You just think Jay Leno’s funny

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, February 9, 2005

But somebody had to write his jokes for him, and Jim Brogan was that fellow.

Frank Buxton’s birthday bash is a theater bonanza.

To celebrate his 75th, Buxton and wife Cynthia Sears are sponsoring performances by global-flavored music group Willie and Lobo, together with renowned comedian Jim Brogan, with two shows to benefit Bainbridge Performing Arts.

“I’m really thanking Frank and Cynthia,” BPA managing director Per Sherwin said. “Without their help and wanting to share with the community, we wouldn’t get the opportunity to see such a world-class group in a 240-seat intimate theater. We wouldn’t be able to do it.”

That the Bainbridge actor dedicates his birthday to a theater venue may come as no surprise to islanders familiar with Buxton and Sears – a duo known for their support of numerous island arts organizations.

There’s a personal payoff for Buxton, as well; the event reunites him with an old friend.

Sears and Buxton first heard Willie Royal’s gypsy violin and Wolfgang “Lobo” Fink’s flamenco guitar on a recent trip to Mexico, but Jim Brogan is a friend of 20 years standing.

“It feels good to have him here for this show,” Buxton said. “It feels wonderful to know that after 20 years we’re still cookin’.”

Buxton and Brogan met in Los Angeles when Buxton asked the comic and head writer for Jay Leno’s “Tonight” TV show to help raise funds to fight violence against women.

Sears, Buxton and Brogan “did lunch,” and Buxton explained his vision.

“We came up with the idea of a ‘Comedy Night at the Comedy Store,’” Buxton said. “Jim Brogan was really there for us. He emceed and lined up such people as Jerry Seinfeld, Elayne Boosler, Tyne Daley, Louie Anderson, Rita Rudner and Mike Farrell.”

And, Buxton notes, the evening was a smash – and without making women, gays or any ethnic or racial group the butt of the jokes.

The notion of high class humor is close to the heart of the funnyman who, early on, decided to go for laughs without smut.

“I grew up looking at comedy on TV during the ‘60s,” he said. “That’s when there were just three networks and what they showed was mostly clean. I thought that’s what comedy was.

“Besides, I wouldn’t want to embarrass my mother if she was in the audience.”

Born in Boston and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Brogan – not particularly athletic or scholarly by his own account – carved out a niche as high school class clown.

After studying sociology at Indiana’s University of Notre Dame, he moved to New York in the mid-1970s.

He made the rent working a variety of “day jobs” and gravitated to the comedy clubs at night.

Brogan soon found his way onto the stage of Catch a Rising Star, a legendary club featuring an open mic, a venue where comics-in-training honed their art – and sometimes had their egos whittled in the process.

“It was the most terrifying thing,” said Brogan, speaking from his home in Los Angeles. “I’d never been onstage before. I did an impression of a priest at Notre Dame, which had been funny at Notre Dame.

“I bombed so bad. It was so painful and horrible.”

When Brogan tried the same routine in another venue and failed again he began to rework the material.

As the routines improved, so did the response – although the same could still draw laughs one night and silence the next.

After paying dues in the clubs for four years, Brogan got a break; Jack Rollins, a comedy manager with a stellar list of clients that included Woody Allen, Dick Cavett and Robert Klein, stepped in to mentor the young comic.

By the early 1980s, Brogan gained enough notice to be invited to appear on “Late Night with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show” starring Johnny Carson.

Brogan recalls that he followed talk show host Dick Cavett, a witty and erudite man Brogan much admired.

It was a career high point, Brogan says, to have Cavett enthusiastically applauding for him.

Brogan began to write for guests slated to appear on Tonight.

“I helped a lot of friends of mine,” he said, “and Jay (Leno) would ask me for help when he was hosting and it turned into a job.”

Brogan was head writer for Leno for nine years and also appeared on camera himself, hosting such comedy shows as Showtime’s “Laffathon” and Fox Channel’s “Comic Strip Live.”

Since leaving Leno, he has penned movies, been creative consultant to a Broadway production and continued performing live. Now the seasoned comic, Brogan has learned to read his audience.

“You know in the first joke how the audience is responding,” he said. “It doesn’t take longer than that.”

And, he has learned to draw on his own experience for humor.

“Good comics are the ones who reveal themselves,” he said. “The more naked emotionally, the better the comedy.”

* * * * *

Har har har

Willie and Lobo, with comedian Jim Brogan, appear Feb. 12-13 at the Playhouse. The Saturday performance is sold out, but tickets are still available for the 2 p.m. Feb. 13 show. Tickets are $20 per person, and may be charged by phone at 842-8569 or purchased online at www.theplayhouse.org. All proceeds from this family-friendly event go to Bainbridge Performing Arts programs.