Laplaya Penthouse Cocktail Lounge & Bonkerz Comedy Club

When you're visiting Daytona, you MUST see this show. It will be the highlight of your trip!

Don't be intimidated by the name "Penthouse Lounge." While it is a classy, upscale room, the dress is casual (though most of the women, myself included, did their hair and makeup). Each table has an adorable oil lamp that has beach sand with beach pebbles inside of it. The light of the oil lamps gives an intimate feel. The pineapple motifs on the tables are also cute. Admission is $12 cash-only, but you can buy $10 advanced tickets online.

The hotel requires you to buy two drinks. Unfortunately, they don't list the prices on your menu, nor does the menu tell you what drinks they have that aren't mixed (beer, wine, soda, etc.). I ordered two chocolate drinks (Chocolatier and Unforgettable Kiss), hoping to hide the alcohol flavor. My bill came to $16 (you pay after the show). I don't know how much mixed drinks are supposed to cost, but that seemed reasonable. They were big and had a lot of quality dark chocolate in them. They must have had 1/3 to 1/2 bottle of liquor in them because every sip burned my tongue or my tonsils. I thought they were gross, but if you like strong drinks they would probably taste amazing. At any rate, I powered through them and left a 15% tip just to be safe, though I don't think I was expected to.

The opening comedian is a local, who works at the lounge all the time. The other two were touring Bonkerz comedians: Ted Hollum (the headliner) and Pat Duax. The comedians were great, there was a lot of audience participation, and the shows are 2 hours long. Don't sit at any of the tables that are next to the stage, especially right in front of the stage, because you will be constantly joked about by every comedian. The jokes were almost all clean and politically correct (but hilarious); though, after the show, the opening comedian (who is very nice and very passionate about his job) said that the show can get extremely raunchy and wild, depending on the headliner's style of humor. I met Ted and Pat a little later, after everyone else did. Ted Hollum was the very embodiment of Ray Romano and both comedians continued to make jokes in the elevator. Ted even wanted to make sure that we were going to drive safely, since we weren't staying at the hotel. What a sweetheart! He was very relieved when I explained that my friend-the driver-didn't have anything to drink.