Jean-Pierre Boccara: Difference between revisions

 

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”’Jean-Pierre Boccara”’ is a French-Italian-American impresario, entrepreneur, and artist known for founding the Lhasa Club, Lhasaland, [[Café Largo]], and Luna Park in Los Angeles, California.<ref name=”Lecaro2018″>{{cite news |last1=Lecaro |first1=Lina |title=Rare Video From Legendary Lhasa Club Features Timothy Leary, Henry Rollins, Sandra Bernhard and More |url=https://www.laweekly.com/rare-video-from-legendary-lhasa-club-features-timothy-leary-henry-rollins-sandra-bernhard-and-more/ |access-date=24 August 2025 |work=LA Weekly |date=April 10, 2018}}</ref> These venues presented music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, cinema, and multimedia performance, and became synonymous with experimentation in the city’s live-arts culture.

”’Jean-Pierre Boccara”’ is a French-Italian-American impresario, entrepreneur, and artist known for founding the Lhasa Club, Lhasaland, [[Café Largo]], and Luna Park in Los Angeles, California.<ref name=”Lecaro2018″>{{cite news |last1=Lecaro |first1=Lina |title=Rare Video From Legendary Lhasa Club Features Timothy Leary, Henry Rollins, Sandra Bernhard and More |url=https://www.laweekly.com/rare-video-from-legendary-lhasa-club-features-timothy-leary-henry-rollins-sandra-bernhard-and-more/ |access-date=24 August 2025 |work=LA Weekly |date=April 10, 2018}}</ref> These venues presented music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, cinema, and multimedia performance, and experimentation in the city’s live-arts culture.

Contemporaries emphasized both Boccara’s curatorial vision and the communities his rooms fostered. Director [[David Schweizer]] said he was inspired by the “bridges being built to different worlds by Lhasa,” which led him to remain in Los Angeles and establish his Modern Artists collective. He later recalled it “became an event that symbolized the possibilities for crossing over between communities.” Playwright Philip Littell compared his own work to that of founders Boccara and Anna Mariani, “because it’s based on the insane faith that the L.A. audience has a clear sense of itself, which is why Lhasa-Largo thrives.”<ref name=”Sadownick”>{{cite news |last=Sadownick |first=Douglas |title=The Comeback of a Cabaret: The pioneering owners of a defunct performance art Mecca rekindle the flame at Café Largo in the Fairfax District |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 3, 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-03-ca-279-story.html |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=Satire on many levels |journal=Artweek |date=May 12, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=12 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513743542}}</ref><ref name=”Breslauer1992″>{{cite news |last=Breslauer |first=Jan |title=Different Is Good: In theaters large and small, director David Schweizer likes to tailor each production into a unique event |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-22-ca-1821-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 22, 1992 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref>

Contemporaries both Boccara’s and the communities . Director [[David Schweizer]] said he was inspired by the “bridges being built to different worlds by Lhasa,” which led him to remain in Los Angeles and establish his Modern Artists collective. He later recalled it “became an event that symbolized the possibilities for crossing over between communities.” Playwright Philip Littell compared his own work to that of founders Boccara and Anna Mariani, “because it’s based on the insane faith that the L.A. audience has a clear sense of itself, which is why Lhasa-Largo thrives.”<ref name=”Sadownick”>{{cite news |last=Sadownick |first=Douglas |title=The Comeback of a Cabaret: The pioneering owners of a defunct performance art Mecca rekindle the flame at Café Largo in the Fairfax District |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 3, 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-03-ca-279-story.html |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=Satire on many levels |journal=Artweek |date=May 12, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=12 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513743542}}</ref><ref name=”Breslauer1992″>{{cite news |last=Breslauer |first=Jan |title=Different Is Good: In theaters large and small, director David Schweizer likes to tailor each production into a unique event |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-22-ca-1821-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 22, 1992 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref>

