COMEDY : Not Wacky--but Maybe a Tad Goofy

Comedian Ray Thomas, who’s headlining at Comedy Land in Huntington Beach on Friday and Saturday, describes his on-stage persona as “basically just a normal guy who’s talking about stuff we all go through.”

Like using a stick deodorant.

“If you use stick deodorant, you know what I’m talking about,” he says in his act. “You get down to the very bottom of the stick and there’s this much deodorant left on top of that little plastic thing, and instead of going and getting another stick, what do we do? We rub it just as hard as we can under our arm: ‘I’m going to get my nickel’s worth out of this. Yes I am!’ ”

And by then, Thomas says, it’s not even deodorant anymore, but “a plastic underarm plow, isn’t it? I’m pulling out my hair, I’m scraping off my skin, I’m bleeding to death-- I don’t care! . . .

“Do you ever try to get that last little bit off the top with your finger? ‘Oh, this’ll keep me all day. Yeah, this is great.’ And I used to use that roll-on deodorant, but I don’t use that anymore. Feels like a hundred people licked your underarms, doesn’t it?”

The Atlanta-born Thomas, who has appeared on “A&E;’s An Evening at the Improv” and “The Showtime Comedy Club Network,” performed his deodorant bit recently on an Oprah Winfrey show devoted to young comics.

On stage, Thomas comes across as sweet-natured and slightly goofy as he talks about such things as how people tend to stand as far away as possible from others on an elevator (he suggests standing as close to the other person as possible, taking on the look of someone who’s just flown over the cuckoo’s nest and saying, “Really crowded in here isn’t it? Move back, move back, move back! Some people . . .”)

Thomas started doing comedy seven years ago while attending a small college in Kansas City, Mo., where he had dreams of going on to play professional baseball but wound up majoring in performing arts instead.

“It’s just me,” he says of his act. “I don’t scream at the audience and I’m not that angry. I’m not wacky. I’m just a normal guy that’s got some stuff to say. I’m going through all the same things that they’re going through. Mostly, everything in my act is what has happened to me, so it is very autobiographical.”

But that’s not to say some of “normal guy” Thomas’ material isn’t just a tad tilted.

Here’s Thomas on:

* Dating: “I met a girl at my gym and we went out. We get back to her apartment and we’re starting to kiss and stuff and she stops me and says, ‘There’s something I need to tell you.’ She tells me, ‘I had an operation; I used to be a man.’

“And I’m thinking, ‘Well, that explains your Heisman Trophy.’ . . .”

* Getting up in the morning: “I’m not a morning person. You know, I wake up in the morning and there’s half of me going, (suavely) ‘Ray, get up, get motivated, take control of your life.’ . . . And there’s half of me going, (goofily) ‘Gre-e-e-e-n Acres is the place to be.’ ”

Who: Ray Thomas.

When: Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.

Where: Comedy Land in Tibbie’s Music Hall, 16360 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach.

Whereabouts: Take the Seal Beach Boulevard exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway and go west, turn left on Pacific Coast Highway. Tibbie’s Music Hall is at Peter’s Landing on the corner of Coast Highway and Anderson Street.

Wherewithal: $5.

Where to Call: (714) 979-5653.