Post by Susanelizabeth28 on Jul 8, 2004 20:03:15 GMT -5
From The QC Times:
Superstar's opening act shares talent at Penguins
By David Burke
.
Tommy Drake was seen live last year by more people than any other comedian in America, including Jerry Seinfeld, Carrot Top or any of those Blue Collar Comedy Tour guys.
.
Tommy who? Exactly.
.
The 31-year-old Houston-based comic got the exposure thanks to being the opening act for Cher, in her seemingly endless farewell tour.
.
“I still remain obscure,” he said from a hotel room in Boise, Idaho. “Nobody knows who I am.”<br>.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise Here | Advertising Directory
Drake got his big break in August 2002, when Cyndi Lauper — Cher’s opening act at the time — sprained her ankle and couldn’t make a date in Dallas. A local promoter recommended him, and he was on a plane headed for Dallas. The date grew to three more. Four months later, he got a call for three months of duty, opening for Cher for 24 dates. Those dates grew to 90 last year, but he’s been called for duty again. The shows he’s doing this weekend at Penguins Comedy Club in Bettendorf are the next-to-last before he joins up with the Cher tour again for 33 more shows on the farewell tour.
.
“Every comic wants to be a rock star, and I get to experience a little bit of that. All because Cyndi Lauper sprained her ankle. I sent her a thank you note,” he said. “If I would have known (what it was like), I would have taken her out years ago.
.
(Comedian Dom Irrera opened about 10 percent of Cher’s shows last year, including her gig at The Mark of the Quad-Cities, Moline.)
.
Drake says it takes different skills to perform in comedy clubs than in arenas expecting an opening act.
.
“When you perform in a comedy club for 200, 300 people, if you do a joke and it doesn’t work you really know the joke didn’t work,” he said. “If you do a show in front of Cher for 10,000 or 15,000 and it doesn’t work, there are still 3,000 or 4,000 people laughing at it. It’s a completely different feeling, the big crowd mentality.
.
“It’s nice, because it takes the pressure off. Everything gets a good response. But you also have to stay on top of your game and pay attention to what you’re saying, because you can mess up and they’ll still laugh.”<br>.
Comedy clubs allow him to be more conversational in his approach, he said.
.
“It’s tightened me up in my act, in a good way. It made my realize when I was saying stuff that was unnecessary,” he said.
.
While in Boise, Drake said he was studying tapes of his previous arena shows to get his “Cher act” ready for a crowd.
.
The population of the Cher crowd makes the arena shows challenging as well, he said.
.
“It’s important to have a real mix, cross section for comedy to work. The Cher audience is a lot of gay men, and a lot of older married women who drag their conservative husbands to the show. Complete political opposites,” he said. “When you put them together, you really get the best of both worlds. Gay crowds are great, because they’re very loyal. Once they like you, they stay with you. They’re very forgiving. Once you win them over, you have them for the rest of the show. And they’re extremely loud at a Cher show, which helps.”<br>.
Drake, who has been married for nearly 10 years, said he’s not going to capitalize on the Cher dates for anything but to draw bigger crowds for his club shows.
.
“Every comic wants to be a draw, to sell tickets,” he said. “All I really want to do is be a club comic, do live shows, perform in comedy clubs. The goal is to be a draw, and have people buy tickets when your name is on the marquee. The way to get there is some sort of notoriety.”
.
Superstar's opening act shares talent at Penguins
By David Burke
.
Tommy Drake was seen live last year by more people than any other comedian in America, including Jerry Seinfeld, Carrot Top or any of those Blue Collar Comedy Tour guys.
.
Tommy who? Exactly.
.
The 31-year-old Houston-based comic got the exposure thanks to being the opening act for Cher, in her seemingly endless farewell tour.
.
“I still remain obscure,” he said from a hotel room in Boise, Idaho. “Nobody knows who I am.”<br>.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise Here | Advertising Directory
Drake got his big break in August 2002, when Cyndi Lauper — Cher’s opening act at the time — sprained her ankle and couldn’t make a date in Dallas. A local promoter recommended him, and he was on a plane headed for Dallas. The date grew to three more. Four months later, he got a call for three months of duty, opening for Cher for 24 dates. Those dates grew to 90 last year, but he’s been called for duty again. The shows he’s doing this weekend at Penguins Comedy Club in Bettendorf are the next-to-last before he joins up with the Cher tour again for 33 more shows on the farewell tour.
.
“Every comic wants to be a rock star, and I get to experience a little bit of that. All because Cyndi Lauper sprained her ankle. I sent her a thank you note,” he said. “If I would have known (what it was like), I would have taken her out years ago.
.
(Comedian Dom Irrera opened about 10 percent of Cher’s shows last year, including her gig at The Mark of the Quad-Cities, Moline.)
.
Drake says it takes different skills to perform in comedy clubs than in arenas expecting an opening act.
.
“When you perform in a comedy club for 200, 300 people, if you do a joke and it doesn’t work you really know the joke didn’t work,” he said. “If you do a show in front of Cher for 10,000 or 15,000 and it doesn’t work, there are still 3,000 or 4,000 people laughing at it. It’s a completely different feeling, the big crowd mentality.
.
“It’s nice, because it takes the pressure off. Everything gets a good response. But you also have to stay on top of your game and pay attention to what you’re saying, because you can mess up and they’ll still laugh.”<br>.
Comedy clubs allow him to be more conversational in his approach, he said.
.
“It’s tightened me up in my act, in a good way. It made my realize when I was saying stuff that was unnecessary,” he said.
.
While in Boise, Drake said he was studying tapes of his previous arena shows to get his “Cher act” ready for a crowd.
.
The population of the Cher crowd makes the arena shows challenging as well, he said.
.
“It’s important to have a real mix, cross section for comedy to work. The Cher audience is a lot of gay men, and a lot of older married women who drag their conservative husbands to the show. Complete political opposites,” he said. “When you put them together, you really get the best of both worlds. Gay crowds are great, because they’re very loyal. Once they like you, they stay with you. They’re very forgiving. Once you win them over, you have them for the rest of the show. And they’re extremely loud at a Cher show, which helps.”<br>.
Drake, who has been married for nearly 10 years, said he’s not going to capitalize on the Cher dates for anything but to draw bigger crowds for his club shows.
.
“Every comic wants to be a draw, to sell tickets,” he said. “All I really want to do is be a club comic, do live shows, perform in comedy clubs. The goal is to be a draw, and have people buy tickets when your name is on the marquee. The way to get there is some sort of notoriety.”
.
