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June 23, 2009
Grier: Just For Laughs
The Chicago Tribune met with David Alan Grier moments before the taping of TBS special at the Chicago Just for Laughs Festival and airing on TBS Sunday, June 28 on TBS. As host, his job is to open the show and then introduce the seven comedians taking part in the special.
Each time someone enters his dressing room at the Vic Theatre, the comedic actor gets into character and jokingly snaps at the person.
"What is it?" he yells at one woman. "I don't even have my wig on! I'm under a lot of pressure," Grier whines to the woman. "I'm going to be performing for two minutes."
Now 53-years old, Grier isn't as slim as he used to be and his hair is completely gray, which may explain why he has a woman cut his hair close to the scalp before the show.
"She's smelling me," he says in a frightened tone when her face nears his head.
Grier announces that he is hot and sweaty and apologizes to the woman. He then jokingly flirts with her and blames her for his sweating."What's your name?" he asks the woman, who says her name is Denise. "Denise, you're gonna get a raise."
After the haircut and a trim of his ear hair, Grier moves to another chair and has Denise apply his makeup. He begins to fire away a few of the jokes he will be using that night.
"You know you're the oldest dude in the club when people think you're the photographer," he says. "You know you're the oldest guy in the club when people think you're there to sell flowers. You know you're the oldest guy in the club when the bathroom attendant thinks you're there to take over his shift."
Grier later admits that he used to be apprehensive about doing stand-up comedy. He talks about the man who first approached him with the idea.
"He told me I should do it and I was like, 'Stand-up comedy? I think not,' " Grier says in his theater actor voice. "Then he told me how much money I could make and ten days later, 'Hellooo Virginia.' "
At first, Damon Wayans and other members of the famous Wayans family would sit in the crowd taking notes and giving him feedback during his shows.
"They'd yell, 'Go back to the last bit' and 'Talk in your own voice,' " he says.
His food arrives as show time nears. He seems excited to eat, and yet he hasn't touched the bowl of snacks in the corner of the room since I arrived.
Does the "prima donna" actor have any special snack demands at each show?
"I'm easy," he responds in a rare moment of seriousness. "I don't ask for anything."Source: Chicago Tribune
