Opened in November, the downtown club/restaurant is part of founder/owner Budd Friedman's Improv comedy club franchise. Since the venue's opening, its owners have attempted to revitalize both the downtown area and the moribund local comedy club scene by enlisting the following big-name stand-up comics:

* Paul Rodriguez, one of the country's most popular Latino comics, as well as a former late-night talk show host (his show ran on the Spanish TV network Univision during the early '90s).

* Kevin Pollak, actor/impressionist who, like Titus, hails from the South Bay. Best known in comedy circles for his impressions of William Shatner, Peter Falk, Alan Arkin and Albert Brooks, Pollak has often played the wisecracking sidekick (Ricochet, A Few Good Men, The Usual Suspects), but he has also taken on more serious roles in Avalon and Casino. Last year, Pollak appeared in both the HBO reality series Project Greenlight and Stolen Summer, the low-budget movie that was the focus of the series.

* Brad Sherwood, a frequent guest on the improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? His dead-on impression of B-52's singer Fred Schneider always elicits audience cheers during tapings of Whose Line.

* Brett Butler, the star of the '90s blue-collar single mom sitcom Grace Under Fire. After making headlines with her substance abuse problems, breast implants and temper tantrums on the set of her series, Butler disappeared from the limelight for a few years, then cleaned up her act, returned to stand-up and published her memoirs.

* D.L. Hughley, one of the stars of the "Original Kings of Comedy" tour, as well as the 2000 concert film of the same name. Like Titus, Hughley did a sitcom for three seasons (the fish-out-of-water show The Hughleys).

In early January, the Improv will present Lewis Black, currently known for his twitchy, manic "Back in Black" rants about absurd headlines on Comedy Central's news parody The Daily Show.