Squeaky-clean comedy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/01/2012 (5230 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After all these years spent exploring all the various avenues of show business, Dave Coulier says it’s time to be a standup guy.

The versatile actor/comedian/voice-over artist, best known for his eight-year run (1987-1995) alongside John Stamos, Bob Saget and the Olsen twins on the ABC sitcom Full House, has decided that now is the time to focus his creative energy on writing and performing live standup comedy.

“Standup was always what got me to another place — I never really put the right amount of time and energy into it,” Coulier said last week during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “It was always, ‘Oh, I’ve got a TV series; I can put standup back on the shelf for a while,’ and then six months later I would get back into it. It’s like skating; I know how to do it.

“I’ve finally made a decision that this year, 2012, I’m going to take care of this stepchild that has been so good to me. It’s time to put energy and creativity back into standup, and the only way to do that is to get out there and work at it.”

Coulier, 52, will bring his comedy-career crusade to Winnipeg this weekend for a three-night stand at Rumor’s Comedy Club, serving up a collection of personal stories and voice characterizations that is as squeaky clean as it is inventive.

“I wouldn’t know how to go onstage and throw F-bombs,” he said. “I’m not a prude; I love the Richard Pryors and George Carlins and Chris Rocks of the world, but as a performer, I’ve just never thought, ‘Hey, this would be a lot funnier if I threw an F-bomb in there.’ That just never occurs to me when I’m onstage.

“There’s a perception among some people that swearing is edgy, but to me, it’s always seemed like kind of a crutch.”

Which is funny, of course, because Coulier achieved huge TV stardom at the same time as Saget — both were in Full House; Saget hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos while Coulier was the frontman for its spinoff, America’s Funniest People — which gave most folks the impression they were cut from the same cloth.

“Saget was always R-rated, even before Full House,” said Coulier. “He just went back to being the same Bob he always was.”

Coulier has maintained his wholesome-comedy image.

Since his career peaked in the early ’90s, Coulier has continued to work, but at a decidedly slower pace. Some view the dropoff as failure, but he insists that it’s just simple showbiz reality.

“It’s tough, after you’ve climbed the mountain with something like Full House, to maintain that kind of momentum,” he explained. “I was very lucky during that time to have two prime-time hits airing at the same time… I was doing Full House and America’s Funniest People at the same time I was doing the Muppet Babies and Real Ghostbusters cartoons as well as doing standup gigs, and then all those shows were cancelled within a two-month period. I went from extremely busy and reaching the pinnacle of success I had dreamed about to basically being unemployed.

“But that (success) period lasted almost nine years, and after that, I had a choice — I could dive back into another project immediately, or I could take some time off, recharge the batteries and figure out what I wanted to do next…. I decided to spend some time figuring out what my life choices and career choices were going to be.”

TV viewers haven’t seen as much of Coulier in recent years, aside from occasional reality-TV appearances in The Surreal Life and Skating With Celebrities, but they’ve certainly continued to hear him — his expansive list of voice-over credits includes Scooby and Scrappy Doo, Muppet Babies, Robot Chicken and the recent Canadian-made, McKenzie-Brothers-inspired cartoon Bob & Doug.

Last year, Coulier also co-created an online comedy series called Can’t Get Arrested, in which he and fellow Full House alumni Jodie Sweetin and Candace Cameron Bure, along with Saved By the Bell’s Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding) and former O.J. Simpson houseguest Kato Kaelin, poked fun at their own cooled-off career status.

“Once you’re out of that Hollywood cycle, you might as well be on another planet,” he said. “It’s happened to so many people; even someone like John Travolta — for years, in Hollywood they would say, ‘That guy can’t get arrested.’

“Some people consider you a failure if you don’t have another gigantic success like (Full House). But getting a show like that requires a lot of different things to happen; it’s kind of like the perfect storm. After that, you can either say, ‘OK, that’s it — it’s too hard to climb that mountain again,’ or you can accept it, let it go, and see what life presents to you next. I chose the second way.”

This isn’t Coulier’s first visit to our frozen Prairie burg; he performed at Rumor’s in 2001 and, more than a decade earlier, skated at the old Winnipeg Arena as part of a Celebrity All-Stars hockey team that also included Alex Trebek, Matt Frewer, Richard Dean Anderson and guest coach Kelsey Grammer.

A Detroit native and a lifelong Red Wings fan, Coulier said he shares the excitement this town is experiencing with the return of the NHL.

“I remember the Jets when Selanne was a rookie and scored 76, and before that, when Bobby Hull played there,” he said. “It’s great that you guys have a team again.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

COMEDY PREVIEW

Dave Coulier

Thursday to Saturday

Rumor’s Comedy Club

Tickets: $17 Thursday, $20 Friday/Saturday