Good Humor Man
Scituate Comedian is a Stand-up Guy
By Suzette Martinez Standring
Comedian Mike Dunphy, dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, pounces onstage with the edgy air of a boxer at Nick’s Comedy Stop in Boston. The Scituate native punches up the laughter with stories and one-liners, and makes tickling a crowd of 50 look easy. Just minutes before his set, the 28-year-old often paces in the bathroom on the brink of nausea. Making people laugh is a very serious business, and comedy has been Dunphy’s siren’s song since childhood.
“As a 6-year-old, I knew ‘Eddie Murphy: Delirious’ from front to back. I’ve always been drawn to comedy. I’m the youngest of nine kids, so I guess you can say I was stretching for attention,” said Dunphy, who is also a humor columnist for Slammed Magazine, a restaurant industry publication.
Cooking provides funny fodder since he is the Culinary Director at the Ivy School in Brookline, which teaches cooking skills to adult residents who have suffered brain trauma.
“It’s a job that is not without its humorous moments,” he said.
Dunphy has successfully parlayed his passion for food and laughs into a regular guest spot as the in-house chef and comedian on Billy Costa’s show, “TV Diner,” which appears on New England Cable News on Saturday mornings.
The show’s producer, Jason Hawkins, said “TV Diner” was originally looking for someone to do industry editorials, but Dunphy’s background as a chef who moonlights as a standup comic was too good to resist.
“Mike is hysterical. I’ve always been skeptical of local comics, but his dry, sarcastic style took the house down,” Hawkins said.
Dunphy’s standup material draws from relationships, frat house humor, and growing up in a big Irish Catholic family on the South Shore.
“There’s a 16-year age difference between me and the oldest, and I got a lot of hand-me-downs. In 1986, I was wearing stuff that was popular in 1976. I was the only fourth-grader wearing a powder blue leisure suit,” he quipped.
In 2000, he began performing while attending Boston University. At the time, he worked at a number of local restaurants, and juggled studies, free comedy stints and kitchen duty.
“I was cooking at Armani’s Café on Newbury Street and I’d sneak out on Sundays to do a five-minute set at the Comedy Vault. I’d find any place I could get stage time,” he recalled.
Bad beginnings only made him stronger as he learned more about timing, material and delivery. His first onstage appearance was extremely painful.
“It was the biggest nightmare. I had never done it before, and there were all these 90-year-old people at Grill 93 eating surf and turf dinners. My bit was about adult film stars breaking world records, so enough said. You could hear fork and knives clinking the plates, they were in total disgust. First lesson, know your audience,” he said, sighing.
Dunphy took heart from an article written by comic genius Robin Williams, who encouraged all budding comedians to give it a year and expect the worst every time.
Dunphy agreed. “Be prepared to make a fool of yourself. Be prepared to be horrible for a long time. Get over it and don’t take it personally. Stick it through and see what happens.”
Since those early performances, a lot has happened.
In 2000, Dunphy produced, co-starred and promoted Humor for Humanity, an evening of comedy at BU, which raised more than $10,000 for the American Red Cross 9/11 Liberty Fund, for which he received its Humanitarian Award.
Performing throughout Boston and South Shore clubs, Dunphy honed his craft. Earlier in August, he won K.O. Productions’ “Rising Star Competition” in New York City. In announcing the winner, Jason Sokk of K.O. Productions said, “Mike Dunphy was the comedian with the best overall material, joke delivery, stage presence and creativity.”
His win earned him a featured hosting spot at Caroline’s on Broadway, a Manhattan night club where Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Rosie O’Donnell and Jay Leno appeared early in their careers before attaining stardom. Dunphy then leapfrogged onto the set of Billy Costa’s “TV Diner.”
His comic idols are Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Boston’s own Kevin Knox, and Dunphy says comedy only looks easy, since there’s an art to rhythm, delivery and comic timing. Dunphy writes his own material, and his inspirations come at odd times.
“I have 12 drawers full of bar napkins. I find notes like ‘narcoleptic midget’ and think what was so funny about that? I keep a pen and pad by the bed, wake up at 2 a.m. and keep writing until 5 a.m.,” he said.
His largest club audience has numbered 600, while small crowds are downright scary. He recalled one show at the Comedy Vault in front of six people.
“I was standing on a 6-inch stage, that’s like standing on a phone book and staring them in the eyes. You know who’s not laughing, and that sucks,” he said.
Strange women coming up to meet him after the show was a big plus, but now, his interest has waned. He’s engaged to Kelly Neill, an accountant he met through a mutual friend at Nick’s Comedy Stop. They both live in Medford, and no, she doesn’t mind his jokes about relationships at all.
“They were written before I met her, but people think I’m talking about her. I think she’s proud. She sits back and let’s me do my thing,” he said.
Dunphy hopes for a future stint on “Saturday Night Live,” or maybe even a comedy show of his own. It wouldn’t surprise “TV Diner’s” producer.
“I like to think I discovered him, and when he gets famous, I hope he’ll remember me,” said Hawkins.