The Jury Isn’t Out Any Longer on ‘Night Court’s’ Joleen Lutz

Don’t ask “Night Court’s” newest cast member about Michael Jordan.

Joleen Lutz did get her start as a Chicago Bulls cheerleader, but “the wives really didn’t want us around,” the Illinois-born actress-comedian recalls. “We couldn’t talk to (the players) at all or else we’d be cut.

“Too bad,” she trills, sounding just like the ditzy court reporter she plays on TV.

Courtside dancing led to acting, and acting led to L.A., where the gamine-faced actress was promptly typecast. “My agent will try and get me in (for a part) and they’ll say, ‘Oh yeah . . . that high-energy silly stuff.’ But having to fight against that is better than fighting against no name at all.”

As a child, Lutz used humor for self-protection. “I went through a lot of stuff,” she says. “I had an abusive, alcoholic (father who) . . . drank and beat-up my mom and took her money.”

That childhood pain gets transformed in stand-up comedy. “I took all the problems that came into my life and made a joke about them, and I could live with them that way.”

Though she’s married (her Victorian-themed ceremony last year was photographed for Brides magazine), past failed relationships are still a focus of her stage act. A sample: “I was putting too much attention on, like, stupid things like looks and money; now I’m lied to, cheated on and stood up by ugly guys who can’t afford to take me out.”

She’ll be doing that act Jan . 12 at the Ice House in Pasadena.