[photo credit: The Ice House]
The residency was announced on the venue’s official Instagram and Facebook accounts, which stated the comedian “will be having his residency once a month in the Legendary Room.” Tickets for the 7 p.m. show, expected to run about 90 minutes, were listed for sale at icehousecomedy.com. Future residency dates beyond Sunday had not been publicly announced as of this report, and the venue’s own listings note that lineups are subject to change, meaning Sunday’s opening acts had not been independently confirmed.
Sinbad, whose legal name is David Adkins, suffered an ischemic stroke in October 2020 when a blood clot traveled from his heart to his brain. He underwent emergency surgery, a second procedure after a follow-up clot formed, and a craniotomy to relieve brain swelling. He was hospitalized for roughly nine months and later trained to walk again during intensive therapy at the California Rehabilitation Institute.
The 69-year-old comedian, known for his role as Coach Walter Oakes on “A Different World” and for headlining “The Sinbad Show,” ended his public silence about the stroke in stages, including a 2024 Zoom appearance during an HBCU reunion tour stop for “A Different World.” He returned to full stand-up on April 29 at The Ice House, a show that sold out within hours of being announced, alongside a second sold-out date on May 10.
“It’s just the beginning of me coming back,” Sinbad said in an Instagram video posted ahead of the April 29 show, according to the Los Angeles Times. His daughter, comedian Paige Bryan, opened for him that night. “She talks more trash than I ever talked,” he said.
The Ice House, at 24 N. Mentor Ave. in Pasadena’s Playhouse Village, opened in 1960 and is often billed as the oldest comedy club in the country, though it operated primarily as a folk-music venue before shifting to stand-up comedy under new ownership in 1978. Johnny Buss, the eldest son of former Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, bought the club in 2019 and closed it for a $4 million renovation before it reopened in February 2023.
“If you’re wanting to be a comedian, your rite of passage is through The Ice House in Pasadena,” Buss has said, according to VenuesNow. Comedian Margaret Cho, who performed at the club’s reopening, said, “I love the new club. It retains the same magic, but with an upscale and modern reimagining.”
Sunday’s show is 21-and-over, with a two-item minimum per seat, standard policy at the venue. The Ice House can be reached at (626) 414-2386.
“You can’t believe it? You better believe it,” Sinbad said in a 2024 video marking one of his first returns to public view. “Miracles happen.”
