TALKING UP TO THE KIDS : The Cat in the Hat Is Serious About Educational, Social, Racial Issues

For a comedian, James Stephens III can be a pretty serious fellow.

Take kids. He thinks children are the future (though he has none). He wants young blacks to get an education, and his involvement starts close to the heart, with his 15 nieces and nephews.

“I always push education with them,” he said by phone Monday afternoon from Los Angeles, where he was preparing to tape a show for A&E;’s “Evening at the Improv.” “I’d take $100 in ones, and we’d go out on the lawn, and they’d answer questions. And I’d give them a dollar. A couple of them are in college, and they still like to play the game.

“I also have them write three- to five-page essays for $5. I correct them and send them back. Black kids’ writing and verbal skills aren’t up-to-date. We’re not really there. I’m realistic about a lot of things. There’s only a handful of black people in this country who are able to compete. We’re not fundamentally sound when it comes down to education. We need to compete in the world, not just in the neighborhood. . . . There’s just not enough black businesses (to support blacks).”

To help get the word out, Stephens, who spends about half the year on the road doing clubs and colleges, makes a point of calling ahead and asking owners and promoters to contact schools to let them know he’s available. Generally, he said, he does about two shows a week for schools.

“Kids are important to me,” said Stephens, who plays Fullerton’s Standing Room Only through Sunday. “It’s like my childhood. Children are real to me. These kids are going to be in government in 20 years and maybe they’ll (crack down) on drugs. I really believe that.”

And the students, it seems, believe in Stephens.

“I’ve had kids cry and come up to me after the show, saying (what I’ve talked about) is happening to them. I tell them they can talk to a counselor or let them know about the different avenues they can take.”

This son of an Air Force pilot also uses his time on the road to help battle anti-black feelings, which he experienced as a child, splitting time between Washington, D.C., and the Carolinas. He could do a lot more with his white friends in Washington, he said, than he could in the Carolinas. But there were other areas with problems too.

“I’ve gone to Iowa, where they never get a chance to reach out and touch a black person. I’m saying, ‘Hey, you don’t have to run.’ It’s little changes like that. That’s all. I’ve been blessed and have an opportunity. I make a lot more money than a lot of my old law school classmates. This is my way of giving back.”

Growing up, Stephens was around kids a lot: He is the youngest of seven children. He also had an ear for music and impressions and learned to play several instruments, including trumpet, piano, guitar and bass guitar.

With a degree in political science from Georgetown University behind him, he was working toward a law degree at Seattle’s University of Washington in the mid-’80s when he got the break that brought him to Los Angeles, where he just bought a home in Ladera Heights.

“I got a small role in Beau Bridges’ ‘Seven Hours to Judgment,’ a low-budget B movie. I was doing stand-up up there. They were looking for some black comic relief. I stood in front of Beau Bridges and told him, ‘I gotta get this part.’ It was a small role to them, but to me it was big.”

Stephens never figured he could make a living entertaining people.

“I needed something of substance, like a lawyer. Being an attorney, I was going to try to create change,” he said. Ironically, he’s found he can do the same thing as a comic.

Stephens’ act is a blend of stand-up, impersonations (including a mean Louie Armstrong and Elvis) and song parodies, all of which he is trying to incorporate into a one-man show.

“We’re making it a little more dramatic, talking a lot about serious things--social changes and things like that,” said Stephens, who continues to be the “cat in the hat” in his trademark Stetson with the brim flipped up because he likes the vaudeville effect. “Then we sum it up with the Louie Armstrong thing (‘What a Wonderful World’).”

He draws from perceptions and experiences, which he weaves into his act for laughs, while simultaneously trying to deflate myths and stereotypes. In the parody “I’m a Negro,” Stephens mentions the cultural differences among groups but also points out that people are the same.

Besides the usual cable comedy shows, Stephens also appeared in the New Line film “Talking Dirty After Dark,” and he recently finished touring with Aretha Franklin. His latest efforts focus on a sitcom (“Ruby’s Refill”) he is peddling to a network.

His work to promote self-esteem in kids and keep them off drugs is colored by his own experience.

“I never smoked, drank or did drugs in my life. My father was in an alcohol- and drug-related wreck when I was young. He went through the windshield. He was there, but he wasn’t there. You know what I mean?

“My mother was very strong. She was 35. When I was 8, she told me to get my act together or she was going to slap the black off of me,” he said, before slipping into his act and recalling that he scanned his six older siblings to see whether she had ever made good on the threat.

“Then a neighbor came over and said, ‘Slap me. I need a job.’ One guy was so black she had to hit him five times. He came back and said, ‘Hit me again. They think I’m Mexican.’ ”

Critics say this type of humor propagates stereotypes.

Stephens says hogwash.

The comedian sees such humor as a way to deal with and break down stereotypes. He also says he’s just drawing on his culture, the same as white comics. And it upsets him that he should be scolded for talking about what he knows best. His heritage. His family. His perceptions.

“I don’t agree with that. It’s a cultural difference as far as blacks or Mexicans are concerned. They live in a culture and that’s what they’ve got to talk about. Why do I say ‘black’ in my show? Because that’s how I grew up. We draw from our experiences. At the same time, it’s understood that a white comedian doesn’t have to say ‘white’ because it’s understood. If we knew each other’s culture, it would be easier to get the other’s jokes.”

Some of HBO’s “Def Jam” comics accuse Stephens of selling out.

“Because I can cross over and make white and black audiences laugh? They can only work one-dimensional. But I’m making it. ‘Def Jam’ comics . . . say (I’m not) funny. They just aren’t attuned to what they’re talking about. Robin Williams can make black people laugh. We laugh all the time. It’s all in fun. I try to write so everyone can get my stuff.”

Who: James Stephens III.

When: Today, June 30, at 8 p.m.; Friday, July 1, and Saturday, July 2, at 8 and 10:15 p.m., and Sunday, July 3, at 8 p.m.

Where: Standing Room Only, 126 W. Orangethorpe Ave., Fullerton.

Whereabouts: From the Riverside (91) Freeway, take Harbor Boulevard north, turn left onto Orangethorpe and left again into the first driveway at the Fullerton Metro Center.

Wherewithal: $8 to $10.

Where to call: (714) 870-4400.