Comedian Chalis brings message

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

Considering Chili Chalis grew up in the shadow of NBC Studios in beautiful downtown Burbank, Calif., it’s apropos he eventually became a writer on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

“I actually started doing stand-up in the fifth grade,” said Chalis, calling from Los Angeles. “I had a teacher that would allow me to get up every Friday and do a little stand-up routine. But I started getting paid for stand-up in 1979 and only stopped doing stand-up for a few years when I was working for NBC.”

Friends with Leno before his Johnny Carson replacement fame, Chalis joined the “Tonight Show” staff in 1992. However, he did so against the advice of Leno.

“It was a slave contract to me because they hold you for five years, and they really don’t let you leave Los Angeles,” Chalis said. “You have to kind of stay there. And being a traveling comedian, I like getting out and doing my own stuff. Leno warned me when I signed my contract, he’s like [giving his best Leno impression], ‘You’re, er, uh, going to have to stay. It’s like a real job. You live here and stuff.’

“And I was like, ‘Oh no, I can do this. It’ll be fine.’ But after a few years I found out he was right. I was ready to move around.”

Even though he left the late-night show about a decade ago, he still remains close to Leno as a satellite writer who contributes material on a regular basis. In fact, Chalis said just recently a joke about President Bush made it on the air.

“I just had a joke on Bush’s surprise visit to Iraq,” Chalis said. “The joke was, ‘Yeah, it’s always a surprise when Bush shows up in a war zone.’ So I still write for the show and I come up with ideas for Jaywalking.”

Aside from submitting jokes to Leno, Chalis stays busy working around the country as a teacher of comedy. His students range from stand-up wannabes to the mainstream public, which take his class in hopes of sharpening their interpersonal and speaking skills. Oddly enough, Chalis says the entire experience has benefited his own comedic talents.

“Absolutely, I’m constantly growing and learning,” Chalis said. “The old saying is if you really want to know a topic, teach it. And I’ve probably learned more and grown in standup over just the last few years.”

When he’s not teaching, Chalis can be found on the comedy club circuit. He comes to Youngstown with dates Friday and Saturday at The Funny Farm. 

“I cover a lot of different topics,” Chalis said. “I’m honest with my past and my past pot-smoking college years. There’s a lot of humor there, but I’m not glorifying drugs. It’s actually an anti-drug message and all of the mistakes that I made. One of my jokes is I smoked a lot of pot and I used to go through $100 worth of incense.

“There’s a good sense of humor there, but I talk about family stuff and love to be really observational about whatever areas I’m in. I’ll talk about traffic and the potholes in Ohio. Of course, I was down on potholes after I found out there was no pot in them.”

Quickly approaching the big 5-0, the baby boomer Chalis is admittedly wiser. He said he hopes to leave every audience with a simple but perhaps life-changing idea.

“I actually have a message in my standup,” Chalis said. “It’s about how important laughter is in dealing with just everyday life, because a sense of humor gives you a buffer between you and all of the morons that we have to deal with every day.”