The “pioneering” owners Boccara and Mariani “created the physical and mental space in which once distinct and competing art forms—like solo performance art, cabaret high jinks and shows pushing multicultural expression—could co-exist,” even though they later admitted they “had no idea what they were doing” when they began, “At its height, Lhasa contributed to Los Angeles’ national prominence in the field of performance art.” [[Douglas Sadownick]] situated the Lhasa Club in the cultural politics of the Reagan era, calling it “the closest thing ‘80s Los Angeles had to a prewar German night club-cum-[[cabaret]]” where “straight and gay poets, punks and performance artists mingled” during what artists described as “Mourning in America.” <ref name=”Sadownick”>{{cite news |last=Sadownick |first=Douglas |title=The Comeback of a Cabaret: The pioneering owners of a defunct performance art Mecca rekindle the flame at Café Largo in the Fairfax District |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 3, 1989 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-03-ca-279-story.html |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> Filmmaker MM Serra recalled “Being a woman, the Lhasa Club was not as sexist, it was more open, more fluid.” citing it as formative for her films.<ref name=”Berman2024″>{{cite journal |last=Berman |first=Annie H. |title=”Your lens is a tongue, lick all the surfaces”: A Taste of the Life of MM Serra |journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media |volume=65 |issue=1–2 |year=2024 |pages=209–230 |issn=0306-7661}}</ref> [[Performance studies]] scholar [[Edward Bruner]] later described poet Doug Knott’s productions as modest but formative, situating them as part of a broader shift in Los Angeles performance art from club settings into collective touring work.<ref name=”Bruner2013″>{{cite journal |last=Bruner |first=Edward |title=The Performance Worlds of the Lost Tribe and the Carma Bums |url=https://liminalities.net/9-4/bruner.pdf |journal=Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies (peer-reviewed) |volume=9 |issue=4 |year=2013 |access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref> The ”Los Angeles Times” also reflected that Knott’s shows at the Lhasa Club helped transplant its experimental spirit to other Los Angeles venues after the club’s closure.<ref>{{cite news |last=Willman |first=Chris |title=Pop Music: Lhasa Club Spirit Brought to Life |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-ca-1108-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 18, 1991 |access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref>

[[Douglas Sadownick]] situated the Lhasa Club in the cultural politics of the Reagan era, calling it “the closest thing ‘80s Los Angeles had to a prewar German night club-cum-[[cabaret]]” where “straight and gay poets, punks and performance artists mingled” during what artists described as “Mourning in America.” <ref name=”Sadownick” /> Filmmaker MM Serra recalled “Being a woman, the Lhasa Club was not as sexist, it was more open, more fluid.” as formative for her films.<ref name=”Berman2024″>{{cite journal |last=Berman |first=Annie H. |title=”Your lens is a tongue, lick all the surfaces”: A Taste of the Life of MM Serra |journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media |volume=65 |issue=1–2 |year=2024 |pages=209–230 |issn=0306-7661}}</ref> later that the experimental spirit other Los Angeles venues after closure.

”Newsweek” dubbed Café Largo’s weekly poetry readings “Hollywood’s new brat pack of poets.”<ref name=”Newsweek1989″>{{cite news |title=Hollywood’s new brat pack of poets |work=Newsweek |date=September 18, 1989 |volume=114 |issue=12 |page=74 |issn=0028-9604}}</ref> The ”Los Angeles Times” called Luna Park “the creation of Jean-Pierre Boccara, genius of the Lhasa Club and Café Largo… The cabaret is just one aspect of a bi-level, avant-garde theme park.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Luna-cy Lurks at Cabaret |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-13-vw-22252-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 13, 1994 |access-date=8 September 2025}}</ref> [[Margaret Cho]] later reflected that Luna Park was “so important to comedians who wanted to experiment outside the constraints of the shtick comedy clubs.”<ref>{{cite news |last=Molyneaux |first=Libby |title=Queens of Noise: Never Can Say Goodbye |url=https://www.laweekly.com/queens-of-noise/ |work=LA Weekly |date=November 15, 2000 |access-date=8 September 2025}}</ref>

”Newsweek” dubbed Café Largo’s weekly poetry readings “Hollywood’s new brat pack of poets.”<ref name=”Newsweek1989″>{{cite news |title=Hollywood’s new brat pack of poets |work=Newsweek |date=September 18, 1989 |volume=114 |issue=12 |page=74 |issn=0028-9604}}</ref> The ”Los Angeles Times” called Luna Park “the creation of Jean-Pierre Boccara, genius of the Lhasa Club and Café Largo… The cabaret is just one aspect of a bi-level, avant-garde theme park.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Luna-cy Lurks at Cabaret |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-13-vw-22252-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 13, 1994 |access-date=8 September 2025}}</ref> [[Margaret Cho]] later reflected that Luna Park was “so important to comedians who wanted to experiment outside the constraints of the shtick comedy clubs.”<ref>{{cite news |last=Molyneaux |first=Libby |title=Queens of Noise: Never Can Say Goodbye |url=https://www.laweekly.com/queens-of-noise/ |work=LA Weekly |date=November 15, 2000 |access-date=8 September 2025}}</ref>

