The Plain Dealer 05/03/2015 North Coast Sunday, May 3, 2015 | Section C | cleveland.com/living PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN PETKOVIC | THE PLAIN DEALER Nick Kostis’ funny ideas Top: In 1985, He dreamed of comedy a dreamer named Nick Kostis took a and revived city’s nightlife chance on some laughs. Thirty John Petkovic | [email protected] years later, his Hilarities here have all the years gone? ¶ comedy club at Pickwick & Those vague measures of time Frolic is one seem to fly by in a blink of the of the reasons downtown eye. ¶ Not so with Nick Kostis. Cleveland W is making a ¶ Yes, the owner of the Pickwick & Frolic on comeback. East Fourth Street is conscious of the years. He’s even dedicating the month of May to Right: Chan D’Leer, a them — 30 to be exact, which is how long his longtime Hilarities comedy club has been in existence. performer at Pickwick & ¶ But Kostis’ time is measured by a different Frolic, credits standard. ¶ “Every night, I look at that door and Nick Kostis for instilling the I wonder who’s going to be walking through it,” confidence in he says, standing next to the bar at Pickwick & her to become a showgirl. Frolic on a busy Friday night. see KOSTIS | C5 © 2015 The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. All rights reserved. The material on this site may not beMay reproduced, 3, 2015 3:25 distributed, pm / Powered transmitted, by TECNAVIA cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of The Plain Dealer Publishing Co. Entrepreneurs Creators of men’s clothing line are glad they turned down ‘Shark Tank’ ofers Janet H. Cho percent of the company; and self- meetings we were taking, albeit [email protected] made millionaire shark Robert a crazy one.” Herjavec, who countered with “You’re in there a lot longer leveland native Sasha $200,000 and a $100,000 line of than what the episode shows. Koehn and his business credit, in exchange for a 25 per- It’s this wild, made-for-TV kind Cpartner, Erik Schnakenberg, cent stake in the company. of thing where you’re making pitched their Buck Mason made- “It was an enticing offer,” Koehn this major business and life de- in-the-USA line of men’s jeans, admitted via telephone from Ven- cision in front of the cameras in T-shirts and oxford shirts on ice, California. “We both really the blink of an eye,” Koehn said. ABC’s hit TV show “Shark Tank,” like Robert and were excited that “We really wanted to make a received two proposals but said, he came back in with that, but we deal. In that situation you have “No thanks.” were still giving up too much eq- thousands of thoughts, trying Now, a year after their pitch uity for our first round of funding. to evaluate these people that (the show aired April 24), they “We were 8 months old at the you’ve only known for 10 min- say they have zero regrets about time of this filming and were utes and asking yourself, ‘Do I SASHA KOEHN turning down billionaire shark actively looking to raise a seed really want this person as a busi- Cleveland native Sasha Koehn, right, and his business partner, Erik Schnakenberg, pitched Kevin O’Leary, who offered them round of funding. ‘Shark Tank’ ness partner?’” their Buck Mason made-in-the-USA line of men’s jeans, T-shirts and oxford shirts on “Shark $200,000 on the spot, plus a was just another channel for Tank” and got two offers. $100,000 line of credit, for 50 capital on top of several other see BUCK | C6 The Plain Dealer 05/03/2015 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page Sunday, May 3, 2015 MN The Plain Dealer | cleveland.com C5 PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN PETKOVIC | THE PLAIN DEALER Nick Kostis plays greeter and usher at Hilarities. The club, which opened in Cuyahoga Falls in 1985 before moving to Cleveland the following year, is considered one of the top 10 comedy clubs in the country. It has hosted, well, pretty much everyone, from Jerry Seinfeld to Eddie Griffin to Marc Maron, Louis CK, Frank Caliendo and Rita Rudner. came the brutal sucker punch KOSTIS known as the 2008 recession. “It started in 2007 and lasted from C1 three full years — at least,” says Kostis. “In the beginning, I thought Dressed in his trademark we’re going to beat this and get slacks, white dress shirt and sus- through it, but two months became penders, Kostis strikes an unlikely six months, which became one middle-ground, somehow dove- year, two years and three years.” tailing the mellow congeniality of “I couldn’t just close the place Bing Crosby with Robert DeNiro’s down,” he adds. “This is not about cool player from “Casino.” money to me — it’s about having He doesn’t stand around long. a dream and also having a reputa- Kostis darts over to greet a couple tion, which is worth more to me walking into the restaurant of the than money.” 