Rising comic comes to The Cellar

By JOHN BENSON

entertainment@vindy.com

Comedian Gary Valentine will make his first trip to Youngstown this weekend, but he’s well aware of the area’s football fanaticism. He recalled a visit to the Steel City a few years ago.

“I worked Pittsburgh before, and those people are crazy,” said Valentine, calling from a movie shoot in Colorado. “I had to postpone my show to the end of the Steelers’ game on a Sunday night. I couldn’t start because nobody would have paid attention.”

People are definitely paying attention now to Valentine. Over the past decade he has not only toured the nation as a stand-up comedy headliner but also appeared in such feature films as “Stuck on You,” “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” in addition to having a recurring role on television series “The King of Queens.” The latter two flicks and sitcom starred Valentine’s brother Kevin James.

In case you’re wondering, both New York City natives were born Knipfings but changed their names early on in their careers with Gary taking Valentine while his younger brother Kevin took James.

“Yeah, we goofed around a lot as kids,” Valentine said. “I got into stand-up first and then Kevin wanted to get into it. He was doing community theater plays and then he got into comedy. We worked together as an improv team. It just took off from there. We always wanted to act in sitcoms and movies, so thank God it’s working out so far. We always had this kind of unwritten rule that whoever gets the first break will help the other one through. And he actually got a bigger break first, obviously, with the sitcom.”

Looking ahead, Valentine said he’s honing material for a new comedy special, which he expects to shoot later this year. While he hopes the comedy concert eventually ends up on a network (hello, Comedy Central), he’s also focusing his attention on television.

“I just want to get back on TV with a series,” Valentine said. “Hopefully a sitcom or maybe some kind of a talk show or variety show. We’re working on a couple of options, and hopefully, we’ll get there. But I really want to do a sitcom. I’ve written my own script, and I’m going to pitch it. It’s called ‘The Bachelor Chronicles.’ And with me being a bachelor, it works out nicely. I’ll bring my persona to that.

“I play this cocky, know-it-all guy who really doesn’t know anything. It’s high energy and kind of aggressive style. But it’s silly and good, and people seem to dig it. I bring that to everything now because it’s kind of like a character I found. It’s really fun to do that kind of an insecure guy that thinks he has it going on but really doesn’t. He’s very insecure.”

So just how close to home is this stage persona, which also defines his stand-comedy style?

“I don’t know, I’ve always been a really confident guy,” Valentine laughs. “I think that’s why I can really pull this off. Like I have this confidence on stage where people know that I’m kidding but they think I’m half-kidding. The audience sits there and says, ‘Is he telling the truth or not?’ Yeah, put it this way, I get away with a lot.”