The venues received coverage in outlets including the ”Los Angeles Times”, ”LA Weekly”, ”The New York Times”, ”Newsweek”, ”Rolling Stone”, and ”PBS”. Scholars later examined the club in ”Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media” and ”Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies”, underlining its significance.<ref name=”Bruner2013″/>

== Early life ==

== Early life ==

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=== Lhasa Club (1982–1987), Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood===

=== Lhasa Club (1982–1987), Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood===

Founded in 1982 by Jean-Pierre Boccara and photographer Anna Mariani, the ”’Lhasa Club”’ was a small, approximately 100-person venue that hosted music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, dance, film screenings, and multimedia performance in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]. It was described as “that bastion of laissez-faire free enterprise in the realm of the arts,” never known for “staid, conservative programming.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Tokyo Meets Tibet |work=LA Weekly |date=September 29, 1983 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/578886158/ |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

Founded in 1982 by Jean-Pierre Boccara and photographer Anna Mariani, the ”’Lhasa Club”’ was a small, approximately 100-person venue that hosted music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, dance, film screenings, and multimedia performance in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]]. It was described as “that bastion of laissez-faire free enterprise in the realm of the arts,” never known for “staid, conservative programming.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Tokyo Meets Tibet |work=LA Weekly |date=September 29, 1983 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/578886158/ |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

The “pioneering” owners “created the physical and mental space in which once distinct and competing art forms—like solo performance art, cabaret high jinks and shows pushing multicultural expression—could co-exist,” even though they later admitted they “had no idea what they were doing” when they began. “At its height, Lhasa contributed to Los Angeles’ national prominence in the field of performance art.”<ref name=”Sadownick” />

A retrospective in the ”Los Angeles Times” referred to the “late and lamented Lhasa Club” and noted that screenwriter [[Michael Blake (author)|Michael Blake]] had performed there before gaining fame.<ref name=”Willman1991″>{{cite news |last=Willman |first=Chris |title=Pop Music: Lhasa Club Spirit Brought to Life |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 18, 1991 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-ca-1108-story.html |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> An archived “In the News” page consolidates multiple stories about the club’s influence in Los Angeles nightlife.<ref>{{cite web |title=In the News: Lhasa Club |website=Los Angeles Times (archived) |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103074011/http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/lhasa-club |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> In a 2025 oral history with the ”Los Angeles Review of Books”, Boccara described the Lhasa Club as providing a “vibrant, eclectic, and original” space, aiming to be [[avant-garde]] yet “clean and well-managed.”<ref>{{cite web |last=Sobsey |first=Adam |title=The Paisley Underground Redux |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=March 3, 2025 |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-paisley-underground-redux/ |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

A retrospective in the ”Los Angeles Times” referred to the “late and lamented Lhasa Club” and noted that screenwriter [[Michael Blake (author)|Michael Blake]] had performed there before gaining fame.<ref name=”Willman1991″>{{cite news |last=Willman |first=Chris |title=Pop Music: Lhasa Club Spirit Brought to Life |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 18, 1991 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-ca-1108-story.html |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> An archived “In the News” page consolidates multiple stories about the club’s influence in Los Angeles nightlife.<ref>{{cite web |title=In the News: Lhasa Club |website=Los Angeles Times (archived) |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103074011/http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/lhasa-club |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref> In a 2025 oral history with the ”Los Angeles Review of Books”, Boccara described the Lhasa Club as providing a “vibrant, eclectic, and original” space, aiming to be [[avant-garde]] yet “clean and well-managed.”<ref>{{cite web |last=Sobsey |first=Adam |title=The Paisley Underground Redux |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |date=March 3, 2025 |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-paisley-underground-redux/ |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

Philip Littell began his long tenure there with ”The Weba Show” (1982), starring Littell, Weba Garretson and Jerry Frankel, directed by [[David Schweizer]]. The satirical production examined and parodied pop culture and became the club’s first major hit, described as the moment when “the Lhasa Club earned its stripes.” It attracted significant media attention.<ref name=”Sadownick” /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=Satire on many levels |journal=Artweek |date=May 12, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=12 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513743542}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Breslauer |first=Jan |title=Different Is Good: In theaters large and small, director David Schweizer likes to tailor each production into a unique event |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-22-ca-1821-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 22, 1992 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref>

