(2 of 2)
The nightclub, the bowling alley, the comedy club and the sports bars on the fourth floor have suffered from the mall's attendance falloff, but they too are trying to make the best of it. Last Wednesday only six people were at Ltl Ditty's Dueling Piano Bar at 8:30 p.m., despite the fact that Wednesday is Bladder Buster Night, when, starting at 8, the bar serves 25[cent] light beers until the first person leaves the room. Knuckleheads, the comedy club, suffering from the cancellation of Los Angeles-based ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, was able to get 60 people to watch local comedian C. Willi Myles, who relied on weather-related humor instead of current events. "When you talk about bin Laden, you're talking about a guy that killed people," he says.
And you can still make money on love. The Chapel of Love, the only place in the mall where you can get married, has been receiving more inquiries about booking weddings than it normally does, according to apparel manager Debra Lee Fader. On Thursday night, Karyn Johanning, 25, had a "Dream Wedding" with Sebastian Xavier, 38. After a year of being proposed to, Johanning finally said yes three weeks ago. "A few days after [the attacks] happened, she said, 'Let's do it. Let's just live,'" says Xavier, who was wearing a Yankees cap with his tux as a reminder of the tragedy. "We just went on with life because it's too precious to stop." After the ceremony, they got on a train for Las Vegas.