Club Eyce

Warren did not return calls and the building's real estate broker, Micah Feingold, says he's unaware of the situation with Club Eyce or Famous Johnny's.

However business neighbor Aaron Nagori - owner of El Rinconcito, a seller of Colombian and South and Central American dried and frozen foods - says he was an eyewitness to Famous Johnny's closing.

"You just missed them by five minutes," he told me Monday just after 11 a.m. "They got everything out of there. They were open as of Saturday night; that was the last time I saw anybody there. I watched (Clint) pack everything up this morning... And him and his wife were moving stuff out last night until 1 a.m."

As for the dance club venture, "(Clint) was operating as a comedy club and renting out the space to Club Eyce to make extra income and cover the bills," Nagori says.

Local comic Elliott Threatt's take?

"Famous Johnny's is no more," Threatt says.

"I was the first comic to headline there."

Threatt's take on the closing?

"Why do I think it closed? It's just hard in this economy to have three comedy clubs running - we don't have enough people for three clubs."

Quixotic By Any Other Name

KC Confidential entertainment watchdog Brian McTavish didn't know quite what to expect from local dance troupe Quixotic's performance of "Lux Esalare" (Thursday through Saturday at UMKC's Spencer Theater).

With local hype that won't quit, a fair-minded reviewer needs to pack a bit of healthy skepticism in their first aid kits - after all they are just local, right?

McTavish's bottom line: "The cutting-edge Kansas City dance company's newest extravaganza actually lived up to the pre-show buzz."

Hey, but even rave reviews need a reality check.

"Too syrupy?" McTavish says. "OK, maybe it would have blown chunks instead of my mind if I were the type to equate modern dance with waterboarding. But I've got a little more class than that. And I do mean a little."

Jonas who?

When selling handmade Guitar Lamps is your stock in trade, you just never know who will be on the line when the phone rings.

In controversial Merriam pol Dan Leap's case it was Team Jonas Brothers.

"(They) called up a few months back and said they wanted a Guitar Lamp for their new TV series that they just started to film," Leap says. "So they ordered a black Fender Stratocaster floor lamp."

Speaking of floored, clearly Leap was not.

"At first I didn't know who they were," he says. "I was like, ‘Who are they?' Then other friends clued me in. I didn't really know who they were, but my ears perked up when I heard ‘TV show.'"

Check out Leap's lamp in brutha Joe's room at http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/jonas/characters/?room=horace.

Northtown Opry Rides Again!

One of North Kansas City's most fabled family-friendly country and western music showcases, the Northtown Opry, is back in biz.

Albeit in a neighboring township.

After 18 years at what is now the Screenland Armour movie theater, the city booted Opry main man Byron Jones and sold the theater out from under him. The initial plan was to remodel the theater and let Jones back in, but as the redo went from months to years and expenses soared, the city sold it, leaving Jones high and dry.

Until now...

"I've got shows going on now in Edgerton, Missouri, up north of Smithville," Jones says. "I call it the Northtown Opry Theatre, but it used to be the Union Mill Opry. I can seat about 500 people."

Jones' new game plan:

"What we're doing right now is we're running Branson-type shows," he says. "Later when we get going to where we're going, we're going to bring in some names, but right now we're mostly local. We're doing shows every Saturday night at 7 p.m."

And it's just a hop, skip and jump away from KC, Jones says.

"It's only 35 miles from North Kansas City," he says. "You go through Smithville and you're only 14 miles from there. We don't have a street address, we just call it two miles north of Edgerton on Highway B."

Contact Hearne at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Check out his blog at www.kcconfidential.com.