons, you can probably guess where this one is going…
Is Stand Up, Scottsdale from Bar Rescue still open?
Stand Up Scottsdale closed in April 2017, which was almost exactly four years after the Stand Up Scottsdale Bar Rescue episode aired on TV.
At that time, the club had already changed locations in 2016, so it was no longer at the location that you saw on the show.
The “new” location that it moved to in 2016 actually the bar’s original location, so it was actually moving back to its beginnings.
Here’s an article where Howard explains the move:
We actually started the club where we’re moving back to, but the owners at the time wouldn’t take down a wall that was cutting off about a third of the room. ‘
The new owners said they’ll take down the wall, so we’ll only drop from 170 seats to 140 seats, and it’ll be a much nicer room.
It just needed an upgrade.”
In April 2017, though, it closed permanently.
As of 2023, the old Stand Up Scottsdale Arizona location that you saw on the Bar Rescue episode is occupied by a gym named BODI.
The location that it moved to in 2016 is home to a hotel named Hotel Adeline.
What happened to Howard Hughes after Bar Rescue?
Howard Hughes seems to still be performing as a comedian. While he’s not world famous, you can still see plenty of pictures of him performing on his Facebook page, including shots from as recent as 2021.
If you want to see some other Arizona Bar Rescue episodes, you can check out these posts:
- Gallopin’ Goose update
- Havana Cabana / Rocky Point Cantina update
- County Line / Billy Bar update
- True Grit / The Roost update
- Brick and Barley / Baseline Sports Bar update
Or, you can check out my full list of all Bar Rescue Arizona episodes as of 2024.
Thanks for reading!
More Information
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Last updated: 2023-03-24 05:57
Not funny!
It baffles me how many owners on Bar Rescue take for granted what Jon provides. He trains their staff, remodels their venue, and upgrades all of their equipment and then they just throw it all away. He moved to a smaller venue with 30 less seats and if my math is right, thats equivalent to throwing out 300,0000 dollars in potential profit. It makes me question if these are even real people on here. If I got an opportunity like them there would be no way I take it for granted like some of them.
Howard is definitely a real person! I’ve heard comedians reference the club on comedy podcasts.
Like the next episode, reruns of this one have been removed from airing on the Paramount Network and streaming on Paramount+. However, I was able to purchase it on Google Play. I don’t get the legalities of why! I haven’t been able to find out why, but there may have been a lawsuit involving the Laugh Factory parent company.
I’m not too surprised that the club closed. Even at the end of the episode, it was clear that Howard didn’t really have a head for business and rather would have been a performer. Unfortunately, it looks like he didn’t succeed at either.
They probably don’t air it because the comedian they brought in, Owen Benjamin, is a complete loon who promotes white supremacy these days. I can’t imagine Viacom wants to support something like that!
I always wondered why I couldn’t find this episode easily… When Brandy Beaver showed up in the Brick and Barely episode and I went looking for this episode, it was nowhere to be found.