ATLANTIC CITY — In support of the Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament (LIBT)’s mission to fight breast cancer and raise money for the AtlantiCare RNS Mobile Mammography Assistance Fund, the LIBT is again presenting a special version of Diva Bingo on Friday, May 17, at Resort Superstar Theater.

Hosted by the cast of Resorts’ hilarious revue show Divas Do AC, the event starts 8pm following a 7-8pm registration. A $10 donation benefits AtlantiCare’s Mobile Mammography Assistance Fund, and bingo prizes will be awarded in slot cash, so be sure to sign up for a players card at the promotions booth if you don’t already have one. The theme this year is “Hot Hula Bingo,” so dust off your coconut bra and dress in your best Hawaiian garb for the chances to win additional prizes. Outrageous outfits are most encouraged.

The LIBT is a registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and all contributions are tax deductible. The Mobile Mammography Assistance Fund helps provide mammograms and potentially life-saving screenings to uninsured women at no charge, thus removing financial barriers to receiving this important and potentially life-saving screening.

The 29th annual Ladies Invitational Bluefish Tournament is June 8 (full schedule below). The tournament’s awards banquet is Sunday and is open to all (you do not have to be a tournament participant) for $45. Tickets include hors d’oeuvres and dinner, a Chinese auction with the hands-down best prizes in South Jersey, a 50/50 raffle that netted last year’s winner over $1,500, and the peace of mind knowing that you will be assisting the Mobile Mammography Assistance Fund and the Ruth Newman Shapiro Cancer & Heart Fund.

Your donations stay local and help local women receive mammograms that are so Call Kimberly Ann Kirk at (609) 412-0641 or visit fishlibt.com for more information, and thank you for your support! (more…)

An hour before his return to Atlantic City’s Borgata on Saturday night, April 6, Brian Regan and his entourage were still heading up from Baltimore.

The comic’s previous day had been spent in part at Camden Yards taking in the Orioles home game. (Regan’s tour manager Andy Levitt is from the Baltimore area and he was stoked as the O’s beat the Twins 9-5.)

It was Regan’s first day off after several gigs in a row.

Backstage at the Borgata Event Center before the show, Regan, very tall in person, sat in his dressing room with his girlfriend Sara, Levitt and opening stand-up Jim Colliton. Regan was met with fans (and at least one local entertainment writer) before Colliton took the stage at about 8:10pm to a full house.

Before anybody took to the stage, a string of modern-day Van Morrison songs played over the Event Center sound system. Songs such as “Days Like This,” “Wavelength,” “Tore Down a la Rimbaud,” “Someone Like You” and “Real Real Gone” — likely from the 2007 compilation album Still on Top: The Greatest Hits. (Levitt says Regan has this CD played before every show.)

Regan did an hour of mostly new and often riotous material, saving a few of his most popular bits as encores, taking requests from the audience only then.

While Regan’s new material is hilarious as ever, it includes a harsher outlook on life and humanity in particular, while bemoaning the fact that his body is beginning to break down. Although he’s always viewed as a “big kid,” due to his trademark mannerisms and facial expressions and jokes about Pop Tarts and Krispy Kreme, Regan, 54, is growing up in a sense. He’s now also including bits about getting older, riffing on world politics, and, like Carlin, Seinfeld and the best of them, pointing out the funny things many of us deal with every day, but just haven’t articulated yet.

Two years from now Regan should have another hour or so of new material.

Catch him when he returns to Atlantic City. The “clean” comic doesn’t curse and wouldn’t mind seeing the younger set in his audiences, but some of the material may go over the head of anyone under 12 years old.

But not all of it — as long as they like doughnuts.

READ: AC Weekly’s interview with Brian Regan before the show

ATLANTIC CITY — The Comedy Stop Café & Cabaret at the Tropicana is looking for the Atlantic City area’s Number-1 Fool.

Are YOU the No. 1 fool?

On Monday, April 1 — better known as April Fool’s Day — the Comedy Stop will host an amateur comedy night contest for that very purpose. Participants will be judged on a five-minute routine performed in front of a full house at the Comedy Stop (on the third level of The Quarter at the Trop).

There will be plenty of prizes and surprises, including cash gifts and of course, the title of “Number-1 Fool” to the grand prize winner.

 WZXL 100.7 FM DJ and comedian Scott Friedman will emcee the evening’s events, which start at 7pm. To enter, e-mail your name, address, phone number and date of birth to comedyac@aol.com. The deadline for e-mail entries is Sunday, March 24.

