When Bob Tetreault Jr. was a 15-year-old aspiring standup, he hunted around for a stage name that he thought would be more comedy-friendly. He almost fell over when he spied a commercial for a certain late-night comedy institution.
“I saw Chevy Chase doing a commercial for `Saturday Night Live,’ ” Tetreault remembers, “and he said, `I’m that zany, lovable character.’ And I said `Zany.’ That’s cool.’ So I went to school and everyone started calling me that, and the rest is history.”
When Tetreault took the stage to perform comedy for the first time, it was a national audience that was greeted by the re-christened Bob Zany on the legendary “Gong Show.”
With the name Zany, some people are obviously going to expect a nutty, kooky, goofy person trying to make them laugh — which Bob Zany is and does. “I think people have the tendency to hear Zany and they think, `Wow, that’s weird,’ ” says Zany, 36. But there could be extra expectations that audiences may have of a person who would dare have the name Zany.
“There’s always expectations of anything,” Zany says. “Saying `Bob’ really should create expectations. Bob’s a funny name. Zany just happens to add to it.”
Zany, who appears this weekend at the Funny Bone in Naperville (1504 Naper Blvd.-Tower Crossing Shopping Center; call 630-955-0500), apparently doesn’t have to worry about expectations, seeing as though he’s strutted his stuff successfully on several television comedy spotlights, including “The Tonight Show,” “Roseanne” and “The Drew Carey Show.” Even if Zany has had “moments” when he didn’t knock a set out of the ballpark, confidence still allows him to hit for a high average.
“I know what I can do and I’ve done this long enough. But I’m as good as my audience. I think any performer really is. As long as the audience is into what you’re doing, then you’re doing great. And I bat (successfully) about 98 percent, which is a lot.”
Zany touches on an interesting issue. There are some comedians who say a set is only what an audience puts into it. If a comic bombs, some believe it’s the crowd’s fault. But others think it’s a cop-out to blame an audience for the performance. If the comic is good enough, he or she can make anyone laugh.
Zany thinks “it’s a mixture of everything” when it comes to the business of making laughter.
“If you really are a comedian, you should make an audience laugh,” he explains. “But if you perform at a club that has 12 other comics before you going up, or the audience is drunk and they’ve been drinking for four hours before you go up, I think there’s factors against you already.”
Zany, who says he wanted to be a comedian because he wasn’t good at the family business of house-painting (“I have a house now . . . every time I finish painting it I realize that’s why I didn’t to it”), has several irons in the fire, including an appearance on Comedy Central’s game show “Make Me Laugh,” shopping around an interactive television game-talk show, and another possible shot on “The Tonight Show.”
He’s been nominated a second time for an American Comedy Award for best club comic. The way in which he was tabbed shows how much Zany is thought of by clubs around the country.
Club people are asked who are some of their room’s most popular comics, and from there a list is culled. Comedy Central viewers will soon be asked to phone in to vote from the finalists.
“When you think about it,” Zany says, “there’s probably, what, 5,000 comics out there? It’s kind of a big deal to be one of the five. It’s a cool thing, but like they say, it’s nice to be nominated, but I’d rather win.”
What does the award mean to an act? Zany jokes that it gets a comic “$15 a week more” in pay, but for someone who started out from “The Gong Show” to that honor, “that’s not bad.”
To plug his Funny Bone date, Bob Zany is scheduled to appear on WRCX-FM’s (103.5) radio personality Madcow Muller’s “Madcow Morning Madhouse” show Friday starting at 8 a.m. Zany’s Website is www.bobzany.com.
The standup lineup
Here’s who’s working at the comedy clubs. Current sets are scheduled to run through Sunday; all new acts begin on Thursday unless otherwise noted. Lineups are subject to change.
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– B*Cole and D’Militant are the co-headliners, and G. Willborn (the “G” stands for George) is the host, at All Jokes Aside (1000 S. Wabash Ave.; 312-922-0577) this weekend.
– Willborn and his comedian cousin Damon Williams join fellow comics Tony Sculfield and Deon Cole in their 4th annual “Capricorn Comedians Birthday Bash,” with special musical guest the S.O.S. Band. The comics will blow out the candles Saturday at the House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St., in a show in which proceeds will go to Marva Collins’ Westside Prep school. Call the House of Blues for more details at 312-923-2000.
– Former “Saturday Night Live” star Rich Hall is the special guest Friday and Saturday at Zanies, 1548 N. Wells St. (312-337-4027). Meanwhile, Chicago comic Lenny Schmidt performs this weekend at Zanies’ Mt. Prospect location, at 2200 S. Elmhurst Rd. (call 847-228-6166).
Yuks on the tube
HBO’s “Round Midnight” Friday night comedy block kicks off a new lineup at 10:30 with another season of the Emmy Award-winning “Dennis Miller Live.” The caustic standup comedian and expert ranter is scheduled to welcome comic and actress Whoopi Goldberg as the inaugural guest.
Then at 11 p.m. is the first of several fresh episodes of “HBO Half-Hour Comedy.” Talented Dave Chappelle, who also appeared in last year’s hit movie “Con Air,” opens up the series in a set taped last year at Broadway Studios in San Francisco.