Basile plays familiar role in dark comedy

January 23, 2014 at 12:05a.m.

Stand-up comedian Basile is always busy.

When he’s not touring around the country doing his straight comedy set, he’s performing a Greek-based comedy show or dabbling in television and feature films. It’s the latter that took up most of his time recently.

“I just filmed the movie ‘The Athenian Love Affair’ in Greece,” said Basile (real name Basile Katsikis). “It’s a movie that took me over three years to write. The story line is basically I’m a New York City detective who winds up getting recruited by the DEA to check out the heroin trade from Turkey into Greece that is making its way to the United States.”

Described as a dark comedy, “The Athenian Love Affair” was inspired by horrific stories of drug trafficking from the ’60s. Basile said the flick is a combination of “Midnight Express”-meets-“The Heat.” He expects it to be released later this year. Basically, the lead character played by Basile is a quintessential fish out of water in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I have to deal with a straight-laced detective from Greece,” Basile said. “He’s a real arrogant SOB, and I play the schlub that I am, which is a little bit of the character I play on stage and off. It’s just who I am as an individual.”

On stage, Basile, who got his start in comedy during the late ’80s in Cleveland, said he wants to take his audience members on a journey. Unlike his peers, this funnyman doesn’t tackle tough issues or daily news topics.

You won’t find Basile discussing the economy, Obamacare or religion. Instead, his approach is simple: to provide an escape from the daily grind, oftentimes at his own expense.

“Basically, I talk about real-life situations with family, relationships and trying to lose weight,” Basile said. “And I’m always fine-tuning it. It’s like a bonsai bush. I tweak it here and tweak it there, and then all of a sudden a new branch opens up. You keep tweaking it until you really are enjoying the way this is coming into a full, beautiful tree.”

That tree will be blossoming in a different color for Basile, who returns to Youngstown this weekend for six shows at the Funny Farm.