Steve White, Las Vegas Sun

Columnist Lisa Ferguson: White sees green in real estate, radio careers Lisa Ferguson Friday, July 30, 2004 | 8:48 a.m. The Las Vegas real estate market is red hot -- a fact not lost on Steve White. So the longtime stand-up comic devised a plan: For one year, he would put the brakes on his comedy and acting careers so he and his wife could relocate from Los Angeles to Southern Nevada, which they did last fall. White wanted to focus entirely on becoming a sort of real estate mogul, buying up properties here and selling them in a hurry to reap some hefty profits. But even the best-laid plans are easily thwarted: Show business refused to let White be. In December he performed at the corporate Christmas party for Clear Channel Radio and was quickly offered a job hosting the morning show on local hip-hop/R&B station KWID 101.9-FM. He's helmed "The Steve White Show" since February. Stand-up comedy also proved relentless: White headlines Tuesday through Aug. 7 at Palace Station's Laugh Trax. The radio gig was not previously on his career to-do list. "After I got out here, after my intention was set, the universe said, 'Well, how about a little creative outlet?' So it sort of fell out of the sky," he says. "It's not like I wanted to be a jock, and if I am gonna be a jock, I've gotta be ... free in doing it," he explains of his determination to keep the morning show's material "as edgy as possible." Just as White took to the airwaves, however, the Federal Communications Commission began its crackdown on indecency in the wake of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during this year's Super Bowl halftime show. Clear Channel, in particular, had been at the center of the storm, having pulled Howard Stern's radio show from stations in several cities before the company ended its relationship with the shock jock. White says the controversy forced him to get creative by using less-offensive words in place of obscenities, among other tactics. "It's having common sense, but not scaling it back so much that it becomes milquetoast," he contends. "A lot of jocks are doing that throughout the country, and there's so much you can do without being indecent." A recent topic tackled on White's show dealt with having impure thoughts about co-workers: "That's a topic another jock might not do, but hey ... it's theater of the mind, that's what radio is -- paint the pictures and whether it's based in reality or not, bring the audience along for this ride." One thing that won't be sidetracked by the morning-show gig, 38-year-old White assures, are his real estate interests. "If the radio job stopped me from doing real estate, I'd quit tomorrow -- that's how hot the market is in Vegas." Following his 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on-air shift, he says, "I can go look at deals, buildings and try to buy a piece of real estate and sell it to Shaquille O'Neal for $1 million in three years." Though he won't reveal the number of properties he's purchased, the comedian says, "If I own 'em, I don't own 'em long." Hosting the radio show has, however, curbed comedy performances for the New York native, who got his start in the business two decades ago after realizing he wasn't cut out to put to use the accounting degree he'd earned in college. These days White, the father of 8-month-old fraternal twins, is forced to stick close to Las Vegas, where he takes the stage a couple of times a year. He performs occasional shows in California and recently returned from a short tour (along with local comedy-club frequenter Avi Liberman) of venues in strife-ridden Israel. White juggles his stand-up act -- which includes material about "honesty, relationships, race issues, government conspiracies, religion, hypocrisy" -- with his other duties because, "Comedy is mine. I can fall on my face and totally fail and the artist likes that; it's intriguing." If the radio show were to tank, he explains, the blame could fall on low ratings or the loss of an advertising sponsor. "In stand-up, if you don't get the laughs, guess who's failing? I really enjoy that challenge. It's intimidating and exciting at the same time." It's also similar to his acting career, which White -- who appeared in the flicks "Coming to America," "Do the Right Thing," "Malcolm X" and "Clockers" among others -- calls "the scariest thing in the whole world, and I love it." He claims to be modeling his career after those of fellow comedians-turned-actors Robin Williams and Jim Carrey: "I want to do stand-up at the Met and kill that and crush, yet I want to have my 'Fisher Kings' and 'Dead Poets Societies.' " In fact, it was Eddie Murphy who gave White his big-screen start. In desperate need of a Screen Actors Guild card, White attended a party at Murphy's home. "He said, 'All you have to do is be in one of my movies to get a SAG card.' I said, 'Yeah, exactly,' so he put me in 'Coming to America.' " White went on to study at New York University's film school (in a program that filmmaker Spike Lee helped get him into) and work behind the scenes directing, producing and starring in his own short films. He served as associate producer on the 2003 short "Skin Deep," which recently made its DVD debut; and is writing a screenplay about which he's mum on details. He will say, however, that he's uncertain how long he'll call Las Vegas home. He is contracted with KWID for only one year, but claims the show's ratings have skyrocketed since his arrival. "It's kind of a three-way dogfight with the three rhythmic station in Vegas, so it's an interesting market." And then there is that pesky plan to consider, which White reminds "was to flip houses and do real estate out here, and take that money and buy the house that I really want" in Southern California's pricey Pacific Palisades area or New York's ritzy upper westside of Manhattan. "It's always good to have a plan, so you can change it," he says. Out for laughs A couple of programming notes: Catch Greg Giraldo -- who formerly played The Improv at Harrah's and is a frequent guest on Comedy Central's "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" -- when he is scheduled at 11:35 p.m. tonight to take the guest's chair on CBS' "The Late Show with David Letterman," and again at 1:30 a.m. on NBC's "Last Call with Carson Daly" (Channel 3). Also tonight, at 11:35 p.m., frequent Vegas headliner Dennis Miller is slated to guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" (Channel 3). Fresh off the plane from last week's Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, funny man Adam Ferrara wraps a weeklong gig on Sunday at The Improv. One of his bits -- about a guy who would rather not have followed Moses across the desert for 40 years -- was featured on an episode of Comedy Central's animated series "Shorties Watchin' Shorties." There will be no shortage of big comedy names performing throughout town in the coming months. Among them: Rich Little at Suncoast (Aug. 13 through Aug. 15); Brett Butler at Riviera (Aug. 20 and 21); Vicki Lawrence and Mama at Suncoast (Aug. 20 through Aug. 22); Sinbad at Las Vegas Hilton (Aug. 20 and 21); and Joe Piscopo at Orleans (Sept. 30 through Oct. 3). archive