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Chattanooga: Comedians find differing stages for humor

By: Barry Courter
(Contact)

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Jim Brick

Both Jim Brick and Karen Mills cut their teeth, so to speak, as professional comedians at the Comedy Catch, but both have found their own niches within the business.

Mr. Brick works primarily for Carnival Cruise Lines, and Ms. Mills does mostly corporate gigs. The pair will perform this weekend at the Comedy Catch, one of a handful of club dates each will do this year.

“They are both headliners in their own right,” said club co-owner Michael Alfano.

“Both of them came up through the (Comedy Catch), and neither are what we call road warriors,” Mr. Alfano said. “They both found their niche without having to do the club (circuit).

“Karen is clean and clever, and Jim is edgy but also an improv comic. He likes to pick out audience members and play on that.”

Mr. Brick grew up within spittin’ distance of Ken Sons and Les McCurdy, the original owners of the Comedy Catch. Like Mr. Sons and Mr. McCurdy, Mr. Brick always knew he was funny, but it wasn’t until he’d made his old East Ridge High School classmates laugh once again during their 15-year class reunion in 1989 that he gave any thought to making a living at making people giggle.

“I was living in Tampa (Fla.) at the time, and during the drive home after the reunion, I did a serious reassessment of my life,” Mr. Brick said. “I’d never been married and was working in the chemicals industry and really not having any fun.”

Mr. McCurdy owned a comedy club in Sarasota, Fla., at the time, and Mr. Brick spent the summer there working on his routine.

“Les has been an integral part of my career since the beginning,” Mr. Brick said.

Mr. Brick, who lives in East Ridge, said he developed that talent while working as a club emcee in Savannah, Ga. It was his first professional gig as a comic.

“I used to do topical material,” he said. “You know, stuff from the newspapers and news. Leno and Letterman were doing that, and people thought I was copying them. I wasn’t, but it seemed like it.”

He started improvising and found his groove.

“I like to interact with the audience,” he said. “I have two hours of material I can do, but I’m thrilled if I never do my act.”

The Carnival gig started on a part-time basis about eight years ago, he said, and became full-time five years ago. These days he flies out of Atlanta on Thursday, spends a couple of days aboard a cruise ship and is home by Sunday.

He does two family shows and then an adult show on the ships. Working to an audience filled with family members of all ages and from all over is a different experience for a comic, he said.

“When you are in Louisville (Ky.) or Atlanta or wherever, everybody lives there, and they share common things. Not so on a ship. They are from everywhere. Plus, I’m looking out at 4-year-olds, and I can make them laugh and their grandparents,” he said.

Carnival picks up all of his expenses.

“It’s a good gig,” he said.

For Ms. Mills, the corporate shows fit her humor, she said. She is regularly booked at women’s conventions and sisterhood weekends, but she also has worked meetings for American Express and BlueCross BlueShield.

“Sometimes being clean is more important than being funny, and (it’s) great if you can be both,” she said.

“I did pursue it somewhat, but at the same time it came to me,” she said. “Just being clean for one thing. It is important that no one be offended.”

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