Kirby Tepper Figures He’ll Never Run Out of Irreverence

Kirby Tepper never worries that he’ll run out of new material.

“A lot of stuff I write about came from ideas other people have had,” says the songwriter-performer, who’s currently sharing his irreverent slant on the world in “kirbysomething” at the Pasadena Playhouse’s Balcony Theatre. “I guess everyone’s gone through periods when they feel less creative. But most of the time, it seems all you have to do is look inside you or around you.”

One new song in Tepper’s act, about the god Mercury, was inspired by his brother telling him about his young nephew flapping his wings and pretending he was flying. The composer also gets a lot of mileage parodying nouvelle trends: Santa Fe decor (“all that overstuffed furniture and those big paintings of the Indian lady”) gets ribbed in “Another Cactus, Please.” There’s also “The Leaf Blower Song” and “976-LOVE,” which he describes as “a production number of one--plus a terrific percussionist.”

A Los Angeles native, Tepper, 34, has performed locally onstage in “Angry Housewives,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Nightclub Cantata,” and on Broadway in George Abbott’s revival of “On Your Toes.” As a composer-lyricist, his credits include the hit “Back Home: A Los Angeles Musical” (co-authored with Robert Schrock), “In Five,” “An Evening With Burt Reynolds” and “I Got Plans for the Rest of My Life.”

After three years performing his “stand-up cabaret” at a string of clubs around town--including the Gardenia, the Cinegrill, Cafe Largo and the Improvisation--Tepper is enjoying the readjustment to a legit theater setting. “It is more formal,” he admits. “In a cabaret, people are sitting next to you; you can see their faces, hear their laughs. In the theater, past the first three rows, you don’t really know how they’re responding. You just have to hope it’s going over well.”