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Lovitz
serves up loads of laughs at the Factory
Comedy
• Jon Lovitz performs at the Laugh
Factory on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood every
Wednesday through June. The Laugh Factory
By
Austin Lewis
Online Forty-Niner
News Editor
Actor
and comedian Jon Lovitz, famous for his
five years of work on "Saturday Night
Live" and the voices he has done for
television shows such as "The Simpsons,"
kicked off his new one-man comedy show earlier
this month. Lovitz, along with a variety
of special guests, will be performing at
the Laugh Factory in Hollywood every Wednesday
night through the end of June.
Lovitz
drew big laughs throughout the night, the
first of which came when he introduced himself
as "J-Lo" at the beginning of
his set. Lovitz then went into a series
of jokes about his Jewish upbringing and
growing up in Tarzana. Throughout the rest
of the show, Lovitz's comedy covered athletes
such as Lance Armstrong and Kobe Bryant,
as well as Hitler and current events in
Iraq.
Lovitz
also joked about the 2004 presidential election,
complete with impressions of George W. Bush
and John Kerry. The material was dated,
but it still drew huge amounts of laughter
from the crowd.
A
woman in the crowd started heckling Lovitz
in the middle of a series of jokes on Bill
Clinton. Lovitz was shaken for a moment
but quickly recovered. "I don't see
your name on the marquee," he said.
"I didn't pay to listen to you."
The audience responded with a round of applause.
The
evening came to a close with Lovitz singing
and playing keyboards on a few songs with
titles such as "Bob Saget Isn't Gay."
He also wrote new lyrics to classic songs
such as The Beatles' "Hey Jude."
Lovitz
became seriously interested in comedy when
he was a teenager. "I saw the movie
‘Take the Money and Run' when I was
13, with Woody Allen," he said. "That's
what made me want to be a comedian."
"I
found some of the albums that Woody Allen
had done — stand-up," he continued.
"So I got his albums, and I used to
do those routines in my dorm." Lovitz
eventually had the opportunity to act with
Allen in 2000's "Small Time Crooks."
Lovitz
attended UC Irvine, where he built off of
the experience he gained from doing plays
in high school. "One of my professors
[in college], Ashley Carr, was a head of
the drama department for years at Cal State
Long Beach," Lovitz said. He is thankful
for the many great teachers he has had the
opportunity to learn from.
Lovitz's
weekly show at the Laugh Factory comes after
doing occasional stand-up shows with Kevin
Nealon, Victoria Jackson and Norm MacDonald
over the course of the past two years.
"I
was just too chicken to do it before, to
be honest," Lovitz said.
His
shows with the former "Saturday Night
Live" stars were between 20 and 45
minutes long, depending on whether he was
opening or co-headlining.
Lovitz
prefers stand-up to the other types of work
he's done throughout his career. "When
you're doing stand-up, you have total control
over your performance. That's why comedians
like it," he said. "Unlike just
an actor, they have a point of view of how
they're funny. That's what they've worked
on for years."
Lovitz
sees stand-up comedy as a bit of a challenge.
"For stand-up, you have to figure out
‘What's my comic persona on stage?'
I need that. I'm still learning when I'm
doing it. I wouldn't say that ‘I'm
there.'"
Lovitz
considers Jay Leno, Dana Carvey and Dennis
Miller to be among today's greatest comedians
and he understands that comedy is a learning
process.
"It's
pretty fascinating. You have to have opinions.
That's what I'm learning. It's hard because
you're dependant on yourself. You're the
only one up there. The good part is you're
the producer, the director, the writer and
the star. You don't have to get any notes,
and you can do what you want."
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