Philip Littell began his long tenure there with ”The Weba Show” (1982), starring Littell, Weba Garretson and Jerry Frankel, directed by David Schweizer. The satirical production examined and parodied pop culture and became the club’s first major hit, described as the moment when “the Lhasa Club earned its stripes.” It attracted significant media attention.<ref name=”Sadownick” /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=Satire on many levels |journal=Artweek |date=May 12, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=12 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513743542}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Breslauer |first=Jan |title=Different Is Good: In theaters large and small, director David Schweizer likes to tailor each production into a unique event |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-11-22-ca-1821-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=November 22, 1992 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref>

In 2024, filmmaker MM Serra recalled the club’s significance to the [[avant-garde film]] community in ”Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media”. She wrote that the Lhasa Club was central to her artistic development, hosting the first public screenings of her films, and “MM cites many of the screenings she attended at the Lhasa Club… as greatly influential in both her work and personal relationships. MM remembers David Bowie showing up from time to time and a young [[Todd Haynes]] coming through as ‘the guy who showed up from Brown University to show an early version of ”Dottie Gets Spanked”.”<ref name=”Berman2024″ />

In 2024, filmmaker Serra recalled the club’s significance to the [[avant-garde film]] community in ”Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media”. She wrote that the Lhasa Club was central to her artistic development, hosting the first public screenings of her films, and “MM cites many of the screenings she attended at the Lhasa Club… as greatly influential in both her work and personal relationships. MM remembers David Bowie showing up from time to time and a young [[Todd Haynes]] coming through as ‘the guy who showed up from Brown University to show an early version of ”Dottie Gets Spanked”.”<ref name=”Berman2024″ />

The club featured music acts such as [[Nick Cave]], [[Jane’s Addiction]], [[Rick James]], The Screamers’ [[Tomata du Plenty|Tomata Du Plenty]], Ulysses Jenkins with his Othervisions Band, and [[Flea (musician)|Flea]].<ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Kellie |title=Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 An Introduction |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/essays/now-dig-this |website=hammer.ucla.edu |publisher=Hammer Museum UCLA |access-date=21 September 2025}}</ref> Spoken word and comedy performers included [[Henry Rollins]], who gave his first spoken word show there, [[Sandra Bernhard]] and [[Timothy Leary]].<ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite news |last=Roraback |first=Dick |title=Timothy Leary, Party Animal: On the Lam in the ’70s, on the Club Circuit in the ’80s — Ex-Drug Guru Turns Social Philosopher |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-11-vw-18892-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 11, 1987 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref> Performance artists included The Mud People (later profiled by PBS), [[Performance poetry|performance poet]] Linda Albertano, and “[[performance art]] gurus” such as [[John Fleck (actor)|John Fleck]] and [[Ann Magnuson]].<ref name= “Cromelin1987″ /><ref>{{cite web |title=Meet the Mudpeople |url=https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/meet-the-mudpeople |website=PBS SoCal Artbound |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=It’s alive—onstage |journal=Artweek |date=February 4, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=15 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513730201}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Moffet |first1=Penelope |title=A Poet-Performer Who Does ‘Cruel Work for a Kind World’ |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-10-ca-426-story.html |access-date=9 September 2025 |publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=March 10, 1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Leigh Brown |first1=Patricia |title=THEATER; An East Village Comic Moves Uptown |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/26/arts/theater-an-east-village-comic-moves-uptown.html |access-date=20 September 2025 |publisher=New York Times |date=July 26, 1987}}</ref> Much of the footage was later compiled by Boccara into the film ”The Lhasa Tapes”, described as capturing “real avant-garde magic.” <ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite AV media |title=The Lhasa Club Tapes – Hollywood 1985 (complete show) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR280y7yZg8 |website=YouTube |publisher=Lhasa Largo LunaPark |date=2015 |access-date=22 September 2025}}</ref>

