Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER
Vince A. Sicari, attorney at law, leads a double life. During the day, the River Edge lawyer works at a Ridgewood law office, driving to various court dates across North Jersey.
But when he leaves, he makes a beeline for a New York comedy club, stopping by the side of the road to change out of his suit. By the time he hits the stage and grabs a mike, he isn't Vince A. Sicari anymore. He is Vince August, stand-up comedian and actor.
Tomorrow he headlines a show at Carolines, one of the top comedy clubs in the city, and will record his second comedy DVD.
Like most comics, Vince August makes fun of his life onstage. He might even joke about intimate sex moments. But he never, never talks about Vince A. Sicari.
"I refuse to do a law joke," said August. "... Superman doesn't talk about Clark Kent."
Vince A. Sicari works in a solo practice, a situation that allows him to dash out for acting auditions and stand-up comedy sets. Associates have never asked him where he goes when he leaves early or disappears in the middle of the day.
"You always hope for office days," said August. "When I have to go into court, it really puts a wrinkle in my day."
August does closing sets at the Laugh Factory, another Manhattan club, four nights a week. "I'm working 250 nights a year," he said. "I pretty much never say no to a gig. If a club calls me at 6 o'clock [at night] and says, 'Will you fill in?' I'll do it." Sometimes he's in the city until the wee hours of the morning; but when the clock strikes 9 a.m., he is once again Vince A. Sicari."I'm not a funny lawyer -- I'm a funny comedian," said August.
It's a point of pride for the comic, who never stepped inside a comedy club -- or pursued any sort of entertainment career -- until the age of 27. The son of Italian immigrants in Hackensack, August was told from a young age that he had to stay in school and have a real career, even though he knew at age 7 that he wanted to "be on TV."
So Vince Sicari went to college. He went to law school. He started working at a firm. But one day 10 years ago, he made a comedy tape and sent it to a friend. Later that evening, he got a call.
"He said, 'We're dying laughing over here,' " said August. "He was the one who told me, 'You've got to do something with it.' "
August took a comedy class. The final product of the course was a six-minute stint at Carolines, which he calls the "mecca" of comedy clubs. The class instructor required all students to turn in final versions of comedy scripts and then rewrote most of August's material. But August had turned in a fake script in anticipation of this.
On the night of that debut performance, August listened to the awkward silence as his classmates performed one by one and drew little laughter. Finally, it was his turn.
"I just went on there, and I just set the place on fire," he said.
Right after the show, August was booked to do a set at Gotham, another high-profile comedy club, and his career started to take off. In August 2004, August snagged the opportunity to open a show for one of his comic heroes, Andrew Dice Clay (pictured left , courtesy of comedycentral.com)."His crowds are very unique," said August. "They're brutal. If you don't win them over in the first 20 seconds, that will be the most miserable 10 minutes of your life."
But he must have done something right, because that night, the owner of the Laugh Factory asked him to book a regular gig. And that's when Superman really started to fly.
"For me, the stand-up is a drug," said August. "I can't even explain the high you get from being onstage performing in front of people."
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment