No Questions When Cho’s in Charge

Just when the stand-up comic has his nightclub audience in hysterics, the servers begin to deliver the checks. Suddenly, the electricity sputters as distracted patrons dig into wallets or discuss who owes what.

When the inevitable happens, Henry Cho, who performs at the Irvine Improv from Thursday through Sunday, likes to take questions from the crowd.

“You have about a five-minute period where you don’t have the whole crowd anymore,” explains Cho, 36, in a phone interview from Sacramento, where he performed last weekend. “I used to just do jokes, and then I thought, ‘Why am I burning my good material when no one’s listening?’ Also, it lets me ad lib.”

A Bill Cosby- and Bob Newhart-influenced storyteller, Cho comes across on stage as a chummy Everyman. Still, that trademark leisurely pace doesn’t work for TV appearances.

“When I do ‘The Tonight Show,’ I have to make a conscious effort to write jokes because some of my stories are five minutes long,” Cho says. “With ‘The Tonight Show,’ if people aren’t buying that one topic, I’m sunk. You have to have a few different ones.”

He first found his way to the stage in 1986 while a student at the University of Tennessee. Despite zero experience, he placed second in a comedy contest sponsored by the Showtime Network, then joined the club circuit.

Early in his career, Cho would spend the first five minutes of his act talking about what it was like to grow up as a second-generation Korean American in Tennessee: ‘Y’all remember playing Army when you were a kid? I pretty much hated the game. All my buddies would go, ‘OK, it’s the neighborhood against you.’ ”

Instead of expanding on the ethnic theme, however, Cho scaled back on it, eager to diversify his act.

Working his way out to Los Angeles, Cho landed guest roles on such sitcoms as “Designing Women” and played an Elvis Presley impersonator in the TV movie “Nerds III: The Next Generation.” Most recently, he appeared in the feature film “McHale’s Navy.”

Today, Cho spends his time off on a 62-acre farm outside of Nashville. “I always had that Ben Cartwright in me ever since watching ‘Bonanza’ as a little kid,” he says. “I always identified with Little Joe. I have a wrap-around porch, and I look out, and as far as I can see in a couple of directions is mine.”

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Only a quality role in a sitcom would lure him back, Cho says. His success in stand-up allows him to choose only those roles he finds worthy and non-stereotypical.

“I walked into this audition for this show called ‘Down Home,’ and they wanted me to do broken English,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe it. So I didn’t do it.”

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