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By RICH DREES Times Leader Correspondent
Friday, January 28, 2000 Page:
Jeff Pirrami is billed as the “well-rounded comic,” and he’ll tell you
why.
“I’m a big guy,” he states matter-of-factly by phone from his home
outside of Philadelphia. “I do a lot of fat jokes. I think if you can make
people laugh at yourself, they can relax, and it helps set the tone for the
show. If they’re relaxed, I can pick on them and get away with saying a lot of
stuff.”
Although a native of Buffalo, N.Y., his parents are originally from Jessup.
Pirrami didn’t make the jump into stand-up comedy until he was working in
advertising for the Trenton Times and living outside of Philadelphia.
“One night I had a dream,” he says, chuckling as his wife starts laughing
at him in the background.
“My wife hates this story,” Pirrami explains, before continuing. “I had
a dream I was doing stand-up comedy, and I woke up and wrote about 40 jokes. I
went up on stage at an open-mike night, and that was that.”
Although he would continue with his day job for a time, his first
indication that he could make a new career for himself came early on.
“I was doing comedy for about six months when I won a contest in Atlantic
City at the Comedy Stop in the Tropicana,” Pirrami says. “I won a week’s
performance at the Trop and $500.”
Pirrami has spent most of his career travelling the comedy club circuit,
even appearing several time at the comedy shows that were presented at the
former Howard Johnson’s on Kidder Street in Wilkes-Barre.
Although he has been in the business for 13 years, he’ll admit that a few
of those original 40 jokes are still in his act.
“I just make different faces when telling it,” he says tongue-in-cheek,
explaining how he keeps old material fresh. “There’s no such thing as an old
joke. A good joke is a good joke.”
More recently, his audiences have grown as he has begun opening for musical
acts such as The Temptations, Chubby Checker and The Drifters.
“The more seasoned you get, the more you’re able to work with larger
crowds,” Pirrami says. “Some of these shows, I’m working in front of a
thousand, 1,100 people. When you do a big crowd like that, you do more jokes
and slow your pace down. You have to be very simple. You’re not going to get
the same kind of laughs as you would in a 200-seater room.”
Pirrami says the one drawback to working bigger shows is the loss of
opportunity to interact with the audience as much as he does in smaller clubs.
“People will want to see who you’re picking on,” he says. “They won’t
see that way in the back row.”
IF YOU GO
WHO: Jeff Pirrami with Bradley Lowry and Joe Brian.
WHERE/WHEN: Genetti Motor Lodge, Hazleton, tonight, 454-2494; Genetti Hotel
& Convention Center, Wilkes-Barre, Saturday, 823-6152. All shows start at 8:30
p.m.
ADMISSION: $7