Jimmy Dore: Hometown boy makes a triumphant return!
Yeah, whatever.
Dore, a native of Chicago’s Southwest Side (“the kind of neighborhood where people work 12 hours a day, hate their jobs, go home and laugh at Archie Bunker for all the wrong reasons,” Dore jokes), has been seeking fortune and glory in Los Angeles for the last five months.
He’s back in the Chicago area, working K.J. Riddle’s Comedy Stop in Orland Park this weekend. And he’s the one who wanted the “triumphant hometown boy” tag, so don’t start.
Actually, Dore says he’s been making inroads since he made the big move. He’s “pretty happy with my progress, especially since I’m only in town half the time, because I’m on the road making money.”
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Dore, 29, spends two weeks out of the month traveling to clubs around the country. His goal isn’t to do standup in Los Angeles to make a living, but to attain goals to which standup can lead.
While Dore has been in L.A., he has auditioned for parts (the casting director for NBC’s “Seinfeld” has called a few times for readings); he has done comedy sets to qualify for such things as HBO’s “Young Comedians Special”; and he is a regular at the Improv’s Melrose Avenue location.
“There are so many people that are farther along than me,” says Dore, who started doing standup in 1989 at the Comedy Womb (“where comedians are born,” he cracks).
“I . . . guess I have goals I can shoot for out here,” he continues. “And all the goals in Chicago I had attained.”
Dore believed it was the logical time for the young man to go West. If you want to make it to the next level, he believes, a comedian has to eventually leave Chicago.
“There are no more challenges in Chicago” for Dore, he says. “A lot of people think you can catch fire in Chicago. But I think you can burst into flames and nobody would notice.”
Dore has appeared on A&E’s “An Evening at the Improv” and “Caroline’s Comedy Hour.” He’s also been on Comedy Central’s “Short Attention Span Theatre” and was voted by that network as funniest comedian in Chicago during a contest held here in 1992.
Those are nice credits for a comic to have. But one of the goals that Dore has is to build on those credits, something he thinks he couldn’t do in Chicago.
“It makes me realize those things are very attainable,” he says. What he wants is to be “at the top of the standup game. You know, get the HBO `Young Comedians Special’ . . . get my own special or a Letterman spot or a `Tonight Show’ spot, things like that.”
Dore has also found from living in L.A. that there are more opportunities available for him than just doing standup specials and Letterman appearances. He knows comics who have written movies and for television, and those who have also launched acting careers.
“You see so many different ways with the comedy talent,” Dore says. “There’s so many different things to do.”
But there’s an interesting price Dore is paying for living in Los Angeles. He’s making new friends, all of which are somehow involved in what he does for a living. Which wasn’t the case in Chicago. “I feel like I’m at work 24 hours a day,” he explains.
“In Chicago, I can decide whether I can be at work or not. When I pick up the phone and call people, then I was at work. Or when I went to a club, then I was at work. The rest of the time I wasn’t inundated with the industry as a business. I knew people in Chicago that didn’t have anything to do with entertainment.”
But out in L.A., “that’s all I know, is people who are in the entertainment industry . . . so I’m constantly reminded of the business.” Not only that, but Dore is either “writing, or on the phone contacting somebody, or trying to get a meeting with someone, or auditing for something.”
But that’s the price you pay for fortune and glory. So who knows? Maybe one day we’ll see in a big headline, “Hometown Boy Jimmy Dore Makes Triumphant Return.”
A boy can dream, can’t he?
Jimmy Dore is appearing through Sunday at K.J. Riddle’s Comedy Stop, 15750 S. Harlem Ave. at the Continental Shopping Center in Orland Park. For show times and other details, call 708-614-6336.
The standup lineup
Two good bets for laughs this weekend are Geoff Brown, who’s performing at All Jokes Aside (1000 S. Wabash Ave.; 312-922-0577), and Lenny Schmidt, who’s hanging out at the Improv (504 N. Wells St.; call 312-STAND-UP).