The Comedy Zone is still making us laugh

It’s been more than two years since the Comedy Zone on College Street uptown closed, and about a year since the one in Matthews shut down. But the Comedy Zone is still a major player when it comes to the funny business in Charlotte.

Not because it still owns a club in Lake Norman (inside the Galway Hooker Pub), but because almost every month, it partners with the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center to bring nationally known comics to center city.

In the past year or so, Heffron Talent International – which owns the Comedy Zone name and operates 65 locations in North America – has teamed with the Blumenthal to present shows by: former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Norm MacDonald; Louis C.K., an Emmy-winning writer who was worked with Chris Rock and Conan O’Brien; prolific Southern stand-up/country music artist Tim Wilson; and D.L. Hughley, one of four comics featured in Spike Lee’s 2000 film “The Original Kings of Comedy.” To name just a few.

“This agency’s one of the largest buyers of celebrity talent per month in the whole country,” says Heffron Talent owner Brian Heffron. “We’re actually the largest comedy club chain in the country.”

And its corporate headquarters are right here, on Westinghouse Boulevard in southwest Charlotte.

Among the shows on the horizon forthcoming from Heffron’s company are Aisha Tyler (Sunday at McGlohon Theatre; pictured at right), “Laugh for the Cure” (March 4 at McGlohon), and Sinbad (March 12 at Belk Theater).

But the biggest thing Heffron has in store for us … he can’t talk about – yet.

“There will be a fairly big announcement very soon,” he says. “I think we’re within a week (of making it). ... It’s gonna be the best club I’ve ever put in this town.”

Want to win a pair of tickets to see Tyler’s stand-up show at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at McGlohon Theatre? E-mail tjanes@charlotteobserver.com and tell me your best joke about Charlotte. Deadline is 2 p.m. today.