Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Comedy career upstaged McHale's acting aspirations

Lisa Ferguson's Laugh Lines column appears Fridays. Her Sun Lite Column appears Mondays. Reach her at [email protected].

Afunny thing happened to Alexandra McHale on the way to the theater: She discovered comedy.

A lifetime member of New York's prestigious Actor's Studio, the one-time aspiring thespian attended graduate school there in the '90s and studied the dramatic arts in workshops led by such modern-day legends as Robert Redford, Al Pacino and Sally Field.

The school has gained even more notoriety in recent years as the setting of "Inside the Actors Studio," an hourlong, celebrity Q-and-A series for which students serve as audience members. It airs on cable's Bravo network (Cox cable channel 53).

"The thing that always gets me on the show is, the students look like complete morons because they ask the dumbest questions," McHale said recently from her Los Angeles home.

What TV viewers see is an edited version of a four-hour interview with each celeb. During an installment featuring Faye Dunaway, McHale says, "There's a shot of me visibly falling asleep on camera."

Another problem: Once host James Lipton conquers his mountain of famous blue notecards, little subject matter about which students can intelligently query the stars remains, she explains. "Really, the only question left to ask Julia Roberts is, 'What kind of hair gel do you use?,' because (Lipton) has covered every other day of her life."

When McHale was awake and learning, however, she mastered the techniques of method acting, among other skills. On the cusp of launching a career as a serious thespian, she decided she'd had enough. "I always say, if I played Ophelia one more time I would drown myself in the river for real."

In a sort of role reversal, she opted to give stand-up comedy a try. McHale turned pro 4 1/2 years ago, and these days plays gigs at colleges and comedy clubs throughout the country. She performs through Sunday at The Improv at Harrah's.

The nod to comedy came about "sort of as a backlash" against her theater training. "Everything was like, 'Drama, drama. Cry about your childhood.' I had a happy childhood, so I was like, 'OK, let's just act and pretend.' I just needed a break."

For the Connecticut native, comedy has always come naturally. She recalls rehearsing for school plays and searching for ways to add laughs. Teachers would remind: " 'You're playing Medea, you're about to kill your children -- probably not a pratfall here.' " McHale plays about 100 college-comedy gigs annually, and in 2001 and 2002 was named Female Entertainer of the year by industry publication Campus Activities Today magazine. Still, the college shows are often tests of adaptability, she says.

"I'll play one night and there will be 3,000 students in a theater and I'll be like, 'I rock.' The next night, it's like 12 students in a cafeteria and I'm standing next to a cappuccino machine that's hissing. So it really messes with your ego."

McHale says she serves her blend of observational humor and storytelling best under pressure. "When you're in a cafeteria and your microphone is somehow hooked up to the woman who is yelling the orders ... and all of a sudden, 'Number 52, come pick up your cheeseburger,' comes out over the speaker, if you can't respond to that, you're dead in the water."

At least her toils at the Actor's Studio weren't in vain: McHale credits her training there for much of her comedy success. It also helps that she has loads of improv experience under her belt. When she first started in comedy, "I didn't have the jokes, so I really went onstage and made stuff up for 40 minutes."

Early in her stand-up career, 20-something McHale made "a strict promise" to herself not to "bash men onstage. I have very strong feelings abut that. I don't do any jokes that say men are this way, and women are this way.

"I think female comics have a really bad rap, and I am doing pretty much everything I can do not to be one of those women who gets onstage and goes, 'Let me tell you about how men are bad, and men are dogs, and here's a joke about my period,' because I think that just alienates so much of the audience," she says.

That's the last thing McHale wants to do, seeing as how she's gaining national attention. Last year she guested on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and in September performed a set on "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn."

Meanwhile the acting bug continues gnawing at her. She's in the process of auditioning for television shows and hopes to land a role soon.

"I do miss acting. I think sometimes our careers choose us, and stand-up is definitely something that chose me," McHale says. "I wasn't 7 and talking into the back of a hairbrush like a comic. I just always wanted to be onstage."

Out for laughs

There will be a brief break in the comedy at Palace Station's Laugh Trax. The club closes following Saturday's show, and reopens Dec. 30 with comic Tom McGillen headlining through Jan. 3.

Meanwhile the shuttering of Golden Nugget's "The Funny Bone Comedy Showcase" will be permanent. The show, which opened earlier this year, closes following Saturday's performances by Jimmie Walker, John Wing and Johnny Walker.

Several noteworthy comedy shows are scheduled to pull into town, beginning Dec. 27 with the "Crown Royal Comedy Festival" (MGM Grand Garden Arena), featuring Ricky Smiley, Earthquake, Bruce Bruce and Adele Givens. Mike Epps, co-star of the flicks "Next Friday" and "Dr. Doolittle 2," plays Orleans Arena on Dec. 31. Funny men Lewis Black and Dave Attell -- big stars on Comedy Central -- hold court Jan. 16 and Jan. 17 at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. Finally, "Drew Carey & the Improv All Stars" take over the stage of MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre Jan. 29 through Feb. 1.

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