Steve White Plays With the Race Cards

Black people have no jazzy retort to racial insults because “honky” never really caught on, Steve White complains during one of his animated monologues. “You call a white person honky and he’ll laugh in your face!”

Because the 32-year-old African American comedian attended both white and black schools while growing up on Long Island, N.Y., he feels eminently qualified to comment on the prickly issue of race relations in America.

And by refusing to bow to politically correct guidelines, White, who performs tonight through Sunday at the Irvine Improv, steps on toes. He’s been labeled an Uncle Tom by some who take offense at his bits, such as the one about a proposed Las Vegas hotel and casino that would cater to the “special needs” of African Americans.

“What’s it going to be like?” asks the Los Angeles-based White in a recent phone interview. “Ring. ‘Hi, Mr. White, this is your 10 o’clock wake-up call. It’s 3 p.m. c.p. [colored people] time.’ That joke cracks black people up,” White says. “They know black people are always late.

“My whole thing is equity,” he adds. “I talk about things that deserve to be joked about, black or white. If black people screw up, I’ll tell that to their face. If [blacks] think I’m letting other people in on our secrets, well, whatever. If white people screw up, I talk about that too. I’ll tell it like it is.”

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White’s wit and incandescent smile pretty much ensure that matters never get too serious. Indeed, he jokes that he looks too friendly: “As a black man, it [stinks] because I’ve lost my ability to scare away people.”

White admits he’s trying to sort out muddled self-identity issues. The son of a junior high school principal father and a elementary schoolteacher mother, he grew up in a family that was “dysfunctional because it was so functional.”

“When somebody told me I was black when I was 13, I was like, ‘Aaaahhh!’ ” recalls White, who attended predominately white schools until the ninth grade.

A self-described “hyper” child who always clamored for attention, White was kicked out of school several times. He fell into comedy when his English teacher at Long Island’s Nassau Community College suggested that stand-up suited him better than his then-career choice--accounting. White soon hopped on stage at a local comedy club during an open-mike night, and his 15-minute prepared monologue segued into 25 more of improvisational comedy. He knew he had stumbled onto something.

As he performed in clubs all over the Northeast, White also attended college and eventually received an accounting degree from Adelphi University in New York. Diploma in hand, he turned his full attention to show business.

From the sitcom “Living Single” to the stand-up showcase “Comic Strip Live,” White has appeared on numerous television shows as a stand-up comic and actor. He has also acted in feature films, including six Spike Lee projects and the just-finished “Goosed,” starring Jennifer Tilly, Joan Rivers and Robert Klein.

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On 1992’s “Malcolm X,” White also served as Lee’s director trainee. He says he landed the job by showing a little chutzpah and determination.

“I said, ‘Spike, I want to work behind the cameras on ‘Malcolm X.’ He said, ‘Come on, you’re a comedian.’ So to show him I was serious, I went down to NYU film school. I took a summer intensive course there. I shut down my whole comedy life. I was riding my bike from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan every day. They were 14-hour days.”

Still, White says he’ll never abandon stand-up, even if his acting and directing careers blossom.

“I’ve got to do stand-up,” he insists. “Stand-up gives you the pulse of society immediately. You don’t have to wait six months for a film to be edited. It’s you, a microphone and people. You [stink], they tell you. You find out what’s going on and how people feel right away.”

* Steve White appears tonight through Sunday at the Irvine Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Suite 138. Wednesday-Thursday., 8:30 p.m. $10; Friday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. $12; Saturday, 8 and 10:30 p.m. $12; Sunday, 8 p.m. $10. (714) 854-5455.