There used to be a time when seeing two headliners performing together at the same comedy club was commonplace. But with a shrinking amount of clubs around the country, and an overall malaise within standup comedy as a whole, the only place you might see two headliners on one bill might be at a theater (see Last Yuks below).
Which makes this weekend at the Funny Bone in Naperville a happy situation, as well as a chance to get more bang for the buck. Jeff Cesario, a talented and favorite son of Kenosha, Wis., is working with Jeff Stilson, a former writer for David Letterman’s talk show who starred at the ‘Bone a few months ago.
“I think we’re the only remaining comics on each other’s list that we can even remotely stand their company,” jokes Cesario. “We’re so alienated by everybody else.”
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Actually, the two are good friends and have been working together on a few projects, so they decided to hang out at a comedy club together.
“The problem is when you do standup and travel on the road, you usually don’t have much control over the show,” Stilson notes. “You don’t know who you’re going to be paired with, and usually the bookings are done out of convenience.”
But the two agree this pairing will work. They both have the same mindset as far as their smart, hip brand of material is concerned, and more important, “we both love standup comedy,” adds Stilson, 37.
The two comics got some news that makes their appearance together at the Funny Bone an even better fit: They both have been tapped to do comedy specials for HBO under its “Half Hour Comedy” series.
“It’ll be actually a ton of fun, because we’ll both be working on getting that material as sharp as possible,” says Cesario, 43. They and others will tape the specials in San Francisco in May, with the first airing scheduled for August.
It helps that the two are working together, because they can then talk about their sets afterwards, going over what they did on stage that may work for television later.
“It will be like a little clinic for us,” says Cesario, an Emmy and Ace award-winning former writer and producer for Dennis Miller’s HBO talk show. “We’ll be going back with the Erector Set after each show and rebuilding, I’m sure.”
Stilson will be the feature act, doing something like 30 minutes or more, possibly wanting to focus on the amount of time his HBO set will entail. Cesario, however, will close the show with 50 minutes to an hour of material.
“He may want to get it down into the rocket ship and batten down the hatch and take it for a ride,” Cesario says, making the analogies flow the way his old boss Miller does.
“I’m still detoxing from the Miller gig, which was all analogies and similes,” he admits.
Not only is having a keen writer checking out your material good for getting it just right for television, it’s always good to hammer stuff out in front of an audience. Stilson considers the Chicago area a great place to do that.
“I find now New York is just not a great place to work out material,” explains Stilson. “Audiences are really jaded . . . it’s nice to go to a place like Chicago, which is kind of New York without the extreme rage, and just kind of smooth off the really hard edges of your act.”
For Cesario, a 16-year comedy vet, it will just be a great experience performing, something he hasn’t done much of while busily working for Miller the last few years. He split from the show (amicably, he adds) in September and since then has done only four gigs on the road, although he does go up on stage while living in Los Angeles.
And it will also be fun for Cesario to hang in a club with Stilson, whom Cesario worked with when the two played two nutty sportscasters for a Comedy Central special centered on the Super Bowl. They have talked about playing those characters again, with baseball as the target of jokes.
“Like I say, there’s a shared sensibility on stage as well, and yet, there’s a different enough style,” Cesario explains. “I’m positively animated next to Stilson. I’m like (comedy maniac) Kevin Meaney standing next to Stan Laurel.”
The Jeff & Jeff Show hits the Funny Bone in Naperville Friday and Saturday. The club is at 1504 Naper Blvd. in the Tower Crossing Shopping Center. For show times and reservations, call 708-955-0500.
Last yuks
– Chicago-area journalists will get wild and crazy at the 10th annual Gridiron Show, where they sing, dance and poke fun at people, places and things in the news. The show is Friday at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage Ave. Call 312-989-1006 for details.
– Few may remember that before “Real People” and his syndicated celebrity entertainment television shows, Byron Allen was a standup comedian. Allen is showing he still has the tools Saturday at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Ind., on a bill with D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer. For tickets, call 219-769-6600 or Ticketmaster, 312-559-1212.
– All Jokes Aside (1000 S. Wabash Ave.; 312-922-0577), on Wednesday, and T.N.T. Comedy Hook (in Outriggers, 2352 E. 172nd St., Lansing; 708-418-0202), on Thursday, are the locations for the last rounds of competitions for the Miller Genuine Draft Comedy Search. The grand prize winner at the finals, May 18 at the New Regal Theatre, will receive $5,000 and a shot on HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam.” Call 312-563-6300 about entering.
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