Comedy Review : Rocky Develops Sharper Punches, Wider Reach

Go ahead, Rocky, raise your hands over your head and take a victory lap around the ring. You’ve earned it.

A couple of years ago, Rocky LaPorte was little more than a one-trick pony, relying heavily on his blue-collar roots and connecting mainly with blue-collar audiences. Too many of his punch lines were basic and predictable.

On Tuesday night at the Irvine Improv, however, the Brooklyn-born comic showed in his 45-minute set that he has moved to the next level. He’s still Rocky LaPorte, former boxer and truck driver, but now he has a wider reach. His observations are becoming sharper, more universal. You could almost call him sly.

Much of his material now belies his demeanor.

With a delivery steeped in heavy, slow Brooklyn-ese, LaPorte, wearing an unbuttoned gray shirt over his trademark white T-shirt, came across as a lovable lunk with a casual, relaxed delivery and a penchant for callbacks. (How many times he punctuated a line with “So there I was, lying in the hospital” is anybody’s guess.) And he liberally tossed around “you know what I’m sayin’?”

Gone are the heavy-handed jabs, replaced by lighter, more thoughtful strikes.

In one bit, LaPorte reacts to the news that his daughter is developing breasts: “Hey, tell her no. . . . I don’t want those things in the house.” Or when his 6-year-old daughter wants to play grown-up. “OK,” LaPorte tells her. “I’ll drive. You tell me how.” To get a full sense of LaPorte’s delivery, think of Sylvester Stallone going for laughs.

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The Fullerton resident has refined his wordplay, including when he read a woman’s mind.

“I’m telescopic or something. I’ve got STP or something.” (He does not, of course, pronounce the H’s or ending G’s.)

Though he has added depth to the show, he has kept his self-deprecating, simple look at life, with a persona that lets him get away with lines that would just hang lifeless in midair for some comics. For example, he’s discussing his sensitive side as he listens to his wife, who’s feeling empty inside.

“Get a pizza,” he advises bluntly, pausing before the clincher: “That’s how I got this scar on my forehead.”

LaPorte got his start in comedy when he was living in Chicago and driving an 18-wheeler. When an idea would hit, he would pull over and jot it down. After a while, he had enough material to start doing open-mike nights.

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In 1990, just two years into his stand-up career, LaPorte beat out 1,600 contestants to win $10,000 in the Johnnie Walker National Comedy Search. Since then, he has also appeared on countless comedy showcases. He also did a guest appearance on “Cheers” a few years back, playing a construction worker.

At Tuesday’s show, it would’ve been helpful to see LaPorte mine his pieces a bit longer. He tends to touch on topics and move on quickly, without developing his observations. Late in the show, for instance, he set up a great premise with this line about his kids: “They told me they liked animals. I took ‘em to the track.” But instead of working it, he tacked on just a couple more thoughts and moved on.

Shifting from topic to topic tends to produce lulls as audiences gear down, waiting for the next laughs. Comics such as Richard Jeni and Jake Johannsen can keep fans with them continuously by talking longer about fewer things.

For the most part, though, LaPorte’s performance was years ahead of his old game, with more polish, better material and well-placed chestnuts, including his classic run-in with a sea gull with an attitude.

“The thing flipped me the wing.”

* Rocky LaPorte continues at the Irvine Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine. Performances are tonight at 8:30 p.m. and Friday at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. $7-$10. (714) 854-5455.