Comedian Joe Restivo, Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 20, 2004

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Renaissance man Restivo in a league of his own Lisa Ferguson Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 8:39 a.m. Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at lmsferguson@yahoo.com. If given the choice -- and, of course, the opportunity -- Joe Restivo would likely have spent his career playing shortstop for the Chicago Cubs. Since that didn't happen, he's instead done seemingly everything else: dabbled in music; studied religious philosophy; worked in the big-business world; trained at the renowned Actor's Studio and nurtured an acting career; and penned songs, sitcoms and movies, among others. For the past 25 years, however, Restivo has largely stuck with stand-up comedy. You won't hear him complaining. "Performing and sports are really pretty much the same business," contends Restivo, who headlines Palace Station's Laugh Trax through Saturday. Nevertheless, America's pastime has continually reared its head into nearly every vocation the comic has attempted, including during the days Restivo claims he was a 14-year-old singer (calling himself Joey Richards) who recorded a song called "Summer Love." The single, he says, landed him an appearance on "American Bandstand" and a spot on a rock tour sponsored by the iconic TV series. "I wasn't knocked out by the tour," Restivo said of the experience during a recent call from his home in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. Actually, he says, he would rather have spent that summer in his native Chicago playing baseball with his young buddies. "I was just really getting good." Restivo attended Bradley University ("They had a great baseball team," he says), and was "drifting" through college before stumbling across some religious philosophy courses. He found "a real kinship with and a ... deep understanding" of the subject. "I just loved it," he said, and he graduated with a degree in the subject. Restivo later moved to Phoenix ("What a shock that's where the Cubs went for spring training"), earned a master's degree at a business school there, and says he accepted a position in New York with the Chesebrough-Ponds company as the "international director" for its line of Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion products. "Corporate life, for me, was just too staid, too by-the-book, too by-the-numbers," Restivo recalls. Nevertheless, he prepared to accept a promotion that would have relocated him to Venezuela. But one day, before catching a New York Yankees game ("Once again, baseball takes a hand"), it occurred to him, "That I had probably taken a wrong path ... at that moment I said, 'I'm not leaving.' " Since Restivo was a lad, he says, he'd dreamed of writing and starring in movies. In the '70s, he claims to have studied with legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg, and upon being accepted into the Actor's Studio, he quit his day job. He also returned to his musical roots, saying he recorded some songs (not a noteworthy hit among them, he assures) and began singing between comedians' sets at Big Apple comedy clubs. "I wanted to be a comic, but I didn't know how, so I worked as a singer ... to get to know the comics and see how it's done, because there are no classes to take. You're either funny or you're not." Before long, he says, he was writing and selling low-priced jokes to such pros as Freddie Prinze, Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers, and eventually took the stage on his own, armed with celebrity impressions he practiced for years, including one of Sammy Davis Jr. Restivo claims Davis witnessed his act (which included the impersonation) during a benefit show in Philadelphia during the late-'70s. "He loved it, and he walked onstage and hugged me during the middle of my impression," Restivo says. "That was enough to make me feel as though I could do this." Since then Restivo's comedy material has evolved, though he still portrays a character -- himself, raging with "middle-class angst." The father of three, who performs stand-up gigs about 22 weeks per year, knows a bit about the subject. "I had to live my life to actually find my character. I had to own a home and have car payments, have kids ... My voice is this guy who's trapped by middle class, and that's who I play." At least onstage. While on the radio, however, he portrays the East Coast wiseguy/film critic-host of "Vinny Goes to the Movies," a syndicated, weekly show that's distributed to stations in 350 cities via the American Comedy Network. (In Las Vegas, some of the network's programming can be heard on KQOL 93.1-FM.) To prepare for the segments, Restivo typically views three flicks each week. "I'm constantly at the movies, which I'd probably be doing anyway." Beyond sitting in the audience, he's had big-screen roles in "Arthur 2: On the Rocks" and "UHF," among others. He also has parts in the upcoming films "Fighting Words," starring C. Thomas Howell, and "Wasabi Tuna," a comedy featuring Antonio Sabato Jr., former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Tim Meadows and Anna Nicole Smith. The small screen also appeals to Restivo, who lists more than 100 television appearances on his resume, including roles on "Hill Street Blues," "Seinfeld" and "NYPD Blue." He wrote a sitcom last year called "American As," about a sportswriter covering -- what else? -- baseball in a small town, but the series failed to find a network home. He's in the process of penning another sitcom, though he's tight-lipped about its specifics. Restivo (who declines to reveal his age) is also at work producing an "animated project" titled "His Master's Voice," as well as directing and starring in a direct-to-DVD, fairy-tale-inspired feature. Meanwhile he's writing a Broadway-style musical he says he would like to produce in Las Vegas, and is also attempting to secure financing for "Beautiful Things," a film he wrote about a 40-something guy looking for love. Of course, those projects could easily be abandoned if Restivo were to finally get his shot at the big leagues. "My dream is still, at my age, to be the opening-day shortstop for the Chicago Cubs. We're getting close to spring training; I'm getting nervous -- there's still hope," he jokes. "My spikes are all shined up." Out for laughs Don't miss SnakeBabe, a Las Vegas comedy-magician/fire-eater/snake-handler also known as Maria Gara, when she appears on tonight's installment of "Friday Night Stand-Up" at 8:30 p.m. on Comedy Central (Cox cable channel 56). It's time to find the next "Last Comic Standing." The second season of last summer's hit NBC reality series, in which a group of stand-up comics live together in a house and duke it out for said title, begins taping at 6:15 p.m. Thursday at Paris Las Vegas' Le Theatre des Arts. A limited number of free tickets to the taping will be available to the public (ages 18 and older; four tickets max per reservation), and will be available beginning at 9 a.m. Monday by calling the hotel-casino's box office at 946-4567. A stand-by line to fill any vacant seats will begin forming at 5 p.m. on the day of the show; admission to the taping, however, is not guaranteed unless you're holding a printed ticket. Mark your calendars: The next performance of "Beacher's Comedy Madhouse" at the Hard Rock Hotel is slated for March 13. David Spade, of "Just Shoot Me," "Joe Dirt" and "Saturday Night Live" fame, yuks it up March 19 and March 20 at The Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre. Tickets are $70 plus tax; call 792-7777. archive