COMEDY : Johannsen Takes the Long Way to the Punch Line

Not many comedians will devote six minutes to a single subject, especially one as seemingly mundane as a toaster. Then there’s Jake Johannsen, “raconteur of weird stories about everyday life.”

Here’s the lean and lanky Johannsen, peering owlishly through wire-rimmed glasses and speaking in his quirky style--a melange of inflections, pauses and asides--on his troublesome kitchen appliance:

“My toaster just went bad. It was the automatic pop-up, right, so you’re just putting the toast in the toaster. Well, technically you don’t put toast in the toaster. I mean if I had toast I wouldn’t need the toaster. I put bread-- key ingredient of toast--into the toaster. And I don’t even have to look at the recipe anymore.”

But, getting back to the subject:

“The pop-up is broken, so I put the bread in and then I go into the other room and try to time it, you know, and put on my socks or some ‘toast-time’ task, right? Because I don’t know exactly how long it takes to make toast, uh, except that it’s definitely longer than it’s interesting to stare into a toaster. Well, for me anyway. Once the wires get orange, show’s over. . . .”

Whether it’s his toaster or his new “perma-press” shirt that mysteriously became wrinkled while hanging in the closet (“Evidently the other shirts were jealous and they roughed it up a little bit.”), Johannsen has a unique, somewhat bizarre take on life that prompted one critic to observe that he “conjures up some of the strangest imagery this side of (Gary Larson’s comic strip) ‘The Far Side.’ ”

That, combined with what another critic described as his “demented nerd-at-the-science fair delivery,” has made Johannsen a regular not only at the Irvine Improv, where he is appearing through Sunday, but on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman.”

It also has landed him his first hourlong HBO comedy special, which was taped last Saturday in Boulder, Colo., for airing later this year.

Man vs. machine is a common thread running through much of Johannsen’s act.

“I seem to have more problems with machines than I do people, but I have my share of problems with people,” the comedian said by phone from Boulder last week. As he sees it: “I think I’m kind of a guy who’s struggling to be a nice guy in a world of constant barriers.”

If anything is his trademark, Johannsen said, “it’s longer, convoluted stories. I’m talking about things that everybody can relate to and I think I have my own idea of where the problem is. I don’t feel I make them deliberately bizarre.”

Still, he conceded, “it’s more fun to imagine our problems are caused by extraterrestrials than just caused by faulty workmanship.”

The Iowa-born comedian, who won the 1986 Annual San Francisco International Stand-Up Comedy Competition, says his unusual style of delivery comes naturally.

“I think it’s a heightened version of the way I am when I’m on stage and it came from original nervousness about that situation and not only the situation of being on stage but being in a conversation when you’re the only person who’s talking: It’s abnormal. And so I think I stammer and backtrack and explain extra so that I can feel more comfortable with the whole experience.”

As for the nerd-at-the-science fair label, he says, “I think that I play a guy who is plagued with insecurities or doubts, but I don’t think of myself as a nerd in the sense of someone you’d think is incapable of functioning. . . .

“An important thing that happens in my act is I always get the job done. It’s kind of good news that you can function in the world and not be a take-charge, macho kind of guy.

“That’s my message: I want to lead all the meek people.”

Who: Jake Johannsen.

When: Thursday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 6, at 8:30 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 4, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 5, at 8 and 10:30 p.m.

Where: The Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine.

Whereabouts: In the Irvine Marketplace shopping center, across Campus Drive form UC Irvine.

Wherewithal: $7 to $10.

Where to Call: (714) 854-5455.