Comedian David VanAvermaete
By Mark Langton
Standup comic David VanAvermaete, 55, who will probably live to 110, is having a mid-life crisis.
Looking like a cross between Jiminy Cricket and a short-cropped Benjamin Franklin, dressed in all "neo-boho-preppie" black, VanAvermaete is not only an award-winning comedian, he is the former CEO of a $1 billion Fortune 500 company.
Not your run-of-the-mill millionaire, VanAvermaete found he was unsatisfied with early retirement. Smart, edgy, restless and quick, he turned his lively, analytical mind from corporate re-structuring to the architecture of the perfect joke.
When VanAvermaete joined LifeScan, a medical device company in Milpitas in 1990, he took it from being a $90 million business to a multibillion-dollar division of Johnson & Johnson. When he retired five years ago, he enrolled in the San Francisco Comedy College (SFCC) and became a member in good standing, so to speak, of the Stand-up Project, the SFCC's premier performance troupe.
In recent years, he has earned first place in the 2006 Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Competition in Sunnyvale and the 2007 Tommy T's Comedy Competition in San Jose. He was runner-up at the 2007 San Francisco International Comedy Competition, the contest that launched the careers of Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Ellen Degeneres and Kevin Pollak (all of whom finished second, too).
VanAvermaete -also a former PGA golf professional -is set to headline a new comedy series that kicks off Aug. 14 at the Seafood Peddler restaurant, an oasis of classy dining situated in a kind of no-man’s land in the middle of San Rafael’s canal district, surrounded by an abandoned Chrysler car dealership to the left and a houseboat shanty-town to the right. Hoping to lure new patrons to navigate the seaweed and tumbleweeds, the upscale eatery has booked VanAvermaete, Johnny Steele, Larry “Bubbles” Brown and Richard Stockton, for the first of what will hopefully be a regular offering of comedy muckey-mucks (yuckey-mucks?).
Reached during his lunch at the American Ale House in Reston, Va., VanAvermaete shared his thoughts on his unique, analytical approach to comedy as he carefully dissected a filet of haddock.
Q: Let's start with the most obvious question: How did you go from a CEO of a $1 billion Fortune 500 company to stand-up comedy?
A: Well, I've been a fan of comedy longer than I can remember. As I was moving through my corporate career, I used to go watch standup a lot and made a habit of stealing the best jokes and incorporating them into my presentations at business meetings. I found it to be an effective communication tool. When I retired, a friend of mine said, why not go to the standup comedy college - yes, there really is such a thing - and do it for real? I found the idea fascinating.
Q: Can that be taught? Can someone learn how to be funny?
A: I think so. It helps to be naturally funny. What they teach you there is there's a whole language of comedy - premises, punchlines, setups, callbacks, tags É it's a writing medium that has its own vernacular, its own structure. When you watch a comedian work, you might think it's just flowing out of his head extemporaneously, but usually it's not. There's a precise structure there, where the words are extraordinarily important. Just where you put the word is in the sentence is so important. If you watch a comedian do the same set night after night, as I have at comedy competitions, you find he becomes redundant. But when it's done well, it sounds like it's coming out of his mouth for the first time.
A good routine is one word or one punchline from being a great routine. I analyzed routines into PLPM's - that's punch lines per minute - shooting for six to seven. For competitions, I used to record bits and weigh laughs on a 1 to 4 scale, 4 equaling an applause break, and score routines 15 laugh points per minute. For a six-minute set, you want 30 to 40 punch lines and 90 laugh points. You have to treat every second like it's gold. You want to avoid riffing, orchestrate controllable interaction. You want your first sentence to be funny - not "Welcome, Sunnyvale! How's everyone doing?" That's just BS. Every word is important. Wasted words equal wasted time.
Q: How do you know what's unnecessary?
A: By constant trial and error. By weeding out words that aren't funny and putting in words that are. For example, for some reason, words with a lot of consonants are funny. I'm not sure why that is. But even then, it has to be the right word. The word "fish?" Not so funny. But the word "haddock" - now THAT'S funny É
It can also be a visual thing, too. You can have the funniest joke in the world, but if you don't have the right body language, they look at you like you just did a card trick for a dog.
Q: Now that's a funny line.
A: Ah, but it's funnier when you cock your head to the side when you say it. (Laughter) See what I mean?
IF YOU GO
What: Marin Comedy Show series at the Seafood Peddler
Who: David VanAvermaete, Johnny Steele, Larry "Bubbles" Brown, Richard Stockton
When: 8 p.m. Aug. 14
Where: Palm Ballroom, Seafood Peddler restaurant, 100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael
Tickets: First row with table $25; second/third row with table $20; general admission $15 (two-drink minimum)
Information: 460-6669 (dinner reservations), http://www.marincomedyshow.com/
Mark Langton can be reached at mark.langton@comcast.net
4 comments:
M: As always a nice piece of writing.
J
I saw DVA a couple of times and thought he was hilarious. Very apt description of him too!
To think I was his administrative assistant when he was the CEO of a $1 billion Fortune 500 company. He was funny then ... he's even funnier now! I REALLY miss working for him.
Great write-up.
Fun article! I don't think you look anything like Ben Franklin, now Jiminy Crickett maybe. Love your biggest fan!
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