THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506010216
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: John Harper
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
BRETT LEAKE helped me once, and he didn't even know it.
It happened in the spring of 1987. I was feeling a little down. My job was weighing on me, and my marriage to a woman I really loved was nearing the finish line. As I look back, I think both of us had hoped for a cure for our marital malaise.
There was no cure. But there was a treatment.
As fate would have it, our favorite comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, was appearing in Richmond as part of the Comedy Club's fifth anniversary week. This was the pre-TV show Seinfeld, but he had appeared on numerous comedy shows and had become a Johnny Carson favorite on ``The Tonight Show.''
His routines were glimpses of the little things in life: Halloween costumes, buying shoes at a mall, going to the dentist. He never failed to crack us up.
We sat in the darkness of the club waiting for Seinfeld. But the first man to appear on stage was a Richmonder, Brett Leake.
This tall, thin man with a bent-over posture hit his mark.
``I'm Brett Leake,'' he said. ``I have a handicap. I have a degree in economics.''
We laughed. Leake told stories about buying toothpaste and losing credit cards. He also explained his posture. Leake has a mild form of muscular dystrophy.
For 20 minutes, my troubles were somewhere else, happening to someone else. Patricia and I laughed and cried and held hands during Leake's routine.
Seinfeld was wonderful, too. But something about Leake's performance touched us. Maybe it was seeing a man with a disability talking about it so honestly. And laughing.
My marriage didn't make it, but Leake did. He travels from coast to coast, making people laugh.
Leake, 35, is coming to The Comedy Club in Nags Head on June 5 for a weeklong engagement.
He lives in Louisa County, west of Richmond. And he's done a lot since that night in '87. Leake has appeared on ``Donahue,'' ``Evening at the Improv,'' ``The Jerry Lewis Telethon'' and ``The Tonight Show.''
Leake has also opened for comedians like Jay Leno, Paula Poundstone and Rita Rudner. When I caught up with him, he was preparing for a show at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.
``I'm a little concerned about the billboard,'' Leake said. ``My name isn't on there. I was beaten out by a shrimp sale. Good price, though.''
Leake describes his comedies as ``gentle observational material.''
Here's his take on buying cheese at the supermarket:
``Why was it aged eight years and then has an expiration date of a week? I say age it seven years, and give me the extra year.''
Or listen to his message on telephone numbers on credit cards:
``On the back of a credit card, it says `Call this number if lost.' Wait a minute, how can I get that number if I don't have my card?''
Leake has been in the funny business since 1983. One of his biggest moments was appearing on ``The Tonight Show'' in 1991. Jay Leno was the guest host that night.
``Leno came in my dressing room,'' Leake says. ``He asked me if I was going to tell his favorite joke. Leno knew it was my first joke and he knew I would hear him laugh and that would relax me.''
Leake was on the money that night. He has appeared with Leno three times since.
The comedy bit has been a bit of a surprise for him. Leake says that except for a year when he was ``a smart aleck in class in high school,'' he didn't feel funny.
But in 1982, Leake's brother returned home after a night at another comedy room in Richmond. He told Brett some of the jokes he had heard. The brothers agreed that Brett could do better. So he sat and wrote 15 minutes of material. His next stop was an ``open mike'' night at the club.
``They were looking for local talent,'' he says. ``I guess I passed the test.''
As for the muscular dystrophy, it's a mild form. It's also genetic. His father and brother are afflicted.
``Three out of the four people in my house had the disease,'' Leake says. ``I'm quite comfortable with it.''
Leake plays about 250 dates a year. This will be his 10th year at the Comedy Club in Nags Head.
Don't miss this guy. He's intelligent, clean and doesn't tell ``jokes.''
He made me laugh eight years ago: I'm going to thank him when I see him. ILLUSTRATION: Brett Leake describes his comedy style as ``gentle observational
material.''
WHAT & WHERE
Who: Brett Leake with Jeff Caldwell
Where: Comedy Club at the Carolinian, milepost 10 1/2, N.C. Route
12, Nags Head
When: June 5-10
More information: 441-7171
by CNB