When Comedy Isn’t Very Pretty : Crowd Supports Annual Fund-Raiser Despite Skimpy Sets

The fine intentions and good works behind last week’s American Comedy Festival indicate an unimpeachable generosity of spirit among participating performers. Unfortunately, during the closing night’s gala comedy concert at the Universal Amphitheater Sunday night, the laughs were just a little on the skimpy side.

The three-hour extravaganza offered only a few flashes of truly sparkling comedy, although the loose festive atmosphere that prevailed ensured enough fun moments to satisfy a supportive crowd.

The festival was staged to mark the 10th anniversary of Comic Relief. To date, that laudable organization has helped ease the pain of the nation’s homeless by raising more than $35 million, primarily through its annual star-studded telecasts on HBO.

This year’s fund-raising effort featured five nights of varied comedic entertainment at Universal CityWalk and will culminate with the broadcast of Sunday night’s show on ABC in May.

The evening got off to a literal bang with the Blues Brothers--Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman and Jim Belushi--driving through a faux concrete wall in a police car. The Brothers’ premise hasn’t aged all that gracefully but, a few stilted line readings aside, the three did manage to kick up the room’s energy level.

The show was organized as a survey of various forms of comedy, with sections devoted to impressionists, ventriloquists, stand-ups, comic writers, improv players, young comics and more. There were also a couple of not-so-comedic musical interludes featuring performers from the Broadway revue “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.”

It may be early in the campaign season, but impressionist Jim Morris scored some big laughs by expertly bringing to life the participants of a “Meet the Candidates” debate. His Bill Clinton excelled at blithe double-talk, while his Bob Dole crankily insisted that he’s young “in dog years.” And his exceptionally loopy Ross Perot began speaking about the economy and quickly derailed into inane Moody Blues lyrics.

Political issues received further tweaking when Al Franken appeared to read from his current bestseller, “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.” In his trademark deadpan style, Franken pointed out that the budget problems with Medicare and at NASA could be solved if the country began firing the elderly into space.

Richard Belzer and Gilbert Gottfried became a comedy duo for the evening, with Gottfried perching on Belzer’s knee to serve as his dummy. The jokes were corny and, Belzer admitted, under-rehearsed, but the sight of the black-clad, impeccably cool Belzer trying to rein in the absurdly frantic Gottfried was a show highlight.

The Golden Age of comedy came to the stage in the person of Steve Allen. Allen, who has been an outspoken advocate for the embrace of more wholesome material in comedy, began his routine with a rather dark and sour line: “I’m on my way to a benefit for Tempura House--a home for lightly battered women.” He also made the odd decision to poke fun at the redundancy of rock lyrics by recycling one of his own bits: reading the lyrics--in this case the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”--as if they were epic poetry.

Talents who might have contributed powerful laughs were sometimes given little to do--Bobcat Goldthwait, Lily Tomlin and Arsenio Hall were used to introduce others’ segments rather than as performers themselves. So it was that a pair of the youngest performers had the strongest sets of the night.

Caroline Rhea hit the stage with plenty of peppy stage presence and some devilishly twisted punch lines. She said that, as a working comic, she is glad not to be going out on any more job interviews at which she’d explain her “reasons for leaving last job” with “I found that after I was fired there was a lot of tension.” She was also delighted to have a loving boyfriend who calls her “Cuti--short for chronic urinary tract infection.”

Dane Cook made more use of the space on stage than any other performer, leaping about in imitation of the “Star Search” junior dance competition, sashaying to demonstrate the “ ‘Silence of the Lambs’ pee-pee tuck” and bouncing wildly as he recalled how his childhood Speak’n’Spell actually taught him to speak like Satan. He also recalled what it was like to grow up in a house with five sisters--”I used to wear tampons just to fit in. I didn’t get noogies--I got makeovers.”

Comedy and charity aren’t a natural blend, but this show had a breezy, open quality that got its message of caring across without slipping into maudlin self-righteousness. Performers all donated their time and generally seemed to enjoy being a part of the proceedings, though some weren’t so quick to slap themselves on the back. Goldthwait, introducing a pyrotechnic act, said, “I don’t know what I’m doing here, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with community service” and proceeded to recount his misadventures setting fire to Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” set.

It’s worth noting that the evening’s biggest laughs and warmest applause were garnered not by a professional funny person but by a beefy audience member who went to the stage as part of ventriloquist Ron Lucas’ act. After being told by production staff that he needed to turn his “X-Files” T-shirt inside out so as not to inadvertently endorse the Fox program when the show is televised, the game fellow was promptly turned into a human dummy with a mouth-mask that Lucas controlled.

As the man belted out “When You’re Smiling” with Lucas’ voice and his own choreography, he won the evening’s only standing ovation. Whenever there was a dull moment the rest of the night, it was his name the audience called out.