Trying for the Last Laugh : Comic Jerry Miner Retools His Act, Concentrates on Writing to Survive Downturn in Stand-Up

Back in the mid-’80s, comic Jerry Miner worked the Laff Stop in Newport Beach almost every night--as a doorman.

Miner went on to become a headlining comic and an accomplished comedy writer, but the ongoing slump in the stand-up business now has him hungry for work. The comedy bust has also had its effect on the Laff Stop, which has switched its focus from comedy to topless dancing.

“That’s the place that gave me my break,” Miner, 31, said the other day. “Maybe if I trim up a little bit, they’ll give me a job as a dancer.”

Jokes aside, Miner said he is not entirely surprised by the Laff Stop’s switch. “That’s what comics were sort of becoming anyway, just people to sell drinks,” Miner said. “That’s just the way it is.”

Miner is getting some work. Tonight through Sunday, he performs with Jimmie Walker at Bruce Baum’s Comedy Crib in Fullerton. Reached by phone at his apartment in Santa Monica, Miner was candid about the difficulties he and other comics face in getting stage time as comedy clubs close and the stand-up business shrinks.

Although he can be biting about the situation (“In a way I’m kind of glad. The (lousier) comics aren’t working either.”) he comes across as more bemused than bitter. In fact, he’s says he’s done a philosophical re-evaluation of his work over the past few months, and has come to a few conclusions.

Miner has always been a clever, word-oriented comic in the style of Jerry Seinfeld or Larry Miller. But Miner says now that he has been too influenced by those comics, whom he lists as personal favorites, and he has taken to somewhat darker material, including twisted takes on childhood experiences.

There’s a new bit about Dad never letting the kids play normal fantasy games, such as, “What would you do if you found a million dollars?”

Instead, he poses his offspring the apparently not-so-hypothetical question: “What would you do if you got your girlfriend pregnant and you had to drop out of high school and you got stuck in a job you hated. . . .”

You get the picture.

“A lot of comedians don’t change their acts,” sticking with whatever made them successful, despite the changes in perspective that come with life experience, Miner said. “It’s like, if your life is a high-rise building, you went to the 40th floor but your act stayed at the 30th floor.”

Miner has also come to the realization that, although he loves being on stage, he is more likely to have a lasting career as a writer than as a performer. He has written material for other comics (his jokes have been on the “Tonight Show” eight times, although he never has) and for two cable comedy specials.

“I’ve been fighting it for 10 years, but writing is what I do best,” he said, although he has no plans to abandon the stage entirely. “I really enjoy performing. There’s no high like getting a laugh where you were planning to get a laugh.”

He recently completed a movie script and is already at work on a second, but as yet he has no literary agent. He admits that making connections is not one of his strong suits. “I’m, like, the world’s worst schmoozer,” he said. “I feel like I have three heads and I’m 6 years old.”

Miner related a story about auditioning for a sitcom, and finding he was up against Robert Pine, a supporting actor in the TV series “CHiPs,” for the part. Star-struck, he actually asked Pine for his autograph.

When he went in to read for the producers, they asked why he was grinning, and he told them. When they didn’t believe him, he showed them the signature, right there on his script. “I don’t even think they heard me (during the audition), because the whole time I think they were thinking, ‘Why did he get Robert Pine’s autograph?’ ”

Miner believes in the potential of his writing career, but wonders if he’s going to need a day job in the meantime. If the dancing gig at the Laff Stop doesn’t work out, the long-time hockey fan would like to apply for a job with the front office of the new Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

And what do you think of the name, Jerry? “If you put in the article that I want to work for the team, I love it! I love the name!”

Still, he couldn’t resist wondering how other names from the Disney canon might fit a sports team: “Why not the Old Yellers? Or the Swiss Family Robinson?”

* Jerry Miner performs with Jimmie Walker and John Griffith tonight at 8:30; tomorrow and Saturday at 8 and 10 p.m., and Sunday at 8 p.m. at Bruce Baum’s Comedy Crib, 126 W. Orangethorpe Ave., Fullerton. $8 to $10. (714) 870-4400.