ADDOTTA AT LAFF STOP : PUN-FILLED MUSIC HELPS TO BUILD COMIC’S ROUTINE

. . . I was feeling good. I even dropped a sand dollar in

The box for Jerry’s squids, for the halibut ...

Well, the place was crowded. We were packed in like sardines

They were all there to listen to the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsal. What sole!

Tommy was rocking the place with a very popular tuna--”Salmon Enchanted Evening” . . .

--from the song “Wet Dream”by Kip Addotta

Kip Addotta has been performing in comedy clubs for 14 years, but he prefers not to be pigeonholed as a stand-up comic.

In an effort to escape this tag, Addotta, who will appear today and Saturday at the Laff Stop in Newport Beach, has included an increasingly large proportion of music in his records. His best-known tune is probably “Wet Dream,” the five-minute string of marine puns that became a national novelty hit and was given substantial airplay on such Southland stations as KMET and KIIS.

Interspersed among the stand-up routines, the musical selections on his latest album, “The Comedian of the United States,” include “Wet Dream,” “White Boy Rapp,” “I’m So Miserable Without You (It’s Just Like Having You Around)” and “Big Cock-Roach,” another song that has received heavy airplay locally.

Addotta moves further in a musical direction with his forthcoming album, “Life in the Slaw Lane.” “The next one will be all music,” he said during a recent interview at his home in Marina del Rey. Addotta is now in the final stages of recording the LP, with one-time Poco member Kim Bullard serving as producer.

With a light touch, the album will address such non-laughing matters as infidelity and drunk driving in musical styles ranging from country to reggae to rock, Addotta said.

But the centerpiece of “Life in the Slaw Lane” is the title track. With a set of its lyrics freshly printed out by the Apple computer on which he writes, Addotta was eager to recite some lines from “Wet Dream’s” produce-oriented counterpart:

It was cucumber the first. Summer was over

I had just finished a long day, and I was busheled

I’m the kind of guy who works hard for his celery

And I don’t mind telling you I was feeling a little wilted

But I didn’t carrot all

‘ Cause otherwise, things were vine ...

Looking up from his printout, Addotta smiled: “And it goes on and on. When I do the pun thing, I have to do an orgy of puns.”

Of course, Addotta is hardly the first comic to dabble in pop music; this year alone, such comedians as Billy Crystal, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy have made albums that incorporate one or more forms of pop.

Addotta’s interest in music goes back to the 2 1/2 years he spent as a percussionist in a band in his native Rockford, Ill., during the late ‘60s, before he decided to pursue comedy full time.

Playing in the band “really didn’t teach me anything about being funny, but it sure taught me about timing, dynamics and rhythm,” Addotta recalled. Between songs, he’d perform brief comedy bits, mostly “because in Rockford there were no comedy stages,” he said.

Intent on expanding his comedy career, he moved to Los Angeles in 1972--the same year, not coincidentally, that “The Tonight Show” relocated from New York to Southern California. Moreover, he arrived in L.A. within two weeks of the opening of the Comedy Store. He became a regular there, and it wasn’t long before his career started to click.

He has since made countless television appearances on such programs as “The Tonight Show” and “Make Me Laugh.” He spent three years hosting the cable-TV game show, “Everything Goes,” a cross between “Hollywood Squares” and strip poker. He’s also performed at comedy nightspots and theaters across the country, as well as showrooms in Reno, Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas.

Many of his showroom gigs were openings for big-name musical acts--lucrative employment he walked away from four years ago. The problem with that kind of work is “you become ‘The guy who opened for Frank Sinatra.’ They might know your name, but they refer to you that way. Well, I have this immortality thing. I want my name to be remembered in a positive way--that’s all I ask,” he said with a grin.

Addotta feels he stands a better chance of being remembered if he mixes pop music with comedy--in his nightclub act as well as his records. “There’s quite a bit of music in the show at this point. Even without (material from) the next album, there are five songs,” he said, noting that for the Laff Stop engagement he will be accompanied by two female back-up singers.

Addotta doesn’t fancy himself as a budding pop performer, however. “I’m not abandoning the role of stand-up comedian,” he said. “But I am enhancing that role for myself, just to keep my interest up. Because once you get to the state-of-the-art in this business, you can really coast.

“I know people are gonna laugh. I mean, they’re gonna laugh for me as much as they’ll laugh for any journeyman comic. And I’ve got 5 1/2 hours of catalogued material that I can do on stage. So now what do I do? I’m 41 years old--I want to do something different . . . .”

Addotta will appear at the Laff Stop Friday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. and Saturday at 8, 10 and 11:45 p.m. For more information, call the club at (714) 852-8762.