The Crooner Crowd

Re$iduals, located in a Studio City mini-mall, is a watering hole peopled by that energetic breed known as the aspiring actor/performer.

The bar offers drinks in exchange for residual checks of less than $1. A tote board above the bar keeps tabs on how the regulars (and this is a bar of regulars) are doing, listing their commercials, features, sitcoms and Equity-waiver performances.

In 1991, owner Craig Tennis decided to fill in an eight-week gap in his Sunday evening entertainment line-up with a karaoke night.

“Everyone agreed that it wouldn’t work,� Tennis says. “We’ve ended up doing it for 3 1/2 years.�

Unlike the crowds in most karaoke bars, the Re$iduals Sunday nighters need no cajoling to get up and sing. The waiting list on any decent night can grow to almost two hours.

With an inventory of more than 4,000 songs, plus any others people care to bring with them (cover tunes only, please), all tastes are easily accommodated.

Although Tennis says a few performers have gotten paying gigs after being discovered at Re$iduals and that “record producers come in on a regular basis,� few among the talent here would admit to grabbing the mike for any other purpose than “just for fun.�

Still, there is a noticeable absence of the sloppy amateurs oh so common to this Pacific Rim pastime--you know, the ones whose courage is propped up by one too many as they slide further and further from the melody.

A more common type at Re$iduals is a Willie Nelson look- and sing-alike, who’s gone to the trouble of clipping on a set of blond pigtails before launching into “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before.� Another comes well-prepared in head-to-toe tie-dye for his rendition of the Beatles’ “Come Together.� Even those performances, done without any sartorial or tonsorial accouterments, evidence a great deal of mid-week polishing.

“I’d like to think I’m a singer--a wanna-be, I guess,� says 25-year-old Kenny Bukowski, a carpenter who’s just wrapped up a nearly pitch-perfect version of Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual.�

Although Bukowski, who resembles the Welsh singer in looks as well as vocal style, aspires to a vocation in the spotlight, he says it’s not so much the karaoke that’s been bringing him here for the past three years, but the people.

“I’ve met so many people coming here,� he says. ‘Everyone’s really friendly. It’s just like ‘Cheers.’ �

The audience, many of whom are waiting for their turns at the mike, are a supportive bunch. Regardless of the quality of the crooning, a discouraging word is seldom heard.

But for all the protestations of this being just a communal feel-good session, dreams of greasepaint smells and crowd roars do pervade the bar’s wood and brass interior.

“Well, this is Hollywood,� one waitress confides. “So you do get a lot of serious behavior.�

* Where: Re$iduals, 11042 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 761-8301

* When: Karaoke Night. 9 p.m.- 1 a.m. Sundays.

* Prices: Free admission. Drinks $2.50/$2.75 (or in trade for a residual check of less than $1).