Laffing Matterz hosted our company Christmas party in December and we had such an awesome time, we had to tell you more about it.

We posed these questions to Rita Wells, owner with her husband Mark, of the fun dinner theater in downtown Ft. Lauderdale (www.laffingmatterz.com).

If you visit Laffing Matterz in February, mention this article to your server or the bartender for a free drink.

Q: Tell us about your theater.

Laffing Matterz opened in August of 2005, the weekend before Hurricane Katrina hit, actually. Laffing Matterz was born as a reproduction of a concept in Aspen, Colo. called the Crystal Palace, which has been in business for 52 years, but will unfortunately perform its last show at the end of April.

My husband, Mark, and I met while working as entertainers there in 1989 and the rest, as they say, is history. The great thing it is it allows performers on-going employment and stability, a rare occurrence in the field of entertainment.

We have about 13 cast members and about seven back-of-house employees.

Q: There’s a catch at Laffing Matterz, isn’t there?

It’s true, the servers are the actors. We don’t hire servers; we hire actors and actresses with great voices and teach them the "role" of server.

Guests, who don’t realize this at first, often comment on what great personalities the servers have. Of course, they figure it all out when the show begins.

By then our guests feel like they’re watching friends perform on stage. It makes for great energy in the room.

Q: Most dinner theaters have lousy food, but yours is terrific. Tell us about your chefs.

Our extremely talented executive chef, John Eustace, is directly responsible for the gourmet food that comes out of our kitchen.

Our goal was that Laffing Matterz would re-define the dinner theater experience by reintroducing it at a whole new level, starting with the quality of food we serve. Chef John shines in the kitchen, especially when creating his nightly specials and soups. They’re not just good, they’re fabulous.

Guests comment each night how much the food far surpasses their expectations. We love Chef John.

Q: Is Laffing Matterz a franchise or is this your own business?

It’s ours. Right now Laffing Matterz has only one location, here in Ft. Lauderdale. There is talk about expanding to other markets, but it is nothing more than talk at this point.

Because Mark and I are so hands-on in the day-to-day running of the business as well as being in the show, it would be hard to duplicate, but there are always people looking for new challenges out there.

Q: How’d you pick Ft. Lauderdale to open in?

We always felt that the Laffing Matterz concept would thrive in a metropolitan area with an additional tourist presence; a place where we could offer year-round entertainment. Mark and I narrowed it down to Ft. Lauderdale and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Through a series of events, we found a sole investor who shared our passion. His intuition pointed us to Ft. Lauderdale.

We took a big chance but we know we made the right choice. Ft. Lauderdale is a great city and we’re glad we’re here.

Q: Where does all the material come from?

We have several different writers, though much of our material is written by one man, Rick Crom, of Jersey City, N.J.

Our writers submit numbers to us as ideas come to them. Our musical director, Jim Ryan of Philadelphia, also writes for us. We all try to follow different areas of what’s going on in our world and then talk about what’s funny about it.

We put new numbers in as funny circumstances present themselves.

Q: How much do you have to rehearse?

Depending on how many people are in a given number, it can take from two to 10 days to put it in the show. We use a choreographer for the larger numbers, but often we’ll choreograph smaller numbers on our own.

Jim Ryan, our musical director, handles all musical arrangements.

Q: Do you list any famous actors among your former employees?

My husband Mark and I are infamous, does that count? I’ll say not yet, though with the talent that has crossed our stage to date, it’s only a matter of time.

Ask me again in a couple of years.