Wayne Cotter was one of the mainstay national acts to visit Chicago frequently in the go-go comedy days of the mid-to-late 1980s and early ’90s. Back then, the sarcastically funny Cotter worked the Funny Firm, Improv, Catch a Rising Star and the Laugh Factory.
“Chicago was always especially great for me during `Comic Strip Live,’ ” says Cotter, 42, of the Fox standup comedy show that aired here on Saturday nights in prime time.
The good old days, of course, are no more. All of those clubs Cotter played have closed, and “Comic Strip Live” was canceled three years ago.
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As a result, Cotter hasn’t performed in a comedy club here in several years. But he’s been far from idle:
– Cotter is host of “Amazing America” on the Learning Channel, a lighthearted look some of the more unusual and fun aspects of American culture.
“It’s amazing how amazing America can be, because it’s an amazing American kind of place,” he cracks.
The show, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays on the Learning Channel, is “about all the quirky subcultures of America,” says Cotter, a comic since 1981. “Like the people who collect a certain type of figurine, and then like 5,000 of these people all meet in some place every year and exchange these little (figurines).”
Cotter got the job in 1996 when a previous host didn’t want to do a piece on a huge barbecue cookoff in Texas because he was a big animal rights advocate. Cotter, on the other hand, has “the diet of the average saber-tooth tiger.”
– Cotter has been doing a lot of corporate shows, including gigs for the Discovery Channel, which owns the Learning Channel, and several computer companies. The computer shows are especially gratifying for Cotter, a New York native who quit his job as an engineer for a New Jersey computer firm in ’81 to be a comedian.
“I get up in front of these technology audiences, all of these different high-tech companies, some of them you’ve never heard of,” Cotter says. “And here’s a comedian who talks their language and knows all this stuff. I can convince them that I’m not just some comedian who learned a couple of buzz words. I really, really know that stuff.
“So it’s really kind of fun, because they kind of go, `Hey, you know, I could have been this guy if I wanted to be!’ “
– Cotter has done several man-on-the-street interviews for “The Tonight Show.” “I really enjoy those kinds of things, because it’s kind of spontaneous. You don’t know which way it’s going to go. And I find that kind of thing the most fun.”
– Cotter and a partner have written a sitcom idea. As he gets involved in the process of shopping it around Hollywood, Cotter realizes how much standup means to him.
“The more I do the show business thing, the more I start to remember that I never wanted to be in show business,” Cotter says. “Some people just love the business of show business. I really just wanted to get in front of people and tell jokes.”
– The most important thing Cotter has been involved with is his son, Isaac, who was born to Cotter and his wife, Lucy, in December. Fatherhood is “unbelievable,” Cotter says, although he’s come up against some people who think having a kid is a well of new material.
“Well, that wasn’t the purpose of this,” Cotter says. “I don’t want the kid to grow up, and as soon as he become like 6 or 7 or 8 years old, starts realizing, `Hey, my dad only had me so he could have some more jokes to tell!’ “
But Cotter is an ace standup, so you know he can’t resist:
“You get the name book,” he says, “and the girls’ names, I’m sorry, but every girl’s name is just beautiful. Grifalinda and Balyana, and names you’ve never heard, even though they’re weird names.
“And then you look at the boys’ names. There’s, like, Boniface.”
Sounds like some kind of disease.
” `I’m afraid it’s your Boniface, Bob. We’re going to have to do a Bonifectomy.’ “
Wayne Cotter performs Friday and Saturday at the Funny Bone, 1504 Naper Blvd. in the Tower Crossing Shopping Center in Naperville. For show times and reservations, call 708-955-0500.
Crack a joke, sing a song
It’s a well-known fact there have to be new ways to bring audiences into comedy clubs these days other than just providing three acts and a microphone. Funseekers in Elmhurst has found a way:
“Instead of doing a late show on Friday and Saturday, we do live bands with the comedy,” says the club’s Barry Manheim. “It’s kind of unique, it’s kind of different.”
Funseekers, at 684 W. North Ave., starts its entertainment extravaganza at 8 p.m. with comedy featuring local performers (this weekend Rich Brown is the headliner).
After the standup show, at about 10 p.m. or so, the audience can stick around to see bands perform. On Friday Zircon is the top music act. Saturday’s scheduled band is female-rock cover band the Fabulous Janes. (“They’re so fabulous,” Manheim says with a straight face.)
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In coming weeks, comedy will be provided by Tim Clue, Harry “Mr. Big Stuff” Hickstein, James Wesley Jackson and others. For reservations and more details, call Funseekers at 630-993-0423.
Quick note
– His name may be John Valby, but his stage name is more intriguing: Dr. Dirty. Valby does musical parodies, the lyrics of which that can’t be printed in a family newspaper. But if you’re into that kind of thing, you can see him Friday and Saturday at Zanies-Vernon Hills (230 Hawthorn Village Commons, Vernon Hills; 847-549-6030).