Patience Is a Virtue for Comics-to-Be

“If I wanted to start as a comic now, I couldn’t go through it again. Too many people are trying to make it.”

After six years of effort, Bill Fox feels that he is on solid footing at last. The Woodland Hills comedian is a regular for the Improv, performing two or three times a week at the Hollywood or Sherman Oaks clubs.

The work brings in about $150 a week, hardly a princely wage. But in the highly competitive world of stand-up comedy, it is an achievement nonetheless.

“Stage time is precious,” Fox said. “I was at Improv in the Valley when an earthquake happened, and the comic didn’t get off” the stage.

He is among hundreds of comedians who need to be on stage to polish their acts and be seen by members of the entertainment industry. Although the odds are against them, they travel the club circuit night after night, waiting for hours to deliver just a few minutes of jokes.

Fox recently landed his first national TV commercial, a spot for breakfast cereal, and he thinks that his career could be picking up steam.

“Six years isn’t long to wait,” he said. “Look at Jay Leno. It took him a long, long time.”

Many ambitious comedians have a celebrity whose career serves as inspiration.

“It helps me when Phyllis Diller says she was 38 before she got started,” said Roubie Hart, 39. A full-figured woman who resembles Roseanne Barr of the hit TV show “Roseanne,” Hart said she does singing telegrams and stripping telegrams to earn money. She lives in a motor home in Malibu.

Why enter such a competitive business? Joe Dugan, 20, of Van Nuys said magic happens for the comic who gets laughs.

“It’s a gas to go in front of a group of strangers and make them like you,” the Cal State Northridge student said.

But Dugan doubts that he’ll stick it out.

“It can be very discouraging,” he said. “You hang around all night at auditions and maybe get on for three minutes. People who are already established will show up and get on before you. Maybe by the time you go on, there’re two people left in the club.”

It is commonplace for established comics to request and receive stage time at audition nights or during regular shows. Usually the comic has an upcoming appearance on a late-night talk show and wants to test new material. The club owner is pleased to get name talent on stage for free, and often asks the comic to mention the club on television.

Johnny Disco of Canoga Park, the dancing umpire in the movie “Naked Gun” and one of the Valley’s most militant comedians, complains bitterly about the practice.

“Everyone is worth a value per hour,” he said. “If you tell me to come at 7 and I don’t go on till 10:30, that’s using my time.”

But most comics suffer such indignities quietly, confident that their day will come. Pat Miller, for example, considers himself a professional comedian. He earned a living on the road between 1984 and late last year, when he moved to North Hollywood for a try at the big time.

Miller said he made between $100 and $250 a night on the road, far more than a stand-up comic earns in Los Angeles. One reason is that L.A. clubs put 10 or more comedians on stage in a night, while road clubs typically use only three.

But Miller hopes to land work in commercials or a TV series, so he gave up the money that traveling brings.

“You do the road to get good and come here to be famous,” he said.

Miller wants to become an Improv regular, which happens only after a comic passes three levels of auditions. Despite his credentials and good audience response--he drew some of the strongest laughs one recent night at the Valley Improv--Miller is stuck at the first level.

“Usually I groom someone for at least four or five times,” explained manager Tom Spiroff, who said Miller is about ready for the next audition.

The comic has been there before, having worked several audition nights for a previous manager. Miller had to start over when the club changed personnel. But he remains patient.

“It’s just a matter of time till I hit,” he said. “I liken it to treading water until a rescue boat comes.”