COMEDY : A Vietnam Vet Takes Shots at the Gulf War

Blake Clark, who earned his stripes a decade ago with an act based on his experiences as a Vietnam veteran, no longer does much material about that war.

“But this Gulf War thing,” he says, “it’s kind of brought back an interest in things military.”

And Clark, who is headlining at the Brea Improv through Sunday, has some lingering thoughts about the hostilities in the Persian Gulf.

“During World War II,” he notes, “there were great sacrifices the citizenry had to make.” He mentions “meatless Tuesdays,” gas, flour, sugar and butter rationing. “What’s the biggest sacrifice we had to make during the Gulf War? We couldn’t check our bags curbside.

“We’re going to have great stories to tell our kids: ‘Yeah, it was terrible. We couldn’t check our bags curbside.’ ”

And how about all those victory parades for the Gulf War vets?

“One of the things we don’t realize when we’re having these guys marching in parades--it pretty much blows their whole weekend for them.”

Clark, 45, was drafted at 23 and served as an infantry lieutenant in Vietnam in 1970 and ’71. After the service, the Georgia native held a variety of jobs, including high school history teacher and football coach, before heading to Los Angeles in 1980 to get into comedy and acting.

For his first few months of doing comedy, Clark recalls, he focused on being from the South. But one night he and a group of young comedians were talking to Richard Pryor backstage at the Comedy Store, and Pryor offered some advice: “If you can learn to do comedy about the things that hurt you, or anger you, then you’re a comedian.”

What hurt and angered Clark the most was the treatment Vietnam veterans were receiving. He knew what it was like to be refused service in a restaurant, or kicked out of a bar, for being a soldier. “This was at a time when veterans were going, ‘Hey, stop blaming us for the war we didn’t start.’

“I just sort of started talking about it.” He quickly discovered that he was getting his biggest laughs with his Vietnam material. Soon, he was devoting his entire act to the subject. “All I was doing was being ‘The Vietnam Vet Comic.’ ” Eventually, “I thought, well this is sort of a one-way street here,” and he began expanding.

Now, “I talk about race relations, men and women relationships, stress--everything that has to do with life in America,” Clark says. He still mentions Vietnam, but only in passing. He’ll say: “I was born and raised in Georgia and fought in Vietnam. Which is like being punished for the same thing twice. . . . In fact, I used to have flashbacks--in Vietnam.”

He’s still following Pryor’s advice, though, still talking about the things that anger him, and there’s no lack of topics for him to rail against--like those guys on crowded freeways who leave space between their cars and the cars in front of them.

Or the hundreds of billions of dollars that go for national defense when the government could be defending America from other Americans: “Get my butt back from K mart alive! That’s what I’m worried about here!”

Clark’s delivery is a masterful blend of facial expressions, body language and his trademark gruff, drill-sergeant voice that, at times, evokes strains of Ralph Kramden at his vein-popping, apocalyptic best. Here’s Clark on a few of his favorite topics:

* PMS: “See, when I was in high school and college it was just ‘cramps.’ Then it became a ‘syndrome.’ When did this happen? I must have been out of town. . . .”

* Lack of space in the bathroom after a man gets married: “You get married, your wife backs that truck up to the front door, starts offloading all that equipment that goes into the bathroom: hair dryers, hair frizzers, hair fibrillators, hair wetters, hair moisturizers, mirrors. . . . There’s more stuff in my bathroom than NASA uses to launch the damn shuttle! I’ve got, like, 6 square inches. I got a little razor, a little bar of soap, a washrag--like a prisoner!”

* Trying to get home from work on Friday afternoon on a crowded freeway: “Do we care what the person’s other car is? Do we care what they’d rather be doing? Do we care what they have on board? No! I don’t care! Just drive your car! Hang up the phone. Drive!”

Who: Blake Clark.

When: Thursday, Nov. 21 at 8:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 22 at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 24 at 8:30 p.m.

Where: The Improv, 945 E. Birch St., Brea.

Whereabouts: Take the Lambert Road exit off the Orange Freeway and go west. Turn left onto State College Boulevard and right onto Birch Street. The Improv is in the Brea Marketplace, across from the Brea Mall.

Wherewithal: $7 to $10.

Where to Call: (714) 529-7878.