Marc Price issues the following warning to Aurora residents who bypass his performances at the Laugh Factory this weekend:
”I will be forced to buy drugs, beat up a transvestite hooker and rob a video store.”
Price is best known as Skippy in the long-running hit television series
”Family Ties.” He`s referring to various former kid actors, now adults, who have found a rather unique way of shedding the cute tag that might come with their roles: committing crimes. Those ex-child thespians include those from ”Diff`rent Strokes” and ”The Partridge Family.”
Price has been able to avoid such brushes with the law by focusing on his career, which includes stand-up comedy. He got his start as a comic when he was 16 years old, following the footsteps of his father, Al Bernie.
Stand-up must have been in the cards for Price, 24. He has a picture he drew when he was a kid of ”a stick figure with a microphone and a spotlight and a star on a door,” he says. ”Some guys are drawing houses and trees. …”
Price learned at the feet of his dad, traveling with him on the famed Borscht Belt, hanging out at such celebrated comedy haunts as the Friars Club and the Improv in New York. When Bernie visited the old Blue Max in Chicago, Price was there.
Price went out on his own, getting valuable stage time at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. He considers that club as his home base.
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”At that time, I was 15, 16 years old, and nobody wanted to give me any stage time anywhere,” Price says. ”And the Laugh Factory couldn`t afford not to, I was on a TV show.”
So it`s appropriate that Price is headlining at the Aurora sister club this weekend. It marks a year since the Laugh Factory opened its doors.
And what about that TV show? ”Family Ties” was one of the reasons NBC was a huge hit on Thursday nights. Of course, it didn`t hurt to be nestled between ”The Cosby Show” and ”Cheers.”
In any event, Price scored name recognition as the goofy friend of Michael J. Fox`s Alex Keaton character. But how does the goofiness of Skippy play for Price in a comedy club? Do people get beyond that image and see the stand-up working the stage?
”There`s an amazing stigma that comes with playing a goofy character on a hit TV series,” Price explains. ”But I`m not complaining. Why? Because I have this wonderful opportunity to introduce Marc Price to people who maybe only know me as Skippy, via stand-up comedy.”
Price hits a wide spectrum in his act, from observational material to things that affect his life to some politics, including this on political candidate David Duke saying that Adolf Hitler was ”misunderstood”:
”What did he say, kill all the Shoes?”
Create some new ties with Price as the Laugh Factory celebrates its one-year anniversary. The Factory is at 4395 Fox Valley Center Drive in Aurora`s Fox Valley Mall. For show times and more details, call 708-978-2800. The stand-up lineup
Here`s who`s working at the comedy clubs. Current sets are scheduled to run through Sunday; all new acts begin on Tuesday unless otherwise noted. Lineups are subject to change.
Funny Bone-Naperville (1504 Naper Blvd.-Tower Crossing Shopping Center;
708-955-0500): Vic Dunlop, a veteran of the old stand-up comedy game show
”Make Me Laugh,” is wrapping up his engagement on Sunday. After a guest headliner hangs out Tuesday and Wednesday, its popular WLUP-AM (The Loop)
midday personality Kevin Matthews starting on Thursday.
K.J. Riddle`s Comedy Stop (15750 S. Harlem Ave.-Continental Shopping Center, Orland Park; 708-614-6336): After Chicago`s Stew Olsen finishes up this weekend, Bob Shaw comes to work starting on Tuesday. Shaw has made appearances on the A&E Channel`s ”Caroline`s Comedy Hour.”
Zanies (1548 N. Wells St.; 312-337-4027): A very funny performer and comedy writer, Matt Berry, hits the stage this weekend. ”Showtime Comedy Club Network” refugee Fred Klett headlines starting on Tuesday. Speaking of that Showtime program, Zanies` Mt. Prospect room (2200 S. Elmhurst Rd.;
708-228-6166) will host the Network for a record fourth time on Thursday, with Mark Reedy, Paul Gilmartin and Mike Preston leading the pack.
And … Kevin Meaney will hosts an upcoming ”America`s Super Showcase,” a variety special on WLS-Ch. 7. But if you want to catch a sneak peek of Meaney, who`s had a number of HBO specials, head out to the Funny Firm (318 W. Grand Ave.; 312-321-9500) Friday and Saturday.
”Meet the Parents,” a black comedy directed and co-written by Chicago comic Greg Gilenna, is about a young man (Gilenna) trying to make a good impression with his future in-laws . . . and failing. The movie, which the Tribune`s Dave Kehr calls ”a very original piece of work,” is being shown Friday through Thursday at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.
(312-871-6604).