Participants must be at least 18 years of age. Entrants will be contacted by phone to participate in a semifinal audition, taking place at the Comedy Stop on Sunday, March 31. Semifinal winners will then compete for the title of No.1 Fool and cash prizes on Monday, April 1.

Prizes include $300 cash to the winner plus a performance during a regular Comedy Stop show (and, of course, the title of No. 1 Fool), $200 cash to the runner-up, and $100 to the third-place finisher. Spectator entry to the contest is $20 plus a one-beverage minimum. For more information, call 1-877-FUNNY-AC or visit thecomedystop.com.

ATLANTIC CITY — Bob Kephart’s Comedy Stop Café is ringing in the New Year with a trio of top names in “urban comedy,” all with ties to the Philadelphia-area stand-up scene.

The Comedy Stop, located in The Quarter at Tropicana, presents a “late-night urban comedy show” on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 11-12, during the showroom’s regular 11:15pm show.

The comedians include Clint Coley (pictured left), TuRae Gordon and Derek Gaines. Tickets are $25. For more info call 1-877-FUNNY AC or click here for more details.

Clint Coley.

Bob Kephart’s Comedy Stop at Tropicana’s Quarter is trying something fresh for the new year. The Comedy Stop presents a “late-night urban comedy show” Jan. 11-12 during the showroom’s regular 11:15pm show.

The trio of comedians are Clint Coley, TuRae Gordon and Derek Gaines. Tickets are $25. For more info call 1-877-FUNNY AC. Go here for the story.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Two quiet contests will be featured in Ocean City’s 10th annual Quiet Festival, scheduled for Wednesday through Sunday, Nov. 7-11.

An exciting new event, the Snore at the Shore, will challenge one’s ability to imitate quiet snoring in keeping with the sleepy, laid-back personality of the event. Participants will have the option of lying on a cot or sitting in a comfortable chair.

“We want to create an authentic atmosphere for this sound-breaking new event,” says Mark Soifer, festival chairman.

The Snore at the Shore is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 10, at 11am in the Senior Center of the Ocean City Community Complex, 17th and Simpson Ave. Entry is free and prizes will be awarded.

The “White Mice, Hamster, and Guinea Pig Challenge” went quite well last year, so the O.C. Quiet Fest will bring it back as a special event this year on Nov. 10. These pets will be judged for their lack of energy, unusual sleeping positions and disinterest in their surroundings. There will also be prizes for costumes and decorated cages and layouts. 

An exercise wheel will be provided for any mouse or hamster that feels the need to abandon its instincts and work out. Turtles and reptiles are welcome. There will be a special visit by the Turtle Singers with their awesome, gigantic turtle. This contest will be held starting at 10:30am at the Senior Center and will be a perfect complement to the snoring contest.

For a complete schedule of Quiet Festival events, Nov.7-11, call (609) 525- 9300. We would like a warning in advance if you and your pet will be there so that we can provide proper crowd control. Call or e-mail msoifer@hotmail.com — Carmella Shillito

ATLANTIC CITY —  The Comedy Stop Café and Cabaret invites loyal fans to join Team COMEDY (Committee Of Many Enjoying Daily Yuks) — a movement to engage the Atlantic City region to celebrate the Comedy Stop’s upcoming 30th anniversary.

“To affirm our 30 years of success on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, I wanted to start a grass roots committee of loyal fans,” says Comedy Stop owner/producer Bob Kephart. “Our fans know us best and are the ones who have shared three decades of laughs with us. By establishing Team COMEDY, we can guarantee the Comedy Stop’s place in Atlantic City’s history.”

Tim Allen (left) and Rosie O’Donnell (right) are big-time comics whose careers  the Comedy Stop helped launch.

Click here to see a video of the 25th anniversary of the Comedy Stop in AC.

Team COMEDY members are encouraged to influence the community by promoting The Comedy Stop by word-of-mouth or spreading the word on the Comedy Stop’s Facebook page.

Registered members of the committee will receive a ‘30th Anniversary’ jacket, in addition to promotional tickets.

To join ‘Team COMEDY,’ contact Bob Kephart by email at ComedyAC@aol.com or call(609) 348-0920.

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Edna Turnblad (Robert “Sandy Beach” Hitchen) lectures Tracy Turnblad (Rebecca Wolfe) about her '60s forward thinking.

