Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 9:18 a.m.
While Jay Leno, David Letterman and other comedians were wrestling with the sensitive issue of mixing humor and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Richard Jeni had no such qualms.
The street-savvy native of New York attacked the subject head-on and has made it part of his act, which he is bringing to New York-New York's Cabaret Theatre starting Monday, with additional dates in December and January while resident comedian Rita Rudner takes time off to promote her new book, "Tickled Pink."
"It has never been more exciting to land safely at an airport," Jeni quipped during a recent telephone interview from Los Angeles. "I used to be, you know (asking), 'Where is my bag?' and 'Why is the cab taking so long?' But now I'm twirling around the terminal like Julie Andrews in 'The Sound of Music' and singing 'I'm still alive, I didn't die ...' "
Terrorists have not intimidated him into changing his act. In fact, Jeni says the events of the day are a challenge.
"Lately there is lots of material about what's going on in the country," he said. "There are two reasons why I've been doing so much of it -- one is that I can. It's like being a baseball player with a lot of confidence in a pressure situation. Those guys want the ball, and that's kind of how you feel as a comedian if you have a lot of confidence in yourself. It shows you can work under a pressure situation, which is what you are in.
"And, it's an exciting challenge for me to find the holes in the fence that you can drive through right now. If it's Monica Lewinsky, or Gary Condit, the fence is down. 'Hey, it's O.J., come on in.'
"Everybody's ready to hear any kind of joke right now," Jeni said, "but to find the places where you can do humor about this type of (terrorism) and not have it be inappropriate or disrespectful and also have some cleverness to it is an exciting challenge to me."
Jeni says he can't see how the topic of terrorist activity can be avoided.
"I don't see how you can be a monologist-style comedian right now and not mention it," he said. "It's one of those things like where there's a big giant elephant standing behind you. You have to refer to it. You can't just pretend it's not there."
Although terrorist activity is only part of his monologue, it is a part that gets your attention.
"Comedians travel a lot, and now I'm in a real moral dilemma," Jeni said. "One is racial profiling. That is wrong. The other is people wearing turbans on planes. That makes me real nervous.
"You know, they keep trying to make the airlines safer, and that was certainly overdue. Up until now you could roll up to the airport with a wild look in your eye and wearing a 'Born to Jihad' T-shirt and they would wave you right on.
"Now there are no knives, no sharp objects. But I won't feel safe until there are no other passengers. That's when it will be great. Just me sitting there eating crackers in my underwear watching in-flight porno with the sky marshal."
Jeni, 40, comes by his brashness naturally. He was born and raised in a tough Italian-American neighborhood in Bensonhurst, N.Y.
"We had more Tonys than 'Phantom of the Opera,' he said. " 'GoodFellas' was pretty much a home movie."
Jeni was turned on to comedy, indirectly, by his father.
"As a kid I worshipped my father, who was a big comedy fan and a collector of comedy albums. When he was at work I'd sneak out the comedy albums and sit there listening, enthralled," Jeni noted.
He studied political science at New York's Hunter College. After graduation he learned there weren't too many jobs for political scientists so he went to work for a public relations firm and was fired six months later.
"I've been fired a lot," he said.
Two years after graduating from college with honors, he was driving a cab. A friend took him to a nightclub in Brooklyn, N.Y., that showcased aspiring singers and comics, which inspired him to create a five-minute act and give comedy a shot.
The rest, as they say, is comedy history.
After paying his dues on the New York comedy circuit he gained national prominence with his first Showtime special "Richard Jeni: The Boy from New York City," which received nominations for three Cable ACE Awards in 1990. Two years later he followed up with "Richard Jeni: Crazy from the Heat."
He became a regular guest on "The Tonight Show" and has continued to be a popular guest since Leno took over.
Jeni won the Cable ACE Award in 1995 for "Best Standup Comedy Special" for his "Richard Jeni: Platypus Man" on HBO. The special was the basis for his 1995 series "Platypus Man," which ran for one season on UPN.
Jeni has appeared in several movies, including 1994's "The Mask," with Jim Carrey.
He is a frequent guest on major talk shows and does voice-overs for commercials. He's popular on the corporate-entertainment circuit, and in recent weeks has appeared several times on "The Howard Stern Show," heard locally on KXTE 107.5-FM.
"The 'Stern' show is a perfect time for me, with everything going on in the country," Jeni said. "This is the first time in a long time that I care about anything on the front page. Finally there's something worth talking about and on Stern's show, they get into it."
He said he sees Stern as the "antidote to all the pre-packaged, manufactured fluffy celebrity stuff you see on 'E!' and 'People' and 'Extra,' all the incestuous kind of mutual (expletive) kissing that goes on in the industry."
Jeni says radio, movies and television are ways to keep his name in front of people while working on his stand-up act.
"Stand-up material takes so long to develop," he said. "To do another HBO comedy special could take years to put together. In the meantime, how do you keep your name in front of the public? Doing the 'Stern' show is one really good way."
Jeni recently did a pilot for a television series on CBS, but the network didn't buy it.
"I thought it would get picked up because it had a really good title, 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' I figured, why re-invent the wheel?" Jeni said jokingly.
Does he prefer doing stand-up or movies?
"To use a casino analogy," he said, "the fact that you have a career as a stand-up comedian and doing well, you are way ahead of the tables. You're winning. You try to get television shows and movies, which is like taking some of the house's money you've already won and throwing it on a longshot."
Is he working on any film projects right now?
"Are you kidding?" Jeni said. "I'm going to Blockbuster as soon as this interview's over."
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