Comedy club owners worry about comedians who are flakes, prima donnas or in a chemically altered state that keeps them from doing the job.
Comedians worry about club owners who will cheat them out of their fee, cut their performance time or provide a lousy working environment.
Both the club owner and the comedian should be free of those concerns Saturday at the Warren Comedy Club.
They are the same person.
Eric Thompson, who started the monthly comedy club at the Sunrise Inn in March, will take his first turn as a headliner at the venue.
Thompson is no novice. He has been mixing comedy and magic for about 30 years and has opened for such performers as Jay Leno, Jim Carrey and Pat Paulson.
Fact Box
When You Go
WHO: Eric Thompson, Matt O'Nesti and Bill Sporck
WHEN: 9 p.m. Saturday with doors open at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Warren Comedy Club at the Sunrise Inn, 510 E. Market St., Warren
HOW MUCH: $15.
''I perform a lot, but I don't perform a lot locally,'' Thompson said. ''A lot of the shows I do are out of town - Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo. A lot of the public locally can't get there to see them.''
When he started the club, Thompson said he wanted to hold off on performing until he knew what the demands on his time would be as a club owner on show nights. He didn't want the responsibilities of being the boss to take away from his ability to deliver a quality performance. But so far he's been impressed by how smoothly things run on show nights.
''I've learned that he audiences are mature enough,'' he said. ''I don't have a problem with people being obnoxious, having to be thrown out. The audience is mature, and they come to laugh.''
Like most performers, Thompson said he adjusts his set depending on the venue.
''I do shows in comedy clubs where there's drinking and week later I may be performing at a convention of folks from a church group,'' he said. ''Obviously, it can't be the same exact verbatim show.''
Even in the comedy club, magic and illusion are an integral part of Thompson's act, but the comedy is woven into the trick.
''People laugh real hard during the show and then in the car on the way home they think, 'How the heck did he do that,''' Thompson said. ''They don't realize how amazing it was at the time because they're having so much fun with it.''
Matt O'Nesti, a 16-year-old student at Boardman High School who performed a short set at the venue in April after winning the Mahoning Valley High School Class Clown Comedy Contest, will return for a full set as a support act.
''He's really honed his stuff in the last six months,'' Thompson said. ''He's very witty and creative in his writing.''
And Thompson booked Bill Sporck for a featured set after seeing him perform at an open mic night at a club in Kent.
''His writing is amazing, creative, very witty, very funny,'' he said. ''I talked to him afterward, and if he had written a book, I would have bought the book that night. He was that good.''