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ITALIAN IMPRESSIONS : Rick Corso Observes the Absurdities--and Frank Sinatra--for Laffs : <i> Dennis McLellan is a staff writer for The Times Orange County Edition. </i>

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Have you ever noticed how Italian-American men love to tip?

Comedian Rick Corso, a bona fide Sinatra-loving Italian from New Jersey, has.

“They make sure you watch them,” Corso tells the club audiences, slipping into his cocky fast-talking Italian-American character: “‘Did you see that? I gave him $5. You didn’t see it? I’ll tip him again; I don’t care. I’m a big shot. I tip everybody. . . . ‘

“Italian guys will tip at a funeral: ‘Hey, buddy, could you get me up front near the body somewhere?’

”. . . We love to tip. That’s why we like to go to church. Because that collection plate comes around. You put money in the plate, it’s like tipping God. . . .”

Here’s another tip: Catch Corso at the Laff Stop in Newport Beach, where’s he performing tonight through Sunday.

Corso, 31, was a civil engineering major who worked at nuclear power plants before turning to comedy full-time eight years ago. Like many comedians, his first experience with telling jokes onstage came during an open-mike night on a friend’s dare.

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“I just fell in love with it,” Corso said in an interview. “I didn’t realize I liked it until I went up and did it. I mean, I love the idea of it: The idea of writing jokes and telling them was just great for me.”

Corso is an engaging performer who has an easygoing style that takes aim at life’s absurdities.

“I exaggerate a lot,” he said, providing an example: “Deep fried cheese. Now there’s a cardiovascular dream come true: Let’s see, the cheese doesn’t have enough fat; let’s give it a cholesterol Jacuzzi. . . . Why don’t you just put me into a Pinto and back me into a wall?”

But Corso’s talent goes beyond the telling observation. Says L.A. Weekly comedy maven Judy Brown: “Rick Corso combines fast, brief physical impressions with well-written mini-bits.” He does his gruff Uncle Frank, “the kind of guy who ruins Easter for little kids: ‘There’s no Easter Bunny because we ate him for dinner last Tuesday night.’ ”

Then there’s Corso’s sweet-talking mother, “the eternal optimist,” for whom everything is just “great”: “You lost your job? Greeeaaaat--you’ll have more free time. You found your wife with another guy? Greeeeaaaaat--she’s learning new techniques; she’s getting in shape for you.”

Corso draws on his Italian background for only a small part of his act, but he feels that by talking about his relatives and heritage “my jokes--my viewpoint about life--will come across more clearly because people know who I am.”

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As his career progresses, he says, “I’m trying to get away from impressions and do more of me, more of my viewpoint.” Still, he concedes, “people love the impression stuff. Whenever they don’t buy my viewpoint, I can fall back on that.”

Indeed, it’s like money in the bank.

Take the routine in which he casts a remake of “The Wizard of Oz.” How about the hyper Joan Rivers as Dorothy? (“Oh my God, yellow bricks! How tacky!”) Or deadpan Dustin Hoffman as Toto? (“I don’t wanna be Toto. I wanna be Dorothy. You saw ‘Tootsie’--I was Dorothy.”) Or the indefatigable Sammy Davis Jr. as the doorman to the Emerald City (“Who rang that bell, man?”).

Of course, an Italian comic from New Jersey would be remiss if he didn’t do a Sinatra impression.

In his act, Corso marvels at how Sinatra has a song for every town he visits. “He’s sings ‘New York New York,’ ‘L.A. Is My Lady,’ ‘Chicago.’ What if he works in Nashville? What does he do, sing the square dance?”

Here Corso does a pitch-perfect impression of the too-hip Chairman of the Board gone country:

“Swing your partner to and fro/Take that chick and do-si-do/Dig that cuckoo country sound/Promenade that broad around. . . .”

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Who: Rick Corso.

When: Today, 8:30 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 8, 10 and 11:45 p.m.; and Sunday, 8:30 p.m.

Where: The Laff Stop, 2122 S.E. Bristol St., Newport Beach.

Whereabouts: From the Corona del Mar Freeway, take the Irvine Avenue/Campus Drive exit onto Bristol Street and go south one block.

Wherewithal: $7 to $10.

Where to call: (714) 852-8762.

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