When Gary Lazer called us last Friday, it was possible that most of his audience would have to miss his show to fight a war.
Lazer was en route to a naval base in southern Maryland. This was a day before President Clinton told a national television audience that he was ready to send troops to Haiti to restore exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. (Clinton has since announced an Oct. 15 pullout date for Haiti’s military rulers after 11th-hour negotiations.)
Lazer, John Mulrooney and Carl Banks were all part of “Comics on Duty,” an ongoing show in which comics tour military bases. The standups found out something was up when they returned from an autograph session at an Army hospital near Baltimore.
“The guy who was taking us around was the one that told us,” said Lazer.
“He goes, `Yeah, they want all the hospitals set up and everything over in Haiti by 6 o’clock tonight. So the invasion’s going to be either tonight or tomorrow morning.’ And we were like, `Huh? Isn’t that classified?’ And he’s going, `Well, if you don’t know about it by now.’ “
Tensions concerning an invasion of Haiti had been mounting. But Lazer, 37, said if there was any moodiness in the recent audiences they played for, it didn’t show.
“It (didn’t) seem to affect them,” said Lazer, who started in comedy about 12 years ago in New York. “I’ll tell you what, this is some of the most appreciative audiences in the world that I’ve ever played for, and they just love for you to come and do it.”
Lazer once performed at a base the night before troops geared up for Operation Desert Storm.
“That was very, very bizarre,” said Lazer, who’s headlining this weekend at K.J. Riddle’s Comedy Stop in Orland Park (15750 S. Harlem Ave.-Continental Shopping Center; 708-614-6336).
“What a lot of these guys do, and a lot of women as well, is they get married the night before” shipping off for some kind of conflict, he said. “If something happens to him or her, their spouse gets (military) insurance . . . romantic, isn’t it?”
With all this, it’s appropriate that Lazer is working on a one-man show that is a reflection of how scared he is in these troubled times.
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“I’m just petrified about what’s going on in the world today.” he said.