PI Update: Comedy Warehouse Shows Begin Sunday

The Comedy Warehouse crew returns to the stage at last beginning this Sunday, Christmas Day, at the ABC Sound Studio (aka Sounds Dangerous Theater) in Disney Hollywood Studios.  Shows will take place at 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm, 3:45pm, 4:45pm and 5:45pm throughout the week with Saturday, December 31st as the final date. With a huge number of Guests expected this coming week and long lines in the parks, the official purpose of bringing CW back is to create a temporary Attraction that will give people another thing to do. But it will also draw a lot of former fans who used to frequent Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island! This is sure to be a popular!  Universal is bringing back Fear Factor Live for the same reason although sources say it's return will be permanent. (Photo by Marco - thanks Marco!)

This Weekend In Techno Town

THURSDAY DEC 22
For something completely different, take at least 16 local DJ's and let them each play a 15-minute set to impress you. Presented by HTG. DJ's Tooltime, Shal, Cheyenne M, ATM and many more. Free to 11pm and then $5. At The Beacham!

FRIDAY DEC 23
It's a combined Visage / Electric Avenue Reunion at 11/12 Lounge on Lee Road featuring 80's & 90's Alternative with original DJ Paul Vaine. Just $5 with great drink specials promised.

Also Friday night, DJ Oscar G (Club Space) returns to Orlando for another great night of House/Progressive House, Miami style!  I got to see him last January in Chicago at Spybar and it was a great set of dance music as shown here. This will be at Senso downtown and tickets are $12.50.



SATURDAY / SUNDAY DEC 24-25
Have a Merry Christmas!

PI Update: The Name Lives On

It's famous around the country and around the world. PI. Pleasure Island. But would Disney actually eliminate the Pleasure Island name when they finally decide what they were going to do with the Island?

When Disney announced last fall that Pleasure Island would become Hyperion Wharf, there was little doubt that a name change was coming. Management wanted those two hallowed words eliminated from the Disney lexicon! AMC Pleasure Island 24 became AMC Downtown Disney 24 to support what was to come. But when vendors failed to line-up behind what Disney had in mind, Hyperion Wharf quickly became the two words no longer spoken.

Right now the Pleasure Island name is very much alive. It's still in the Guidemap, it's on new signage place alongside various spots in Downtown Disney and it's still all over the place on signs throughout Disney property. The cost to change everything would cost millions of dollars ; speculation on changing the huge sign atop Mannequins was $5M alone! The Pleasure Island name is a huge asset that should be featured, not eliminated. Given the recent resurgence of the name, there seems to be a very good chance that it will live on! LONG LIVE PLEASURE ISLAND!

PI Update: From The SkyCam

It's been awhile since we deployed the official Save Pleasure Island Blog SkyCam so let's take to the air and visit our beautiful Island!  Looking down onto the West End Plaza, we get a great view of Laffers Cantina and Comedy Warehouse buildings. I've been invited inside CW and it is basically untouched; the foyer is being used to provide electrical plug-in's for the entertainers playing on the two stages. They could have this place up-and-running with just a few weeks notice. Pics here.

Soundstage Club (formerly BET Soundstage Club) was gutted of sound and electrical equipment and was slated to be demolished per plans obtained by the Blog earlier this year. (Click Here) But with the Hyperion Wharf concept on hold or canceled, the building remains idle. We're told that those vendors interested in possibly opening something in there would rather pay lower rent on existing space than higher rent on new construction. But the question is when?

Adventurers Club was also gutted although last we heard a couple artifacts were still mounted. Technically the same building as Soundstage next door, this too was slated for demolition but that is on hold.

The Curl by Sammy Duval store lies side-by-side with awesome 8TRAX. The latter was gutted of sound and electronics but otherwise remains intact.  It was never slated for demolition.

Here's Mannequins Dance Palace. The massive 3-story structure is really too huge to support anything but a dance club. We're told the revolving dance floor is still inside. There's really no reason that a Top 40/Dance venue couldn't reopen in here to serve the Disney-guest market. It would be incredible!  The building was not on the demolition list either since the power grid to the entire Island is based here.