27,000-square-foot, multilevel en- Dina Kostis recalls the grueling tertainment complex. impact on her father. But he manages to add a “He agonized over his staff and punch line, with his typical what was going to happen to them,” sense of self-deprecating humor: she says. “That was the time when I “Some nights, I wonder if any- came to really admire my dad — he one is going to walk through the showed this tenacity and stamina door. Hey, you never know.” Above left, Pickwick & Frolic, that I’ve never seen in anyone. He We do know this: Nick Kostis the East Fourth Street made up his mind that we aren’t go- will celebrate 10,950 nights in entertainment complex ing to go down and kept fighting” business on May 15. that includes Hilarities, has until things turned around. “My dad lives night by night, al- seen a steady increase in Rick Cassara, former owner of ways in the present,” says his daugh- the profile of its restaurant John Q’s Steakhouse, recalls those ter and Pickwick general manager business thanks to a retooled dire days in the economy, and the Dina Kostis. “And he’s spent every menu that emphasizes toll they took on Kostis. night for the last 30 years doing it – certified Angus beef and “I was struck that he never lost because this is his home away from pizzas. his sense of humor,” says Cassara, home, his baby, his dream.” who went to work for Kostis after Kostis, 72, is a self-diagnosed Above right, Nick Kostis closing the landmark restaurant dreamer, but the rarest kind: He jump-started the Warehouse two years ago. personifies the line by American District rebuilding boom in Actually, adds Kostis, it made poet and short-story writer Del- 1986 by opening Hilarities on him even funnier. more Schwartz: “In dreams begin West Sixth Street. It became “I had to laugh,” says Kostis. responsibilities.” a magnet for comedy fans all “What else are you going to do “I believe in magic, in enter- across the area, coming out to when there’s no one coming taining and elevating people and see such acts as Jerry Seinfeld. through the door.” making them laugh,” says Kostis, Last weekend, the doors were striding toward Hilarities comedy Left, a wild idea, many said opening and closing constantly. In club, in the basement of Pickwick when they saw the elaborate the last six months — about 180 & Frolic. The show is about to blueprints of Pickwick & nights in Kostis’ world — business start, and Kostis is rushing to do Frolic, which Nick Kostis has been booming at Hilarities what he does whenever there is a labored over for five years. and Pickwick as a whole. show – namely, play usher, greeter “People thought I was nuts. Cassara credits a general eco- and one of the most dynamic ning in Cuyahoga Falls. Located that stands out on its own, to have people around him, and they were like, ‘Humor him, nomic rebound as well as a grow- hosts you’ll ever see. in an old theater, it played host to makes people want to get in their he thinks in groups,” says D’Leer. he’ll go away,’” says Kostis. ing downtown population and Hilarities, which opened in comics such as Tim Allen, Jimmy cars and come to you.” “He was a real pioneer, being the “I heard people telling me I optimism tied to the return of Le- Cuyahoga Falls in 1985 before Walker and Gabe Kaplan. In 2002, he opened Pickwick & first person on East Fourth, but was Pollyannaish and couldn’t Bron James and the landing of the moving to Cleveland the following “I couldn’t believe that here I Frolic on East Fourth Street. No, he always saw it as a street and an believe there was so much Republican National Convention year, is considered one of the Top was able to get all these big names not the current East Fourth, the idea, with a lot of things happen- architectural work involved.” in 2016. He also points to a new- 10 comedy clubs in the country. coming to perform in this small old East Fourth, the left-for-dead ing – and I always felt a sense of found following with younger au- The club has hosted pretty much 300-capacity club in Cuyahoga strip full of wig shops, where the commitment to an idea with Nick.” Hilarities 30th diences that are discovering Pick- everyone, from Jerry Seinfeld Falls,” says Kostis.