A long list of Chicago standup comics have taken their acts to radio — Steve Harvey, George Wallace, Harry Teinowitz and Spike Manton are a just a few of those who have enjoyed varying degrees of success on radio in recent years.
Adele Givens is the latest comedian to make the transformation from the stage to the microphone, having finished up her first week this week as the new co-host with “Crazy” Howard McGee on WGCI-FM (107.5). And she realizes that if she wants to have a healthy life on the air, she has to know her role.
“Once you hit the radio you’re not a comedian; you’re a radio personality,” says Givens. “(Management) wouldn’t hire a comedian who didn’t have the skills to be a radio personality as well.”
Givens, a popular comedian here in Chicago for almost 10 years, is aware that her comic skills are what got her the gig; she also spent years sitting in with radio jocks and using those quick-witted talents and timing that comics naturally possess.
But doing comedy on the radio is light-years removed from doing comedy in a club or theater. And she says that’s how some standups fail in this particular area of entertainment.
“A lot of comedians do comedy and that’s it,” says the West Side native. “They tell jokes and they do stories. And you have to understand, it doesn’t come across the same way on the radio as it does in a live performance or in a standup forum.
“There’s a different audience, and there’s a whole different vibe there. You need to talk to people who are listening to the radio like they’re people who are listening to the radio. You don’t need to talk to them like they came to a comedy show and they paid to see this comedian do this standup. That’s not what they’re expecting and that’s not what they’re receptive to most of the time.”
The thirtysomething Givens, who works venues around the country and was a frequent guest on HBO’s “Def Comedy Jam,” admits that working on ‘GCI will be a huge adjustment. First of all, she’s on the air from 5:30 to 10 a.m. weekdays, not a particularly sexy time to be working.
Givens also dreads the fact that she’ll be leaving a husband and two kids in Kentucky: “I didn’t really want to take the kids out of school and uproot them. I just told my husband the other day that in two weeks I’ll probably being saying, `You all have got to move down here, I’ve got to get a hug!’ But we’re going to see how that works out.”
But Givens has also been giving acting a try for the last few years, including a role on HBO’s “Tracey Takes On . . .” starring comic actress Tracey Ullman.
She also discloses that CBS is highly interested in a sitcom idea she presented to them.
“I’m really proud of (my concept) because it’s my own creation. But I absolutely plan to commit 110 percent to each project,” she says. “From the history of comedians leaving Chicago radio . . . I really don’t want to do that. I honestly don’t want to disappoint the listeners in Chicago, so I’m going to do the best I can to stay on the radio.”
A BARK AND WHINNY EXTRAVAGANZA
Ian Belknap, an up-and-coming talent on the alternative comedy scene, is hosting his own show Saturdays through Dec. 11. “Ian’s Dog & Pony Show” will also feature Rose Abdoo and Dwayne Kennedy — two really funny people — as well as Adrian Danzig, Eric Ziegenhagen, Michael Martin and Mike O’Connell . . . who we figure must be funny or Belknap wouldn’t have them on his show.
The comedy, which includes standup, monologues and performance art, happens at the Lunar Cabaret, 2827 N. Lincoln Ave. For reservations, call 773-327-6666.
THE STANDUP LINEUP
Here’s who’s funny. Current sets are scheduled to run through Saturday; new acts begin on Thursday unless otherwise noted. Lineups are subject to change.
– The Funny Bone is dead; long live Comedy Comedy. The club formerly known as the Funny Bone has a new name, and the owners have been setting up comedy rooms of varying sizes at several locations within the Radisson Hotel Lisle-Naperville (3000 Warrenville Rd., Lisle). This weekend is rubbery-faced “Tonight Show” favorite Jeff Altman. For show times and reservations, call 630-955-0500.
– It’s one power-packed weekend at Zanies on Wells Street (1548 N. Wells St.; 312-337-4027), with quirky and talented Jake Johannsen on Friday and Jackie Mason — who works the club’s Vernon Hills room on Friday (230 Hawthorn Village Commons, Vernon Hills; 847-549-6030) — taking over on Saturday.
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– Adult humorist Robert Schimmel, whose blue comedy is more truthful than it is dirty, performs his first special for HBO (he’s been solo before on Showtime). “Unprotected” features material that killed audiences with laughter at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen last winter. The special premieres at 9 p.m. Saturday.