On the small set of "NightTime With Andy Bumatai" — a transient creation in the corner of a Kapi'olani furniture store — comedy and conversation are working hard to make a sale.

The prime-time pitch is straightforward: "NightTime" is Hawai'i's only entertainment-oriented TV talk show. Five nights a week, it's billed as hip and funny, a network-wannabe in a niche market.

But it's also the only show in the Islands where the audience and crew sit on furniture with price tags, the dressing room is really a storage room with brooms, and the host — Bumatai — sits in front of a panorama window with a view of city streets and a sewer construction project.

"Evidently Mufi lost a contact lens," Bumatai quipped during a recent show, hiking a thumb at the street while poking fun at Honolulu's Mayor Hannemann. "They have the area cordoned off until they find it."

"NightTime," which airs weeknights on K5 and digital channel CW, tapes shows each Monday and Thursday evening at the Honolulu Design Center. It's an open set, with audience members — and shoppers — encouraged to stop and watch.

"Every now and then, someone will come by and check out a price tag," said Jim Bryan, the show's executive producer. "I wish we got a commission. We've sold this furniture a few times."

MIXING IT ALL UP

Bryan, who has been involved with radio and TV talk shows for 20 years, created "NightTime" with Bumatai because the two men believed local viewers wanted their own version of a network talk show.

"It's a typical talk show," Bryan said. "You take the good, you take the bad, you take the ugly, and you make it all work to put on the air every night."

The first show aired last month, and while Bryan does not have official ratings numbers, he claims that his surveys have found a public clamoring to watch.

"We went into this not knowing who was going to watch us," Bryan said. "Everyone is happy. It is taking off like a rocket. We're the first to say how surprised we are."

Two separate stations — K5 and KHON, which is the parent station for the local CW channel on digital cable — have committed to 52 weeks, he said. Advertisers have committed for three months.

And in a bit of a surprise for the show's creators, the Hilton Hawaiian Village recruited them to move to the resort sometime this month.

When that happens, "NightTime" will be able to accommodate 300 people on seating no one will buy out from under the audience.

If it all works out, the show will begin daily taping in February, said Bryan, who will only admit to being "50-something."

"There is no show like this coming out of Hawai'i," he said. "There is really no late-night voice with a Hawaiian-style feel to it. Our goal is to make this national. Right now we are working the show in the minor leagues."

ACQUIRING NEW SKILLS

The 53-year-old Bumatai, a regular on the Hawai'i comedy scene for three decades, said he has always wanted to host a TV talk show.

But hosting isn't easy.

Bumatai must write and deliver three monologues that are generic enough to remain funny for several days. Then he has to turn his attention to his guests, a task that requires him to keep his inner comic in check.

"I have found that if I have a joke that is good, and I am waiting for an opportunity to drop this gem of humor, it's death," he said. "It's like trying to run holding a bowling ball."

The key is listening with your ears, not your mouth.

"When you are listening to tell the joke, you are listening with your mouth," he said.

That doesn't mean every guest will feel at ease.

"Sometimes, no matter what you do, they are not going to be relaxed," he said. "But guess what? The world will not end if it is a lousy interview. Everybody can't be cool. People have bad days."

It's hard to imagine a guest feeling uncomfortable on the set of "NightTime."

HAMMING IT UP

As the crew prepared to tape one Thursday night, the mood was decidedly light. Bumatai was both calm and cool as he got his mind into the show and the house band, Don Tiki, warmed up its brand of "jungle jazz."

Bumatai poured orange juice into his coffee mug and straightened his suit.

The director, John Lewis, was still in shorts and slippers when a videographer needed a "white balance" — which means someone must hold something white in front of a camera to help the production staff balance colors.

Lewis pulled his T-shirt over his head.

The audience members drifted in — all six of them — and Matt Locey, a veteran of the Hawai'i film industry, ushered them to a pair of couches, then showed them cue cards that read "Applause" and "Laugh."

Bumatai eyed the cards with that trademark eyebrow raise he uses.

"OK, really laugh, even if the joke is lame, because it sounds really great on TV," the comedian told the audience.

But Locey got a bigger laugh when he held aloft a sagging plastic grocery bag.

"I'm renting tomatoes, $10 each, if the show gets out of hand," he said.

On this night, Bumatai's first guest was Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Sierra Club Hawai'i chapter. Mikulina was there to promote "Arctic Tale," a documentary about global warming, aimed at kids.

Not everything went as plan-ned. Mikulina held up a glass jar filled with charcoal — a prop to demonstrate the amount of greenhouse gases people produce — and Locey held up the "Laugh" card. Hardly anyone did.

It got worse, though, when it was time to close the show: Bumatai thanked "Jeff Mikiluna," mispronouncing the environmentalist's name as Bryan shook his head from side to side.

"Oh he won't care," Bumatai joked afterward. "He wasn't even here."

But the ending was quickly re-shot; then Bumatai and the band raced to the storage room to change clothes for the second show, which featured Hoku Ho.

"It's fun and it's fresh," said Lloyd Kandell, co-founder of Don Tiki, standing in the dressing room as his band leader applied a bit more Old Spice, Bumatai put on a new suit and Ho had her makeup touched up. "You never know what's going to happen."

The second show proved that. Ho was an instant hit, and the furniture store rocked with laughter and high energy.

The singer was at ease. Talking nonstop and waving her hands for emphasis, she played to the camera. She and Bumatai waved to the construction workers and a pedestrian who decided to watch them from just outside the panorama glass.

The audience, now larger by 10, responded with hoots, whistles and applause.

The crew was in high spirits — even the intern was smiling.

The next show sounded promising: On deck was Traci Toguchi, a former Miss Hawai'i turned actress.

Outside, the city's huge pumper truck was sucking who knows what out of underground pipes.

But with a little luck, a laughing audience would be able to mask the announcement that wafts through the design center toward the end of every taping: The store will be closing shortly.

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.