Brad Garrett says he "always knew" he wanted to be a comedian. "It's kind of like knowing where you fit or don't fit. I was a strange kid, I never really fit in, I was never comfortable in my own skin because I was a giant kid with no athletic ability. When I got a laugh at nine years old, that was it."
I spoke with Garrett a few days after seeing his show at at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club, the new venue at The Tropicana Hotel and Casino. The hotel opened in 1957 and is today one of the few properties on The Strip from that era that hasn't fallen victim to the ever-popular local sport of building implosion. The hotel is in the midst of a huge renovation that will see it emerge into the 21st century. Among the additions is the much anticipated Club Nikki and Nikki Beach Club. As part of the redo, Garrett's room was opened on June 28. Talking about it, he is very enthusiastic and very warm.
"The club is a passion for me," Garrett says. Opening it meant he had to sever his business ties with MGM Resorts International for whom he had most recently been playing at The Mirage. "Richard Sturm, now the president of MGM Sports and Entertainment, gave me my start in Las Vegas. The people at MGM were great, like family to me. But a club! That's a dream. They understood that. The room we're in now used to be Dangerfield's. I fought to get it and there was a lot of competition.
"I know that the old Las Vegas is gone, but I wanted to create that kind of vibe. You walk into the club, have a few drinks....low-key with that old Vegas feel."
"I will be very hands-on," he continues. "I am booking it with an old talent booker,. The guy who runs the room gave me my first job in New York when I was 20."
His club is four-wall -- an arrangement fairly common in Las Vegas which has the performer, in essence, renting the room. The hotel will kick in some advertising and staff, but the money made by the performer is based solely on the business the show does. He will play there several times a year and, in between those gigs, is bringing in some well-respected comedy talent.
Several times during his show, Garrett noted he had chosen all the decor, including vintage photos of other comics, old show posters, a picture of Sinatra (for whom he opened) and a red curtain, said, following our brief discussion of his showroom's relatively modest ticket prices, "Boy I sure hope I break even."
Garrett's view of the world (probably like that of most people's) is firmly rooted in his own experience and his ardent belief in the generally DNA-dictated, preordained roles of men and women. And that is what his comedy is about.
Why not political humor? "Political stuff bores me. Jon Stewart, Dennis Miller, they're great at it. I don't believe in the system and that's depressing to me. I know we live in the greatest county in the world, but the people who run it....."
His brand of comedy, while not as combative as some others', is not warm and fuzzy. Garrett's comedy icons include Don Rickles, Richard Pryor, Robert Klein, David Brenner, Jerry Seinfeld and, among the newer comedians, he likes Dom Irrera -- some of whom may speak quietly, but each still manages to get across a very sharp point. He estimates that "about 80 percent" of his comedy is scripted but there's also a great deal of improvisation.
Some of Garrett's material borders on misogyny but, in fairness, men don't emerge unscathed, either. "I'm out about my misogyny," he says. "Most men are misogynists and most women are feminists. I work with a lot of women. They have their finger on the pulse of things. But, women do things to other women that men would never do to other men.
"Men and women," he continues, "are like cats and dogs. I've learned more about myself from women. My comedy is based on this. Eighty-five percent of men I know are pussy-whipped. I only know one married couple that is really happy. Ninety percent of us are in hostage mode. But, we constantly evolve. What we loved 10 years ago, we may still love today, but in a different way."
Garrett believes in the validity of inherited traits and DNA. "I'll see my son do something I did as a kid. We never talked about it. He didn't know I did it, but he did it. It's in the DNA. No question, men and women come pre-wired. In every relationship I've ever been in -- after five years of marriage, a son and a daughter, Garrett is divorced -- I cry more easily than the woman. My father, a wonderful man, taught me you treat women a certain way. He was married six times."
One woman who has haunted him lately may be fairly characterized as a cyber-stalker, assuming a Twitter identity as "Badd Garrett" and purporting to be him. It turns out that the nom-de-Twitter was assumed by this individual for reasons clear only to herself and the real Garrett says emphatically, "I don't have a Twitter account and I never will have one."
A slow moment or a joke that didn't register, moments that occur in almost every comedy performance, did not happen once during the show I saw. It was
For example, he noticed a woman sitting next to the stage. She was four-feet, eight-inches tall. Garrett couldn't resist. He brought her up to stand next to him and looked down at her from his six-feet, eight-inch height.
"You know," he said to her, "I could lift you in my hand and thank the Academy."
Toward the end of his set, there was an example of the kind of quick thinking that the really good comics possess. It involved a heckler, a well-endowed blonde who was there with a man so much older than she that no one seemed surprised when, in response to Garrett's question about their relationship, she said, "He's my grandfather." Garrett spoke a bit to her, as he had with others in the audience. Then he turned went on to something else.
Now teaching stage acting -- another of his passions -- Garrett says, "What I stress is being in the moment. I love it. As I started to work more and more, I was able to break that fourth wall (the imaginary wall between audience and stage through which the audience sees the action). So many comics don't do that. "
The fall of that fourth wall, however, often results in some audience members trying to join the show by heckling Garrett. "I love to handle hecklers," he says. "I understand the psychology behind it. They want to do what I do, but they have no balls. In a way," he admits, "I promote heckling. I'm not wrapped too tight. Most people, especially after watching me on Everybody Loves Raymond, feel they know me and want to talk."
So, near the end of the show, the aforementioned blonde chick was clearly trying to get the attention of George Bugatti, the singer-pianist who sat in with Garrett. When asked what she wanted, she told Garrett, "I want his card so I can book him."
"For what?" Garrett asked.
"A party."
"Where?"
"At my house."
Garrett handed her Bugatti's card. She sat down and he turned his attention elsewhere. Shortly thereafter she called out, "I bet I make more money than you do."
He looked at her, shrugged and said, "Most women do," and moved on to another topic.
Seconds later, you could almost see the thought hit him. He turned to his right, as the heckler was seated on the side of the stage, and said, "Yes, but have you tried making this money standing up?"
The audience loudly cheered its appreciation.
Watching him and his audience, it is crystal clear why Garrett loves what he does. And, one of his dreams is to "find the next generation of talent. I'll bring them in and get them started." That group has some very big shoes to fill.
Photo: ©2010 Lindsay Hebberd, Cultural Portrait Productions.