By Karen Wolitzer
And I can say I'm honestly not sure how much of what he said was true, and how much was just for laughs but he said it all so matter-of-factl it made me wonder.
Why would your parents force you to become a stand-up comedian? I asked naively. I'm kidding! he replied...and that's how my conversation with comedian Dom Irrera began.
Dom started out as an actor in children's theater in college. His big break came when he won on Star Search. And he's best known for saying badda-boom, badda-bing and forget about it way before The Sopranos ever came along. It was my way of mimicking the neighborhood that I was from, in Philly, he explains.
He's the voice of Ernie, the demolition guy, on the cartoon Hey Arnold. And he's made guest appearances on many sitcoms, including Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Drew Carey Show.
They were all fun. I didn't even realize what a big deal Seinfeld' was when I was on the show, he admits.
So, is there a sitcom in his future? He wouldn't turn it down, but it's not something that he thinks about often. It's a shot in the dark, he says.
Besides, he's still having fun as a stand-up comedian. His parents may not have forced him to do it, but it is something that he always wanted to do. I was driven to it, he says. I was the class entertainer in school. Not the class clown he never used any props or wigs...and he still doesn't.
But his act has changed a lot over the years. I don't want to do the same act all the time, he says. People come back because they know they'll see new stuff 15 to 20 minutes of different material. Of course, there are some things that everyone expects. They ask me to do Big Petey, Little Petey, Regular Petey. And they want me to do Joey Bag of Donuts that's one of the most popular requests.
They like me to say badda-boom, badda-bing, but I don't like to do that, because now it seems like I'm ripping off The Sopranos.
Of course, we know that that's just not the case. As a matter of fact, WKTU's Goumba Johnny refers to Irrera as the Godfather of Italian Comedy, and you can see both of them on Friday, May 24 or Saturday, May 25 at The Brokerage Comedy Club in Bellmore.
Goumba Johnny and I planned on doing this together, Dom explains. If I'm going to come to New York, I may as well hang with someone I like. He's a good act and it's fun to see him.
And I love The Brokerage Club! Long Island is my favorite place to go. I started out working at The Brokerage Club, almost twenty years ago, on Thursday nights for $75. It's a great crew. My girlfriend likes to come with me, because she loves it there. Afterwards, we go to the bar across the street, play pool, get drunk and have fun.
Goumba Johnny agrees, The Brokerage Club is one of my favorite clubs it's like doing comedy in my living room, he says with a smile. And I love working with Dom. He's an idol of mine. He's had six HBO specials. He's a tremendous performer and a tremendous writer. I look up to him and I should. His accomplishments and his talent are worthy of that. He's a great guy.
Johnny's road to becoming a DJ and stand-up comedian was a circuitous one. I went to school to become a teacher, he explains. I did well in football and got signed as a free agent with The Jets and The Giants and got to go to camp with both teams. It was a great experience to put on those uniforms. But I got hurt both times in camp and never actually played for either team.
After that I kicked around for a while and did some construction. Then I became a bodyguard for celebrities and corporate clients. In the 80s I managed a comedy club in Yonkers. One day I got pushed on stage and kind of got addicted to stand-up.
At the same time I started writing comedy and doing voices at Z100. I stopped doing comedy in the early 90s to run Scores in Manhattan, then was hired to write comedy at WKTU, in 1996, and stuck around.
The great thing about stand-up is having an audience right in front of me. I can see what's working and what's not and I have the instant gratification of the laughs. On the radio, I may be talking to a million people but I can only see four or five of them.
In addition to the joy of hearing people laugh, Goumba Johnny loves meeting his fans. I'm on the radio 260 days a year I have daily contact with them. So, they don't consider me a celebrity; they consider me their friend. Of course, since they only hear me, they create a picture of me in their minds, and when they do see me, they say things like 'Johnny, I expected you to be fatter.' Or Johnny, how come you're not bald?' It's funny they're all so nice.
As are Johnny and Dom as a matter of fact, when I asked Dom what else people should know about him...he said, that I'm very down-to-earth. He may have been kidding around but this time I'm sue he was telling the truth.
The Brokerage Comedy Club
May 24 and 25
8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
2797 Merrick Road, Bellmore
(516) 785-8655
