RETAINING WALL : Audiences Beware: When You Bounce an Idea Off J.J. Wall, It’s Liable to Stick

Comedian J.J. Wall, who’s headlining at the Brea Improv this week, includes a fair chunk of material in his act on being Irish Catholic. Observations such as: Catholicism “is not one of your mellow religions. It’s more like the Marine Corps: ‘We’re right, you’re wrong, cased closed, go to hell.’ ”

But it’s not his jokes about growing up on Long Island or being the father of a 4-year-old daughter that earn Wall occasional standing ovations in comedy clubs around the country.

It’s his virtuoso closing piece, an oftentimes hilarious improvisational routine in which he asks the audience “for any bizarre or outlandish topics that you’ve never had the opportunity to hear in a song.”

We’re talking topics as diverse as “lacquered wood-grained paneling” and “strabismic matriculation,” which means, Wall explained, going through school cross-eyed.

The comedian then incorporates the audience’s eight to 12 different topics into a spontaneously created country-Western song, “Motown-style opera” or blues song. He not only makes the audience’s suggested “lyrics” rhyme, but the juxtaposition of the diverse, frequently oddball topics can be very funny.

But what’s most amazing of all is that Wall actually remembers eight to 12 different topics--in order--while continuing to talk and joke to his audience during the routine.

Explained Wall: “I always had a good short-term memory. I was like the smartest kid in school for 20 minutes each semester.”

Actually, Wall said by phone from his Hollywood home last week, he began doing the improvised song routine at parties with his best friend in high school: “He’d play piano and I’d sing. . . . We did it to meet girls, basically.”

When Wall started doing the bit in his act he would only ask for three topics from the audience. He’s now asked for as many as 17.

“What’s really interesting,” Wall said, “is that once in a while--and it happens in Brea and Irvine because there are so many computer-oriented people--you get some bizarre topics: parabolic flight vector--that was an Irvine one.”

Wall tries not to examine too closely how he’s able to pull off the routine, he said, “because it works real well. It’s really audience participation in the truest sense of the word.”

The Bronx-born Wall (the J.J. stands for John Joseph) grew up in Valley Stream, N.Y. (“a tough, shopping center town”) and began an improvisational musical-comedy group, Bullmoose Incorporated, while attending Fordham University in the Bronx. A 13-year veteran of stand-up, his credits include guest spots on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman.”

Wall, who includes various characters such as his grandfather, a drunk and a Swede in his act, describes his comedy style as “character-oriented topical improvisation; that should confuse everybody.”

In addition to observations about his personal life, he devotes about a third of his act to topical, political and social material.

He believes, for example, that the presidential candidates are nothing more than a big collection of “dweebs, muttonheads and putzes.”

“I gave Clinton every benefit of every doubt until he said, ‘I tried marijuana, but I didn’t inhale it.’ It’s like a 2-year-old saying, ‘I put the candy in my mouth, but I didn’t taste it or eat it.’ ”

As for President George Bush and the Los Angeles riots, Wall said: “I think when he vowed to stop the looters, what he did was he grounded Neil Bush. . . . But I do think he’s ushered in a new era of international diplomacy in the ‘90s. Throwing up on other countries’ leaders will be a major diplomatic policy: ‘Sign the treaty or I’ll puke on you!’ ”

Wall has phased out a successful sideline as a studio audience warm-up comic for “Cheers,” “Newhart” and other TV shows. “It’s one of those kind of gigs where you reach a point where you don’t want to do it anymore,” he said. “It’s the single most difficult performing job in the business: You try to entertain people for three hours who are there to see a TV show.”

That experience, however, helped him break into television writing: He’s currently a writer-producer on the NBC series “Blossom.” But while he’s spending more time at home writing and less time on the road, Wall has no intention of quitting stand-up.

“I can’t,” he said. “It means too much to me. For me, it’s the purest form of creative expression.”

Who: J.J. Wall.

When: Thursday, May 21, and Sunday, May 24, at 8:30 p.m.; Friday, May 22, at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, May 23, at 8 and 10:30 p.m. With John McDowell and Karen Anderson.

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

Whereabouts: Take the Lambert Road exit off the Orange (57) Freeway and go west. Turn left on State College Boulevard and right on Birch Street. The Improv is in the Brea Marketplace, across from the Brea Mall.

Wherewithal: $7 to $10.

Where to call: (714) 529-7878.