This past year began with clubs Motion and Rock'n'Roll Beach Club being demolished, replaced with Seed & Mulch which turned into Grass & Mulch.  Plans for an outdoor amphitheater near the bottom of this photo were either shelved or postponed and the quite visible pathway which was to make the turn into the current service area between Portobello and Raglan Road never happened either.

Other than the Hyperion Wharf  plan being quashed, the only real good news this year was the announcement of Splitsville coming to the former Virgin Megastore space on the West Side.  Many are hoping that the evening entertainment line-up will include dance music. Early Splitsville advertising makes that appear quite promising! If you're in Orlando for the holidays, be sure to pay a visit to beautiful Pleasure Island!

Club Report: Retro Room

(CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE ALL PICTURES) New club Retro Room held their grand opening last night to a huge crowd of partiers! Featuring 70's Disco and 80's Classics, the venue is off to a quick start to success.



For the big night they brought in the local 80's band Switch whom we've seen a number of times at 80's Night at The Groove in Citywalk. During the band's set people were dancing on the floor adjacent the band stage.


But when the band ended it was Disco time! And to make sure the music was authentic, it was none other than DJ Pete (8TRAX) in the control tower overseeing the action!




The main dance floor quickly filled-up. Between the Disco classics, 80's New Wave, music videos, "YMCA" at midnight, Disney employees (above, lower right) and DJ Pete on the boards, the place was authentically 8TRAX all-the-way!


Spotted: DJ Lon (PI Live, Motion, 8TRAX, Celebrate Tonight) along with Joe (PI). Joe would later sing an encore set with Switch!


DJ Pete pumping out the hits; posing with DJ Boston (Retro Room).


Retro Room has a Clermont address but is actually nowhere near that town. It's located on US192 in what I would call West Kissimmee, a half-mile east of US27 and about three miles west of TOLL 429. Easily assessable from I-4, watch for an 8TRAX Reunion during January! The place is so much fun!

Club Reports: Why Not Lounge, Venue 13, Vixen

A beautiful Friday night in the mid-60's following a day in the low 80's, a far cry from the freezing temps experienced the prior Friday night in Atlanta.  First stop, the Why Not Lounge.  You know the place has to be legendary when they include that word in the name!

Arrived to find a live band performing current and classic Top 40 songs.  Only a few takers on the dance floor though until the band took a break and.....

.....DJ Javy came on. He began with a few Top 40/Dance songs which immediately filled the floor. He was also spinning a few well-known Latin dance tunes.

The Why Not Lounge is located in the Howard Johnson's Hotel on Semoran Blvd at I-4. (Did you know that Semoran is short for Seminole and Orange counties, which the road travels through?) Anyway, the hotel was the Magnusson Grand, the Clarion and the Holiday Inn-Altamonte Springs before HOJO.

Heading two exits south to Lee Road, the 11/12 Lounge is a restaurant/sports bar that becomes Venue 13 on Friday nights.  Parking is ample and drinks are cheap.

DJ Paul Vaine (Visage) plays music that you heard at Visage back in the day as well as current music you'd here in Visage today if Visage were still around!  He even played the main song from the Mannequins Medley last night!

Usually quite a few Saturday night I-Bar people in the place.

But it never got that crowded last night but definitely better than my prior visit.  The club is kept very, very dark although my flash did a good job lighting up things on the wall that are impossible to see otherwise.

Continuing a few more exits south on I-4 to Vixen Lounge on Orange Avenue.

DJ Dominick Morrison (Mannequins, EPCOT, Vintage, Sky 60) was in the booth playing Progressive during my visit.  Dom is the New Years Eve DJ at China in EPCOT and I wanted to see if he had anything new to report.  He says he'll be spinning outside beneath the smoke-belching dragon from 7:15pm to 1am that night.  I've included a picture below from last year's event!