How to go
What: Dan St. Paul’s “What’s Funny After 50?”
Where: Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Drive, Fairfield
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $12-$15
More info: 513-867-5348 or www.fairfield-city.org or www.danstpaul.com
Veteran comedian Dan St. Paul has the distinction of having the most requested bit on the syndicated radio show “The Bob and Tom show.”
The bit, called “The First Baseball Game,” has St. Paul calling a ballgame between Biblical characters (Abraham lays down a sacrifice bunt, naturally) in the voice of legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster, Harry Caray. It’s a skit that follows St. Paul off the air, as well, possibly to his upcoming gig at the Fairfield Community Arts Center this weekend.
“Some people will come up to me afterward and wonder why I didn’t do the baseball bit,” St. Paul said with a chuckle. “So I end up doing it right there.”
St. Paul’s current tour, including the Fairfield stop, is called “What’s Funny After 50?” St. Paul says that includes unforeseen (and unwanted) body changes and attending concerts with this teenage children.
“My comedy has always been about what’s happening to me chronologically,” said the comedian, who lives in Foster City, Calif. “My audience tends to be baby boomers, who appreciate that material, and not a lot of comedians are talking about it. It’s a niche.”
St. Paul found relatively steady work in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing variously on “An Evening at the Improv,” VH-1, MTV and Comedy Central. It was during this period that St. Paul honed his clean style of comedy.
“The goal of every comic was to be on television, and you had to be clean to get on television,” he said. “So I just found there were more doors I could walk through by being clean, and I just got into the rhythm of writing that kind of material.”
Serendipity found St. Paul in the early 1990s. The technology boom opened up the corporate comedy market, which was an ideal outlet for St. Paul’s clean style of humor. Long-term financial security while doing the job he loved had been achieved at last.
Corporate comedy is tricky because it requires a good deal of research so the comic knows what kind of audience to expect, though St. Paul acknowledges that a joke at the chief competitor’s expense is always a lock.
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