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J April I t,-198ti V
Arts & Entertainment
Oregon Daily Emerald . „
Jam to boost local talent
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fay Lit no, nationally-acclaimed funnyman and David Letterman sidekick, will Iw
accompanied by threit of Oregon's top-drawer comics tonight at the first Annual
Oregon Comedy /urn in the Hull Center's Silva Concert Hall. Clockwise from top
left: Dwight Slade, Leno. Mike Johnson and Robert Jenkins.
Thorn am times when one can be
stigmatized for being a “local
talent”... for example, when one is a
stand-up comic in Oregon.
For some vague reason. Oregonians
seem to assume that real comedic talent
has to come from somewhere else.
Robert Jenkins, a stand-up comedian from Portland
who recently moved to bos Angeles, says. “Certain
clubs in town (Portland) have a tendency to look down
their noses at the local talent, just because they're local
talent You know — if they were any good they’d be in
New York or I.A. That whole attitude thinking that peo
ple who come from Seattle are a little cooler, if they
come from San Francisco then they're great, and if they
come from New York it's just got to be the coolest thing
in the world.”
Dwight Slade, another Portland stand-up comic,
finds this attitude frustrating because he knows there is
quality comic talent in Oregon. And just to prove it to
everybody, he has organized the First Annual Oregon
Comedy Jam. which takes place tonight ut the Hull
Center.
Originally. Slade intended the show to feature
Oregon comedians only, lader, he decided that the
comedians would receive more exposure if the show
featured a nationally acclaimed headlining act. Fven
tually. he got hold of “bate Night With David Iarlter
man" regular Jay be no the consummate stand-up
comedian. Slade asserts.
Slade. Jenkins and Portland comedian Mike
"Boats" Johnson will open for beno’fi ono-and-a-half
hour show with 15-minute performances.
Slade. 24, has been doing stand-up routines since
he was 16. Three years ago. he moved to Portland after
a disappointing two-year stint in bos Angeles and
thought he stumbled onto a new West Coast mecca for
stand-up comics.
"In '83. what was emerging in Portland was a real
ly unique thing," Slade says. "There wus no national
or any type of comedy except the local Portland scene.
There were eight or 10 comedians who were really
dedicated to comedy as an art.... original types of
styles that were just so refreshing that it led me to
believe that the talent there was amazing."
Today. Slade no longer has an image of Portland as
a hotbed of explosive comic talent He says he hasn’t
seen even one unique stand-up comedian emerge on
the Portland circuit in two years.
Slade blames the current status of Portlnd’s com
edy scene on the changing attitudes of comedv-club
owners and audiences toward the local talent.
"(At) The Last I .angle which is the only big club
there is in Portland, local people are treated with
disregard and are forced to take the lowest price
salarywise. and also the lowest position on the bill and
the least amount of time onstage," he says.
“Back in 1983, the local comedians went given the
headline spot. That's not to say 1 don't think there’s a
market for local comedy Inith in Eugene or Portland,
because it's worked before and there’s no reason it
shouldn't work again. The problem is there's no one
who has an interest in it."
Slade hopes the Oregon Comedy |am will spark
club and audience interest in .local talent again. He
seems optimistic that the combination of Jenkins,
Johnson, and himself - the three best-known comics
on the Portland comedy circuit — will expose local au
diences to the diversity and quality of Oregon’s stand
up comedians.
Jenkins. 25, is a former hairdresser, who won last
year's Portland Stand-Up Comedy Competition. He’s
been cracking up audiences in comedy clubs
throughout the West Coast for the last two and a half
years with a demented stage persona that he calls The
Character. One Portland journalist described The
Character’s spiky-haired good looks as "a youthful ver
sion of tin? star of 'Eraserhead' on his way to the
Multnomah Athletic Club."
Johnson, 37. is a Portlander who got into stand-up
comedy three and a half years ago after his wife
challenged him to follow up on a boast he made while
slightly drunk. In 1984, he won first place in the
Portland Stand-Up Comedy Competition. l,ast year, he
was runner-up in the Seattle International Comedy
Competition.
Slade admits that one of his motives for organizing
tin; Oregon Comedy Jam was to get a chance to be
onstage with Jay Leno. one of the country’s most highly
acclaimed stand-up comics.
"From a comedian's standpoint, when 1 watch Jay
Leno I start to see definite artistic techniques coming
out that you can actually pin down," Slade says.
It seems appropriate that Leno should headline this
particular showing of struggling stand-up comedians.
He's a 10-year veteran of comedy clubs in Boston (his
hometown). New York City and Ixis Angeles. He has at
tained national recognition only in the last two years,
largely due to his regular appearances on the Letterman
show.
The story1 of Leno’s success is one of indomitable
perseryerance and love for his art. In a telephone inter
view. he asserts it was his determination to keep doing
what he loved best that got him where he is today.
“When 1 was starting out 1 used to do a lot of
kiwanis Club and every conceivable kind of job there
was (in comedy) just to get the experience.” Leno
rtnalls. “I used to go into liars, and I’d offer the owner
$50 to let me go on. And I'd tell them. 'If I did good,
give me my $50 back. If I did real bad you can keep the
fifty.' You know, in Boston there weren’t any comedy
places, it was all music. They would always say, ‘We
don’t want any comedians,’ and I’ll say. 'Well, here’s
$50.' That was always an incentive.”
And Leno almost always got his $50 back, even
when he did terribly.
You have to have a natural ability to do (stand-up
comedy)," he says, “but the real ability 1 think is the
perscrverance. It’s a matter of standing in line and hop
ing the person in front of you gets sick of it and falls out
so you can move up a bit."
Leno is certainly one of the most unique comedians
to emerge on the national scene recently, ironically so
because he is such a regular guy in a field of entertain
ment filled with even more oddballs than rock n roll.
One Chicago writer called Leno "the Bruce Springsteen
of comedy," a tag that continues to plague him.
Leno avoids using obscene, sexist, ethnic or drug
jokes and relies on lightning wit and dead-on observa
tions of the absurdities of American popular culture.
His approach to comedy, he says, is to be as natural as
possible But Leno has nothing against comedians who
adopt stage persona. "To me, if a person’s funny, then
all rules art! null and void.”
The Oregon Comedy jam will play tonight at the
Unit Center’s Silva Concert Hall at 8:00. Tickets cost
$‘», $12 anil $14. and are available at the EMU Main
Desk. Earth River Records, Everybody’s Records and
the Hujt Center box office.
Story by Patrick Low