The club featured music acts such as [[Nick Cave]], [[Jane’s Addiction]], [[Rick James]], The Screamers’ [[Tomata du Plenty|Tomata Du Plenty]], Ulysses Jenkins with his Othervisions Band, and [[Flea (musician)|Flea]].<ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Kellie |title=Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 An Introduction |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/essays/now-dig-this |website=hammer.ucla.edu |publisher=Hammer Museum UCLA |access-date=21 September 2025}}</ref> Spoken word and comedy performers included [[Henry Rollins]], who gave his first spoken word show there, [[Sandra Bernhard]] and [[Timothy Leary]].<ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite news |last=Roraback |first=Dick |title=Timothy Leary, Party Animal: On the Lam in the ’70s, on the Club Circuit in the ’80s — Ex-Drug Guru Turns Social Philosopher |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-11-vw-18892-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=December 11, 1987 |access-date=23 September 2025}}</ref> Performance artists included The Mud People (later profiled by PBS), [[Performance poetry|performance poet]] Linda Albertano, and “[[performance art]] gurus” such as [[John Fleck (actor)|John Fleck]] and [[Ann Magnuson]].<ref name= “Cromelin1987″ /><ref>{{cite web |title=Meet the Mudpeople |url=https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/artbound/meet-the-mudpeople |website=PBS SoCal Artbound |access-date=24 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=M. |title=It’s alive—onstage |journal=Artweek |date=February 4, 1984 |volume=15 |pages=15 |issn=0004-4121 |id=EBSCO:513730201}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Moffet |first1=Penelope |title=A Poet-Performer Who Does ‘Cruel Work for a Kind World’ |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-10-ca-426-story.html |access-date=9 September 2025 |publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=March 10, 1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Leigh Brown |first1=Patricia |title=THEATER; An East Village Comic Moves Uptown |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/26/arts/theater-an-east-village-comic-moves-uptown.html |access-date=20 September 2025 |publisher=New York Times |date=July 26, 1987}}</ref> Much of the footage was later compiled by Boccara into the film ”The Lhasa Tapes”, described as capturing “real avant-garde magic.” <ref name=”Lecaro2018″ /><ref>{{cite AV media |title=The Lhasa Club Tapes – Hollywood 1985 (complete show) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR280y7yZg8 |website=YouTube |publisher=Lhasa Largo LunaPark |date=2015 |access-date=22 September 2025}}</ref>

⚫

Mariani co-produced the live compilation album ”The Lives of Lhasa” (1984), which was released on the club’s independent label and included [[The Fibonaccis]], [[Pell Mell (band)|Pell Mell]], Linda J. Albertano, [[Necropolis of Love]], Food and Shelter, Les Toulose, Pink Mink, Michael Peppe, Henry Rollins, among others.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Album Reviews: The Lives of Lhasa |work=Cash Box |date=November 2, 1985 |page=13 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1985/CB-1985-11-02.pdf |access-date=1 September 2025}}</ref> She and Boccara also established the nonprofit Lhasa Foundation to fund arts projects and preserve the spirit of the club beyond its lifespan. The goal was to one day create “a gala club, where you can eat in one room, watch performance art in another, listen to music in another.”<ref name=”Sadownick” />

Mariani co-produced the live compilation album ”The Lives of Lhasa” (1984), which was released on the club’s independent label and included [[The Fibonaccis]], [[Pell Mell (band)|Pell Mell]], Linda J. Albertano, [[Necropolis of Love]], Food and Shelter, Les Toulose, Pink Mink, Michael Peppe, Henry Rollins, among others.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Album Reviews: The Lives of Lhasa |work=Cash Box |date=November 2, 1985 |page=13 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1985/CB-1985-11-02.pdf |access-date=1 September 2025}}</ref> She and Boccara also established the nonprofit Lhasa Foundation to fund arts projects and preserve the spirit of the club beyond its lifespan. The goal was to one day create “a gala club, where you can eat in one room, watch performance art in another, listen to music in another.”<ref name=”Sadownick” />

⚫

[[Performance studies]] scholar [[Edward Bruner]] later described poet Doug Knott’s productions as modest but formative, situating them as part of a broader shift in Los Angeles performance art from club settings into collective touring work.<ref name=”Bruner2013″>{{cite journal |last=Bruner |first=Edward |title=The Performance Worlds of the Lost Tribe and the Carma Bums |url=https://liminalities.net/9-4/bruner.pdf |journal=Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies (peer-reviewed) |volume=9 |issue=4 |year=2013 |access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref> The ”Los Angeles Times” also reflected that Knott’s shows at the Lhasa Club helped transplant its experimental spirit to other Los Angeles venues after the club’s closure.<ref>{{cite news |last=Willman |first=Chris |title=Pop Music: Lhasa Club Spirit Brought to Life |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-18-ca-1108-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 18, 1991 |access-date=9 September 2025}}</ref>

Henry Rollins and [[Lydia Lunch]] played the last show at the Lhasa Club on New Year’s Eve 1987. The rent doubled, and neither a lease nor liquor or dance licenses could be secured, as the club was located at Santa Monica Boulevard and Hudson Avenue, a residential neighborhood with rapidly rising rents.<ref name=”Cromelin1987″ /> Boccara said “we never made enough to do more than pay rent and offer the artists a little here, a little there.”<ref name=”Sadownick” />

