The BC Q&A: Mike Donovan

Mike Donovan plays the
China Blossom tonight and tomorrow

Mike Donovan has been doing comedy in Boston for longer than there has been a dedicated comedy club in this town. He remembers his first paid gig in 1977, a year before the Comedy Connection became Boston’s first full-time comedy club. He’s played Boston through all of the supposed comedy busts and booms, and still plays regularly in Boston and around the country. He’s at the China Blossom in North Andover tonight and tomorrow.

Some of Donovan’s best stuff revolves around sports – his routines about doodling on his baseball cards and sports sponsorship are classics. You can hear both on Donovan’s new CD, Throwing Rocks, which is surprisingly also his first CD.

I caught up with Donovan earlier this month to talk about Throwing Rocks, sports, and Boston comedy.

What made you decide to finally release a CD?

Gas money. Plus to get Rob Steen to stop asking me, “When are you going to make a CD?”

How many shows did you cull from? It sounds like you bounce around from different shows.

I think its from at least 40 different shows. My wife Hilarie knows the exact number. She co-produced it. I think its fun to jump around from club to club, and audience to audience, and even from year to year. The second half includes some of the retro bits.

You say at one point on the CD that all comedy is mean, that no one has ever laughed at someone almost falling. Is that something you’re conscious of when you’re writing a joke? Is it an idea you write to?

No – Never think to write that that way consciously. I let a funny thought come to me and then I go from there. But the cruelty, its just the way I see it. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. The joke is on the person being told the joke. It's always funny at someone's expense.

Mike Donovan's new CD

The CD really shows off the range of your voice – do you think you’ll work in radio again? And have you ever tried to sing seriously?

I'd love to do radio again. I sang in a choir at Symphony Hall when I was 12.

The baseball cards routine is one of my favorites of yours. Did any of your collection survive childhood?

My mom threw my cards away. Bad day. There is a baseball card store in Arizona called, “My mom threw out my baseball cards.”

Which do you enjoy more, sports or history?

History. It's something that's grown in a good way. I wouldn't have said that ten years ago.

What are your thoughts on the “Yankees Suck” crowd?

It's September 4 and the Sox are drowning, so it’s a tough time to answer that one. I never chanted it. I still think the Giants/Eagles is a rougher rivalry. Sox fans have dignity now that we won two. Red Sox had more injuries this year than any football team I ever rooted for. I called them the Boston Red Cross.

You’re also working on a history book – what do you hope to communicate to people about history?

I just want to tell the story in a clear, fun, and edutaining way.

What was your first gig in Boston? Do you remember the place?

I used to host charity talent shows at the LaBoure Center in South Boston when I was 16. I did impressions and the voices did jokes. My first paid gig in Boston I think was at the Black Rose tavern at Faniuel Hall. I did sets between the Irish bands. About four Saturdays in the summer of 1977.

You’ve seen a good portion of this city’s comedy history, is there anything that has remained consistent about the scene over the past 30 years?

Some comedians steal jokes. Some don't. Some crowds are great. Some crowds aren't. Second show Friday usually blows. Cerebral comics bomb at the bowling alley gigs. Bowling alley comics bomb at the tux and gown banquets. When the blender goes on, the joke goes down. And it's usually a lot of fun, in spite of the obstacle course.

Where do you think you fit into that history?

I'll leave that one blank.

John Tobin on the new Boston Comedy Hall of Fame

There is a hall of fame for just about everything these day. Every sport has one, every form of music. So why not Boston comedy? Boston City Councilor John Tobin asked a similar question in a conversation with his friend, Spark Capital’s Todd Dagres. The two decided to create the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, which will induct its first member, Steven Wright, at a local all-star ceremony at Showcase Live on December 15.

Wright was an obvious choice. The Boston scene was already swinging when Wright made his first appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” in 1982, but his obvious talent led people to start looking for talent here. And since Tobin was looking for a comedian who “has made significant and lifelong contributions to the art of stand-up comedy,” Wright was perfect. “That was easy and unanimous,” he says. “Steven Wright is the obvious first choice in a long line of future inductees.” He adds that if Wright hadn’t agreed to it, they wouldn’t have gone forward.

The line-up for the show reflects Wright’s importance in the Boston comedy community. Tony V. will host the ceremony, which will include performances by Don Gavin, Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Mike Donovan, Mike McDonald, Lenny Clarke, Ken Rogerson, and Jimmy Tingle, with a video from “When Stand Up Stood Out” director Fran Solomita.

For now, there will be no brick and mortar Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, but Tobin says he “would love to see it at some point be a part of a larger complex dedicated to the history of Boston entertainment.” Wright will receive an Oscar-sized statue (to go with his actual Oscar) called the Thomas Wignell Award, named for a 19th century actor considered by some to be the first stand-up comedian.

Tobin, a co-founder of the Boston Comedy Festival, has always been a comedy fan and looked for ways to contribute above and beyond his duties as a City Councilman. “It’s just something that I have always been passionate about,” he says. “Comedy has had a big role in shaping me and I have nothing but admiration for the men and women who work hard and lend their voices to making people laugh and think.”

Tobin and Dagres have set up the project as a not-for-profit under the banner of “Stage Source,” which will set up a fund for comedians who fall sick and need assistance. Tobin is the executive director and Dagres is the president of the board, which Tobin expects to expand after this year’s ceremony.

Watch www.BostonComedyHallOfFame.com for future developments.