There have been attempts at non-parody shows, but most fall flat because there isn't enough repeatability for returning guests--still a huge chunk of the HHN fanbase. Plenty of comedy magicians, some good, some less so, but they all did the same 20-minute act 5x a night for the entire event. Same would be true of any stand-up act (The Enigma comes to mind, he was basically doing stand-up). I think you need a certain amount of improv to encourage repeat visits. At its best, the Bill & Ted cast was never afraid to go off-script, throw in a timely reference or two.
So it seems like the most obvious thing might be an in-house improv troupe, maybe taking Halloween-themed cues ("what's a place where a scary movie might take place?" "what's your favorite monster"). Comedy Warehouse made this work nightly at Pleasure Island. But this would require a smallish venue--maybe Horror & Make-Up sized? Would that eat up enough crowd to justify 5 or more Equity-level actors?
So for the big venues it comes back to a parody show padded with dance numbers. Except Legal hates parody shows, no matter who hosts--they invite infringement lawsuits and risk media outrage--so inevitably that gets cut back down to just a dance show like AoV or HNF