Henry Rollins and [[Lydia Lunch]] played the last show at the Lhasa Club on New Year’s Eve 1987. The rent doubled, and neither a lease nor liquor or dance licenses could be secured, as the club was located at Santa Monica Boulevard and Hudson Avenue, a residential neighborhood with rapidly rising rents.<ref name=”Cromelin1987″ /> Boccara said “we never made enough to do more than pay rent and offer the artists a little here, a little there.”<ref name=”Sadownick” />

French-Italian-American entrepreneur

Jean-Pierre Boccara
Jean-Pierre Boccara, photo by Robert Charles Mann
Born
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, artist
Known for	Founding the Lhasa Club, Café Largo, and Luna Park in Los Angeles

Jean-Pierre Boccara is a French-Italian-American impresario, entrepreneur, and artist known for founding the Lhasa Club, Lhasaland, Café Largo, and Luna Park in Los Angeles, California.^[1] These venues presented music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, cinema, and multimedia performance, and were described as central to experimentation in the city’s live-arts culture. They received coverage in outlets including the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The New York Times, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and PBS. Scholars later examined the club in Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media and Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, underlining its significance.^[2]

Contemporaries highlighted both Boccara’s role as a curator and the communities that gathered in his venues. Director David Schweizer said he was inspired by the “bridges being built to different worlds by Lhasa,” which led him to remain in Los Angeles and establish his Modern Artists collective. He later recalled it “became an event that symbolized the possibilities for crossing over between communities.” Playwright and performer Philip Littell compared his own work to that of founders Boccara and Anna Mariani, “because it’s based on the insane faith that the L.A. audience has a clear sense of itself, which is why Lhasa-Largo thrives.”^[3][4][5]

Douglas Sadownick situated the Lhasa Club in the cultural politics of the Reagan era, calling it “the closest thing ‘80s Los Angeles had to a prewar German night club-cum-cabaret” where “straight and gay poets, punks and performance artists mingled” during what artists described as “Mourning in America.” ^[3] Filmmaker MM Serra recalled, “Being a woman, the Lhasa Club was not as sexist, it was more open, more fluid.” She cited the space as formative for her films.^[6] Critics later noted that the clubs’ experimental spirit carried into other Los Angeles venues after their closure.

Newsweek dubbed Café Largo’s weekly poetry readings “Hollywood’s new brat pack of poets.”^[7] The Los Angeles Times called Luna Park “the creation of Jean-Pierre Boccara, genius of the Lhasa Club and Café Largo… The cabaret is just one aspect of a bi-level, avant-garde theme park.”^[8] Margaret Cho later reflected that Luna Park was “so important to comedians who wanted to experiment outside the constraints of the shtick comedy clubs.”^[9]

Boccara was born in Tunisia and raised in Paris. In Paris, he directed and produced two short films: L’Homme Désintégré (The Disintegrated Man, 1978) and Par Exemple: Le Poison Dans l’Eau (For Example: Poison in the Water, 1979). The latter was reportedly censored by the French government, which revoked its distribution rights as “an apology for terror.” He moved to Los Angeles around 1980 as an aspiring filmmaker.^[10]

Founded in 1982 by Jean-Pierre Boccara and photographer Anna Mariani, the Lhasa Club was a small, approximately 100-person venue that hosted music, spoken word, cabaret, comedy, dance, film screenings, and multimedia performance in Hollywood. It was described as “that bastion of laissez-faire free enterprise in the realm of the arts,” never known for “staid, conservative programming.”^[11]

The “pioneering” owners “created the physical and mental space in which once distinct and competing art forms—like solo performance art, cabaret high jinks and shows pushing multicultural expression—could co-exist,” even though they later admitted they “had no idea what they were doing” when they began. “At its height, Lhasa contributed to Los Angeles’ national prominence in the field of performance art.”^[3]

A retrospective in the Los Angeles Times referred to the “late and lamented Lhasa Club” and noted that screenwriter Michael Blake had performed there before gaining fame.^[12] An archived “In the News” page consolidates multiple stories about the club’s influence in Los Angeles nightlife.^[13] In a 2025 oral history with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Boccara described the Lhasa Club as providing a “vibrant, eclectic, and original” space, aiming to be avant-garde yet “clean and well-managed.”^[14]

