COMEDY : Shock Treatment: This Guy Enjoys Stretching Out a Laugh

It came as no surprise that comedian Ron Shock had to end a trans-Atlantic chat with good friend and old crony Bill Hicks in London before he could start another conversation on the other line.

Hicks and Shock, after all, share comedy roots from the early ‘80s in Texas and have maintained a close friendship since. Both have prospered. Both are enjoying fine careers.

Yet how different their roads to success have been.

Hicks hits the stage ranting and doesn’t stop. And in a big career boost for him, a segment he taped for the “Late Show With David Letterman” on Oct. 1 was canned by censors.

Shock eschews that approach.

He prefers taking the long way home. Hold the one-liners. Hold the angry young man.

Just give him a subject and a little time, and he’ll take that subject and dissect it into little pieces until the humor finally spills out.

“Mine is more of a storytelling type of comedy,” Shock explained Tuesday from his L.A. home on 3 1/2 acres nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. “Basically, I’m more in depth, detailed. I look at things logically. The humor I do is to go from A to B to C to D, and F is the funny. I prefer to have one gigantic laugh preceded by several smaller laughs rather than a bunch of medium laughs all along.”

As an example of his style, he offers up a bit on the Bible and how it says our planet is only 6,000 years old. This makes Shock curious about where 100-million-year-old dinosaurs fit in.

“That means there are three explanations,” Shock, 52, says. “If the Bible is correct and the Earth is only 6,000 years old, that means there were no dinosaurs and museum curators have been messing with us. Or the dinosaurs were here and we never noticed them. Or a lot of people saw them but didn’t want to say anything.”

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Shock, who grew up in a series of small towns in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, got into comedy relatively late. He was 42, tired of life in the corporate world and wanted a change. He just didn’t know what he wanted to do.

The answer came in 1981 via a theater class at the University of Houston, taught by actor Hayden Rorke (Dr. Bellows on TV’s “I Dream of Jeannie”). Rorke found Shock’s personal takes on life hilarious and suggested he take a shot at comedy.

The transition from tedium to taleteller wasn’t too troublesome.

“I did a lot of speaking before I ever got into comedy,” he explained. “At one time, I was considered one of the top sales trainers in the country. I’d hire and train sales managers for large corporations. I knew how to command an audience and hold them and take them through a logical sequence so they can see the humor in it.”

At first, however, he met resistance from some club owners, who insisted that Shock didn’t have the luxury of captive audiences and that their attention spans weren’t that long.

“I’d say, ‘Yes, it is. The span is as long as the story is good.’ Some comics are so good at one-liners, but I don’t think that way. I wasn’t afraid to be me. I had enough confidence in myself that I didn’t have to do it like someone else.”

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The comic spends about 30 to 35 weeks a year on the road. He says it’s not an ideal situation, but until he can break into television (which he is trying to do), it’s his bread and butter.

“I develop real loyal followings,” he said. “I play a lot of the same places and never do the same show twice. I want to get out of clubs and into TV so I can play concerts and special events. The starving artist is never something I’ve been into.”

At this point, starving is not something he has to worry about. In fact, after the interview, he was heading out to look at the new Ford Mustang convertibles with his significant other, Ellen Herrington, whom he met about eight years ago in Baton Rouge when--in between shows, no less--he helped chase and catch three thugs who had snatched her friend’s purse.

“When I got back (late) for the second show, I was both funny and a hero,” he said in his Southwestern drawl. “What a great way to meet someone.”

Besides performing in clubs, Shock has done “The Tonight Show,” “An Evening at the Improv” and a 30-minute special, “Bad Gig Blues,” which aired on Showtime this summer and he is trying to turn into a movie script.

When Shock isn’t on stage or checking out possible TV roles, he likes listening to rock ‘n’ roll, especially the Rolling Stones and U2.

“I’m a big Stones fan. When they played their ‘Steel Wheels’ tour in Atlantic City, I called in all my chits. We were on the floor, 20 rows back, right in the middle. I can die a happy man. I’ve seen the Stones up close.”

Even his granddaughter appreciates his fanaticism.

“When I talk to her, she always starts the conversation with ‘Hello, Grandpa Ron. Rock ‘n’ roll!’ Those are hard words for an old rocker.”