No Joke: Rent Dispute May Give Crazies Hook

A long-simmering dispute between the Orange County Crazies comedy troupe and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra could leave the troupe without a performance center, and possibly mean the end of the popular group, officials said Friday.

The group and an affiliated business could be forced out of their local offices because of a new lease that nearly doubles their rent to $1,000 a month, executive director Cherie Kerr said Friday.

Kerr said she is hoping for an extension after the current lease expires June 30.

“The terms of the lease are designed to get us to leave,” Kerr asserted. She later added: “If we leave and we can’t find another city to host us and sponsor us, the Crazies are over.”

Kerr runs her ExecuProv business out of the Crazies’ headquarters in downtown Santa Ana.

A draft lease agreement asks ExecuProv to pay $750 a month and the Crazies to pay $250. Currently, the two entities together pay $572 a month to cover utility costs, Kerr said.

Crazies board member Tim Rush said that $1,000 a month may seem reasonable, but he pointed out that the Crazies is a nonprofit organization that leases the building from the Pacific Symphony, which in turn leases it from the city for $1 a year.

“Why should they all of a sudden be making a profit center out of the building?” he said.

Orchestra officials did not return phone calls Friday.

Executive Director of Community Development Cindy Nelson said the lease agreement is between the orchestra and the Crazies and the city could not intervene. Several city officials said they hoped a solution could be worked out.