Philip Littell began his long tenure there with The Weba Show (1982), starring Littell, Weba Garretson and Jerry Frankel, directed by David Schweizer. The satirical production examined and parodied pop culture and became the club’s first major hit, described as the moment when “the Lhasa Club earned its stripes.” It attracted significant media attention.^[3][15][16]

In 2024, filmmaker Serra recalled the club’s significance to the avant-garde film community in Framework: The Journal of Cinema & Media. She wrote that the Lhasa Club was central to her artistic development, hosting the first public screenings of her films, and “MM cites many of the screenings she attended at the Lhasa Club… as greatly influential in both her work and personal relationships. MM remembers David Bowie showing up from time to time and a young Todd Haynes coming through as ‘the guy who showed up from Brown University to show an early version of Dottie Gets Spanked.”^[6]

The club featured music acts such as Nick Cave, Jane’s Addiction, Rick James, The Screamers’ Tomata Du Plenty, Ulysses Jenkins with his Othervisions Band, and Flea.^[1][17] Spoken word and comedy performers included Henry Rollins, who gave his first spoken word show there, Sandra Bernhard and Timothy Leary.^[1][18] Performance artists included The Mud People (later profiled by PBS), performance poet Linda Albertano, and “performance art gurus” such as John Fleck and Ann Magnuson.^{[10][19][20][21][22]} Much of the footage was later compiled by Boccara into the film The Lhasa Tapes, described as capturing “real avant-garde magic.” ^[1][23]

Mariani co-produced the live compilation album The Lives of Lhasa (1984), which was released on the club’s independent label and included The Fibonaccis, Pell Mell, Linda J. Albertano, Necropolis of Love, Food and Shelter, Les Toulose, Pink Mink, Michael Peppe, Henry Rollins, among others.^[24] She and Boccara also established the nonprofit Lhasa Foundation to fund arts projects and preserve the spirit of the club beyond its lifespan. The goal was to one day create “a gala club, where you can eat in one room, watch performance art in another, listen to music in another.”^[3]

From 1985 to 1987, poet Doug Knott produced Doug Knott Presents, a series of forty-four “eclectic,” “bizarre,” and “esoteric” shows. These featured El Duce, English Frank, Merrill Ward of SWA, and poet Jerry the Priest; another included Exene Cervenka, James Intveld, Robin the Percussionist, Knott’s troupe The Lost Tribe, and Paul Roessler, 45 Grave, and the Nina Hagen Band. Additional programs brought in D. J. Bonebrake, Bill Bateman, and John Densmore, with music from the Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada and Heather Haley & the Zealots, as well as a film by Modi and Cervenka.^[25][2] One of Knott’s Valentine’s programs, headlined by the Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada, was called “Gothic camp-pop stuff that managed to be both ethereal and silly” and praised their “loopy but sincere crypto-psychedelic dance music” for adding “a dash of color to an often lackluster local scene.”^[26]

Performance studies scholar Edward Bruner later described poet Doug Knott’s productions as modest but formative, situating them as part of a broader shift in Los Angeles performance art from club settings into collective touring work.^[2] The Los Angeles Times also reflected that Knott’s shows at the Lhasa Club helped transplant its experimental spirit to other Los Angeles venues after the club’s closure.^[27]

Henry Rollins and Lydia Lunch played the last show at the Lhasa Club on New Year’s Eve 1987. The rent doubled, and neither a lease nor liquor or dance licenses could be secured, as the club was located at Santa Monica Boulevard and Hudson Avenue, a residential neighborhood with rapidly rising rents.^[10] Boccara said “we never made enough to do more than pay rent and offer the artists a little here, a little there.”^[3]

On May 19, 1988, Boccara, Mariani, and Denny McGovern opened Lhasaland, a two-level concert and party hall with capacity for about 1,000 at the Musicians Hall at 817 North Vine Street in Hollywood. They presented live and recorded music along with sideshows associated with the earlier Lhasa Club, and hosted national acts including Devo, The Knitters, and Depeche Mode. Industry events such as LA Weekly’s tenth anniversary party were also staged there.^[28] Programming combined rock, rap, and experimental performance. A review of Firehose praised the group’s “innovative mix of rock and rap.”^[29]

Lhasaland faced recurring financial and operational problems and was shuttered briefly. Boccara later noted that although the venue often featured performance art and non-traditional music, booking ethnic artists was financially difficult, a challenge shared by other club owners at the time.^[30] By early 1989, it was reported that the club had been closed since January but was expected to reopen in the summer,^[31] and Boccara was still described as running it as late as July.^[32]

Café Largo opened in 1989 as a 150-seat club and restaurant, founded and operated by Boccara and Mariani. It was a continuation of the Lhasa Club’s cabaret ethos in a more formal setting, presenting a program of comedy, jazz, world music, spoken word, and record industry showcases.

