Rob Belushi part of comedy showcase

The Second City is a comedy institution with a long, proud history. But his last name didn't keep Rob Belushi from having to clean up "spilled nacho cheese off the floor."

Belushi -- son of James, nephew of John -- is part of the quintet readying a new edition of the sketch and improv comedy showcase at the Flamingo, set for its formal debut on Monday.

The Chicago-based troupe always has launched future stars instead of hiring familiar faces. But the Belushi name does bring extra attention, even more than when Jason Sudeikis -- now of "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" -- was part of the Flamingo cast as the less-obvious nephew of "Cheers" star George Wendt.

"The reaction is always across the spectrum," Belushi says. "There are always the people who think I'm just totally a hack who has been handed whatever it is he has." But, he notes, "It doesn't really serve anyone to hire someone just because of who they are."

Belushi worked for $7 an hour as a host at the Chicago Second City and started from the ground floor in improv classes after studying serious acting in college. Pressure came from himself as much as the outside. "I thought every scene I had to do had to be like the Blues Brothers, or the chess coach (his dad's famous "Saturday Night Live" sketch)," he says. "Invariably, they weren't. They were like beginning improv scenes."

Eventually he discovered that sketch comedy is "similar to all theater in a way. You get out there and make decisions and have to stick by those decisions," he says. "You put yourself out there to look stupid every night. Hopefully you look stupid enough to make people laugh."

The new edition is directed by Second City veteran Bruce Pirrie, a Canadian who once performed in a touring cast with Mike Meyers. "No matter what anybody has done outside of Second City, it's a great leveler," he says. Over the course of its 50-year history, "Alan Arkin and Shelley Berman and me and the guy who started yesterday, we've all been through it together. We have all got up in front of an audience and made up stuff without knowing what the hell we were going to say, and we've all been through this rite of passage."

Pirrie has an extra challenge this year. A Second City show is supposed to be nailed down to run as long as a year (because of three new cast members, this new edition comes after eight months) but "the elephant in the room is the presidential race."

"We've turned a blind eye" to the notion that people don't want to hear about politics on vacation, Pirrie says, but keeping up with current events is tough. One answer is a skit that promotes Optimus Prime of Transformers fame for president.

Another is a song that Belushi has pledged to keep updating and rewriting for the run of the presidential season. ...

A grand experiment wraps up Friday when "Fashionistas" concludes its run at the Harmon Theatre/Krave nightclub; The Amazing Johnathan hits the ground running at the theater the next night. I've told this story before: A radically different show that defied easy description or categorization stayed alive for more than three years because it was artificially subsidized by its producer.

The kicker is that producer John Stagliano is well known in the porn world, and finally decided he had to close the show to commit his resources on porn's new frontier, the Internet.

One of the show's stars, Marceea Moreno, will join "Le Reve" at Wynn Las Vegas, rotating the lead role of the dreamer. That's sort of fitting, since there are parallels between "Fashionistas" and the way Steve Wynn has taken a personal hand in content changes to "Le Reve."

There was even talk of Wynn catching one of the final "Fashionistas" performances this week. Perhaps he will recognize the value of keeping Stagliano involved in Las Vegas show business. ...

Singer Tony Bennett is the next Las Vegas legend in line to be honored with a street named after him. Plans for the Paradise Place development, just east of Paradise Road and north of Flamingo Road, show the Tony Bennett Way, a new road that follows an old flood wash (now buried under the road) to planned hotel and restaurant development.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.