There are those who think it’s cool to sniff to people how they don’t watch television. But without the medium, comic Mike Toomey wouldn’t have had such a long-lasting career.
When Toomey, who was raised in Carol Stream, first stepped onto the stage of a comedy club in January 1982, there wasn’t a whole lot he could talk about — except television — to a crowd that, for the most part, was years older than him.
“When I first started out in comedy, (TV) was my entire act,” says Toomey, now 35. “When I started doing standup I was only 18, and you don’t have a whole lot of life experience to relate to an audience when you’re 18. So that was kind of my crutch.”
During the course of his career, talking about television shows became Toomey’s signature routine, just like some comics make social issues or observations on everyday life their trademark material. “That’s my vehicle,” he says. “I think everyone has one good show in them . . . one subject that they can go on about forever. And I think that’s mine.
As Toomey got older, his comedy became less dependent on television, although it was still part of his act. But some younger audiences, unless they have Nick at Nite on cable, can’t relate to who Lucille Ball or Adam (Batman) West were.
It was an irony: The medium that allowed Toomey to relate to audiences in the past was endangering the comic’s ability to relate to audiences of the present.
And yet, Toomey had all of this TV material just sitting there. And then he got the idea: Compartmentalize it into one extravaganza. And so, “TV & Me: Confessions of a Vidiot Savant” was born.
The one-man show is a 75-minute meditation on television that Toomey is performing for three days starting Sunday at the Funny Bone comedy club, 1504 Naper Blvd. in the Tower Crossing Shopping Center in Naperville (call 630-955-0500 for more details).
The show’s interesting premise has Toomey giving audience members TV Guides featuring shows from the 1950s on up that he will talk about during the performance. He then selects one person to be a living remote control, and that audience member chooses series that Toomey then riffs on.
“It’s kind of like one person’s choices,” Toomey says, “if you were home all day and you had nothing to do but watch TV.” And during the course of the show, Toomey relates how each show affected his life in some way.
“TV & Me,” which will also see Toomey performing impressions of some of his favorite stars, including a dead-on Adam West, is directed by Chicago comic Tim Clue, with fellow comedian John DaCosse providing recorded TV themes and related sound effects.
Giggles and party hats
The grand tradition of ringing out the old and laughing in the new will be in full force in the Chicago area on Wednesday, with various outlets throwing festive New Year’s Eve parties. We have a sample here of places that are closing out 1997 with merriment:
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– Lea DeLaria, the first openly gay comedian to appear on “The Arsenio Hall Show,” is part of a celebration presented by LesBiGay Radio. The show, which also features music by the Vanessa Davis Band, starts at 8 p.m. at the Athenaeum Theater, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Call 312-902-1500 for more information.
– All four Zanies clubs will be kicking it Wednesday: The Chicago club (1548 N. Wells St.; 312-337-4027) features past A&E’s “Straight Dope” host Mike Lukas and comic-musician Skip Griparis; at the Mt. Prospect room (2200 S. Elmhurst Rd.; 847-228-6166) is Tom Rhodes, caustic social commentator and former star of the NBC comedy “Mr. Rhodes”; Zanies-Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles (630-513-1761) features rock ‘n’ roll comic-magician Paul Kozak; and Blake Clark, a comedian who plays the hardware store-owning buddy of Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) on ABC’s “Home Improvement,” is appearing at Zanies’ Vernon Hills room (230 Hawthorn Village Commons; 847-549-6030.)
– Comic Caryn Bark, whose impressive one-woman show “Diary of a Skokie Girl” has been a long-running hit for years at various venues, offers an early evening dinner show and a late show with dessert at Michael’s Red Hot Cabaret, 1879 2nd St., Highland Park. For other details, call the box office at 847-432-3380.