The series Poetry in Motion drew standing-room-only crowds with performances by actors and poets from Hollywood and beyond.^[7] Organized by Eve Brandstein and Michael Lally, the weekly readings combined celebrity participation with emerging voices, featuring appearances by Judd Nelson, Justine Bateman, Robert Downey Jr., Patti D’Arbanville, Ally Sheedy, and others. The events were described as “poetry, Hollywood style,” with audiences responding with laughter, whistles, applause, or finger-snapping in the Beat tradition. Programs were created around themes such as “Beauty and the Beatnik” and “Rebel Without a Pause,” presenting a mix of professional poets and actors reading their own work, and actors interpreting established poets. Critics debated whether the readings were a fad, while supporters described them as a genuine cultural phenomenon that reconnected performers and audiences with the creative impulse.^[33][34]

The LA Weekly named Café Largo “LA’s Best Supper Club” in 1990 and reported that it was “strongly supported by the local arts community.” In 1990, the Indigo Girls recorded a set of cover songs at the venue for future B-sides.^[35] The venue was a focal point for live music (including Peter Himmelman, Victoria Williams, Suzanne Vega, Syd Straw, The Love Jones, Julie Christensen, Hugo Largo, and Grant Lee Buffalo), cabaret (Philip Littell, Stephanie Vlahos with dancer George de la Peña, Barry Yourgrau, Ludar), vaudeville (Les Stevens), comedy (Nora Dunn, Beth Lapides), and spoken word (Tommy Cody, Eve Brandstein).^[36][37] Performers also included Babooshka, the nutty chanteuse; Maureen Mahon, a chic torch singer; El Vez, the Mexican Elvis; the Hollywood Wow Cats, four guys singing a cappella songs; Lypsinka, who lip-synced in drag to ‘30s and ‘40s tunes, Black Watch’s heavy metal routine, and Weba Garretson of Weba and her Wailing Turbans.^[3] In his travelogue Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California (1994), Bill Barich described a poetry reading at Café Largo in which “one poet repeatedly slaps himself in the face,” using it to exemplify aspects of Los Angeles performance culture.^[38]

Boccara sold Café Largo in 1992. Under new ownership, it later evolved into Largo at the Coronet.

Luna Park, Boccara’s final major Los Angeles venue, opened in 1993 as a 700-person nightclub and restaurant at 655 N. Robertson Avenue in West Hollywood. Its programming, ranging from acid jazz and world beat to cabaret, spoken word, and indie rock, was described as a continuation of his experimental ethos.^[3][39] It was called “an eclectic venue without Westside snobbery,” with décor, dual stages, and global cuisine where the “music mix is ambitious: from acid jazz to world beat, from pop to torch singing, LunaPark’s weekly lineup manages to be varied while still maintaining a classy through-line.”^[40]

Milla Jovovich and Karen Black used Luna Park to explore singing. The same review noted “A Brazilian 12-piece band moved dancers upstairs, an Arab-Turkish group wowed the downstairs audience with sword-wielding belly dancers of both genders.”^[40] Julia Sweeney told the stories that would become God Said Ha!^[41] The cabaret room hosted performers including Ed Krasnick, Barry Yourgrau, Rex Voto with Esther Balint, and experimental cabaret acts with sword dancers.^[40] The experimental jazz and improvisational series New Music Monday relocated to Luna Park in 1998, spotlighting avant-garde musicians and composers.^[42] Henry Rollins recorded Henry Rollins: Live at Luna Park (2004), described as a “best-of collection of his weekly performances at the theater.”^[43][44] His spoken-word residency also produced material for the album A Rollins in the Wry (2001).^[45][46] Radiohead played on November 4, 1994,^{[47][better source needed]} and Alanis Morissette appeared on June 2, 1995.^{[48][better source needed]}

Un-Cabaret, founded by Beth Lapides, established its weekly Sunday residency at Luna Park beginning in November 1993 and lasting seven years. According to Lapides “David Byrne talks about how the architecture of CBGB helped shape the music. The same is true for LunaPark and UnCabaret.” Performers included Bob Goldthwait, Greg Behrendt, Mike McDonald, Kathy Griffin and Bob Odenkirk.^[41] The final show featured Margaret Cho, Michael Patrick King, and Andy Kindler. ^[49][50]