COMEDY REVIEW : Grier Gives a Glimpse of His Comedic Talent

Cast member David Alan Grier is almost singlehandedly responsible for making the Fox network’s “In Living Color” the funniest sketch-comedy series on television. Since the Sunday night program’s debut a couple of years ago, Grier has introduced viewers to a corps of diverse, hilarious characters whose appearances are guaranteed highlights of any given half-hour segment.

Grier renders memorable such oddities as the obnoxious, untalented entertainer, Cephus Mayweather; the self-important, bullhorn-wielding high-school hall monitor, Mr. Macaphee; the tres effeminate popular-arts critic, Antoine Merriweather, and the fast-talking, show-biz con man, B.S. Brother Clavell of “Funky Finger Productions.” He imparts to each the motives, idiosyncratic tics, facial expressions, and speech patterns of a fully dimensional persona.

But because sketch comedy is very different from standup comedy, the announcement that Grier would be performing last Friday night at UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium gave one reason to wonder not only what kind of act he would do, but also how Grier would hold up under the scrutiny of a live audience.

Apparently, Grier wondered, too, because at the 11th hour, he insisted that a program that had advertised him as the headliner be reversed, so that he would open for comedian Jamie Foxx, a lesser cast member on “In Living Color” with nowhere near Grier’s talent or name recognition. According to sources, Grier--a classically trained actor who never planned for a career in comedy and initially resisted the invitation to join “In Living Color”--didn’t have sufficient confidence in his solo act to close the show.

This was a case of misplaced anxiety. From the moment he took the stage at 8:20 p.m., to his closing bit a too-brief 45 minutes later, the man enjoyed an easy rapport with a near-capacity, mostly white crowd that rewarded his every whim.

The only justification for Grier’s self-doubts was the fact that most of his standup material would prove to be generic, observational stuff dispensed in modular chunks. Perhaps owing to a current schedule that has him flying back and forth between L.A. (where they tape “In Living Color”) and New York (where he is filming “Boomerang” with Eddie Murphy), Grier hasn’t knitted his ideas into the coherent, linear, crescendoing routine one expects of an established performer.

Puzzling, too, and no doubt of considerable disappointment to fans who know him only from the television show, was the fact that he left most of his popular characterizations in the wings, to concentrate on funny but less-original material of a mildly scatological or sexual nature.

Nonetheless, Grier earned big laughs Friday night by summoning his acting skills and facial expressiveness to bulk up his delivery. Being on a college campus prompted an early bit that went over well.

“You might not know that I went to UCLA,” he said. “That’s the University of Calhoun in Lower Alabama. They have a great cosmetology program there. But why is it that as soon as you get to college, everyone wants to know what your major is?

“College, huh?” he intones in an authoritarian voice. “Well, what are you majoring in?” Here Grier borrows the furrowed-brow expression of one of his minor “In Living Color” characters, a schizophrenic customer in a funky diner who is prone to sudden, nonsensical outbursts. “I’m, uh, majoring in, uh--thermo-nucular globular physics!”

Grier remembered being saddled with several bizarre roommates in college.

“This one roommate was one of those white guys who knows every single, trivial fact about black people--sort of a Negro-ologist,” he said to scattered laughs of recognition. “He’d come up to me, ‘Say, man, did you know that Malcolm X’s nickname was Chicago Red?’ ‘No, I didn’t know that, Mbutu Epstein.’ ”

Staying the observational course, Grier shared humorous thoughts about the Olympics, the Jenny Craig diet program that his wife is on, and boxer Mike Tyson.

“Say, what is wrong with homeboy?” Grier asked with mock concern. “Tyson’s going around grabbing every booty in the world. This man makes enough money to have a booty custom-built!”

One of his show’s strengths was Grier’s ability to deal in a non-exclusive manner with subjects specifically pertinent to African-Americans.

“I went home to Detroit recently,” he said, at which point he was interrupted by a small island of applause. “ Please ,” he countered, staring down the culprits. “You ain’t never been to Detroit, homey, or you wouldn’t be clapping.

“Anyway, I went home for a couple of days, and it only took me five minutes to remember why I left in the first place.

“For one thing, you discover that all your friends have changed. I ran into this guy I grew up with, and the man had gotten very religious. I had to be careful with what I said, you know. I go, ‘Hey, you want a stick of gum?’ ” Grier’s face, body, and voice come alive with the sing-song fervor of a Pentecostal preacher. “ ‘I don’t neeeeeed no gum! I just chew Jesus!’ ”

Another former chum had become a professional protester.

“This guy’s always finding a way to turn something into a black issue,” he said. “I found him picketing this place and I asked him what was going on.”

“ ‘I’m protestin’ chocolate-chip ice cream,’ ” the man replied angrily. “ ‘How come those chocolate pieces so small? And surrounded by all that white!’ ”

Without question, Grier earned his loudest ovation of the evening when he invoked one of his regular “In Living Color” characters, the elderly blues singer, Calhoun Tubbs. Seated on a stool and cradling a guitar, Grier/Tubbs broke into the eager-to-please bray of the street-musician stereotype he concocted from parts of real people he’d seen in Detroit.

“I’m Calhoun Tubbs,” he declared with a broad smile. “I’m 75 years old and I’m still tryin’ to make it! Wrote a song ‘bout it--like to hear it? Here it goes.”

Grier strums a rudimentary pattern on the guitar and sings in a nasally whine.

“I’m 75 years old, and I’m still tryin’ to make it . . . ah-haaaa. Thank you very much!”

Grier, of course, already has “made it,” but the response to his only call-back of a familiar television character demonstrated that his standup routine would benefit from less reliance on common observances and a greater incorporation of these eccentric gems. They are what make him one of the funniest performers in the business.