OCEAN CITY, N.J. — Hairspray, the Broadway musical comedy phenomenon that inspired a major motion picture, is coming to the Ocean City Music Pier on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 2, 4 and 5, at 7:30pm each night.

This fantastically fun musical, winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, is the final collaboration of 2012 between the Greater Ocean City Theatre Company (OCTC) and the Ocean City POPS Orchestra.

Based on the 1988 production by John Waters, Hairspray tells the story of overweight Baltimore girl, Tracy Turnblad. She’s never been part of the “in” crowd until winning a coveted spot on the local TV dance program, the Corny Collins Show, where overnight she becomes a teen idol. Tracy quickly becomes a trendsetter and uses her popularity to help change the show’s segregation policy. From the 1960s style dance music to the soulful rhythm and blues, Hairspray is sure to get audience members dancing in the aisles.

Tracy and Edna

Rebecca Wolfe from New York City makes her OCTC debut as the inspiring Tracy Turnblad while audience favorites Chad Parsons (Link Larkin), John Anker Bow (Wilbur) and Ashley Blasland (Penny) return to the OCTC stage. Newcomer to OCTC Christopher Brasfield brings his experience from Hairspray at the Paper Mill Playhouse of NJ as he creates the role of Seaweed.

After a successful run of Cinderella with OCTC, Whitney Hays (Motormoth), Greta Schwartz (Prudy), Megan Rucidlo (Amber) and Marcia Dunlap (Velma) look forward to entertaining audiences in Hairspray. Rounding out the principal cast members are Ricky Fountas as Corny Collins and renowned Atlantic City/Philadelphia personality Robert “Sandy Beach” Hitchen as Edna Turnblad.

Tickets are $25 for orchestra seating and $18 for solarium seating. To purchase tickets call (609) 525-9248, stop by the box office at the O.C. Music Pier, or go here.

For more information about the Greater Ocean City Theatre Company, go here.

“Flight Time” Lang

THE WILDWOODS, N.J. — Those wizards of the hardwood, the Harlem Globetrotters, are returning to the Wildwoods and the southern New Jersey shore area Wednesday through Saturday, Aug. 8-11, at the Wildwoods Convention Center for a four-game series and two exciting two-hour skills clinics.

The ‘Trotters’ skills clinics teach fans the importance of healthy eating habits and staying fit and will provide behind-the-scenes fun and a sneak peak at their practice. The skills clinics are ideal for children ages 6-14 and are scheduled for Aug. 8 and 9 from 10am-noon each day.

The first female Globetrotter since 1993 (and a graduate of Temple University in nearby Philly) “TNT” Maddox is set to perform in Wildwood. Other team members to hit the court are “Stretch” Middleton, the third tallest Globetrotter in history (at 7 feet 4 inches’ tall), “Too Tall” Hall, the shortest Globetrotter in history at 5 feet 2 inches, and “Big Easy” Lofton, the Globetrotters’ Showman and a two-time competitor (with teammate “Flight Time” Lang) on the reality TV show The Amazing Race. Rounding out the team are “Jet “Williams, “Hi-Lite” Bruton, “Hammer” Harrison and “Flip” Atkins.

“TNT” Maddox

The basketball action begins with the Harlem Globetrotters’ first East Coast game this year on Wednesday, Aug. 8, at 7pm. Other games are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 9-11, starting 7pm each night.

Tickets are priced from $19. Skill-clinic tickets are $49.99 each and include a voucher for a free game ticket. Both can be purchased at the WIldwood Convention Center Box Office, by clicking here or by calling (800) 745-3000. — Shana Vanegas

ATLANTIC CITY — Girls Night: The Musical recently opened at Resorts Screening Room and runs through Sept. 1, with shows every Thursday and Friday at 7:30pm, and Saturday at 3:30pm and 7:30pm.

For a video of the show, click here.

The Thursday, July 26, show will serve as a benefit for Tom Palermo, a Somers Point resident and active community member recently diagnosed with colorectal cancer that requires surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

“Girls Night is all about having fun and letting loose, and it’s about friends and friends helping each other out,” says director Sonya Carter in a media release. “We realized the show can be a great platform to giving back to the community and that is what we want to do to help Tom and his family.”

Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at Resorts’ box office or by clicking here. All those who attend the July 26 show will receive a gift card for ONEHOPE Wines at the event.