Two Shows, Two Locations, One Night:

Hal Sparks To Headline For Treehouse Comedy

By Shannon Hicks

Actor, comedian, and musician Hal Sparks, who began his professional career as a teenager in Chicago as a member of the famed Second City Troupe, will headline a pair of shows in the area this weekend. Both shows, in fact, will be performed on Saturday, November 8.

Tickets for either show are $19.50 and can be ordered through TreehouseComedy.com or by calling either venue; call 459-4225 for tickets and info about the Trumbull show, or 744-5575 for the Danbury show.

His first show will be at Marisa’s Ristorante, 6540 Main Street in Trumbull. It will start at 8 pm and will feature an opening set by Chris Bonno.

The second show will be at New Sorrento Restaurant, 32 Newtown Road/Route 6 at Danbury. That show will begin at 10 pm and will include opening sets by Chris Bonno as well as Matt Christmas. The headliner is not worried about the evening’s logistics.

“I’ve done this before,” he said. “There are clubs across the country where this is the norm. I don’t know why, and it seems funny to start a show at like 5 or 6 in the evening, which some places do, but that’s just what they do.

“We have enough time between the two that we should be fine,” he continued. “We should be able to roll right over to Danbury, and Chris can always extend his show, which will buy a little bit of time, if we hit traffic.”

The Fairfield County shows follow a series of appearances the comedian had dubbed The Accidental Swing State Tour.

“The last standup dates that I’ve had happened to be in states that may make a difference come Election Day,” Sparks said from Columbus, Ohio, last week. The timing and location of the shows were coincidental, and the entertainer said he does not alter the show depending on where he is performing.

“I do my regular act, I don’t shift anything regarding the state we’re in,” he said. “You reach people better, and more directly, if you don’t bring up politicians’ names and issues.

“There is a section of every audience, always, where if you bring up a candidate in anything but an angelic, glowing light, their brains shut off. They don’t hear anything from that point on,” he said, adding that he learned that lesson a few years ago. “I think that has to do a lot with the sports team mentality we seem to have in this country,” he said.

While he is a multitasker — musician, comedian, writer, actor, et al — he refuses to name his favorite task.

“You know, there isn’t one that wins out over the others as being ‘the best,’” he said. “That’s like asking me ‘What do you like better, eating or breathing?’ You can probably go without one or the other, but not for too long.”

Instead, Sparks capitalizes on his various talents, enjoying each at appropriate times and making the most of each creative expression.

Acting allows some expression, “but you’re at the whim of someone else’s choices,” he admits. “You have to express the way someone else wants you to act and say. To me, that’s the point of performance.”

So is it difficult for someone who has found celebrity for his improv skills (which still continue to shine on VH-1’s popular I Love the 70s, 80s and 90s series) to stick to a scripted line?

“I thought it would be hard, but on Queer As Folk [the Showtime series where for five seasons he co-starred as Michael Novotny] they were pretty strict as to how the script should be read,” he admitted. “And I agreed with them: who am I to tell them what they want this character to thik or feel?

“In other instances, quite frankly, because I’m a comedian, I think people almost hope for [some amount of improv]. I think people hire me almost thinking they’re bringing in another writer. Sometimes they tell me to just have fun with it.

After a successful run with Second City, Sparks moved to Los Angeles and immediately began performing at numerous comedy clubs, including The Improv, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, and The Ice House, as well as at Comic Relief’s American Comedy Festival.

He is currently lending his voice to the lead character of Tak in the animated Nickelodeon series Tak and the Power of Juju. He can also be seen starring in VH1’s new show I Love the New Millennium as well as the entire I Love the 70s, 80s and 90s series. He was the first host of E!’s Talk Soup (1999–2000) and appeared in the films Spiderman 2 and Dude, Where’s My Car?

A native of Peak’s Mill, Ky., Sparks is also an expert in the martial arts with 20 years experience in shaolin, kung fu, wushu and karate.

Then there is Sparks’s musical outlet. He and his band, Zero 1, have released their debut album last summer and were one of the top indie downloads on iTunes in June 2007.

“The different outlets give me opportunity to feel different things,” he said. “Every comedian feels rage, while I guarantee the guitar player in Slayer has had the giggles at some point. If we’re honest, that’s how we live. I just try to do it in all my art forms as best I can.”

His first priority, on stage at least, is to play the role of comedian.

“As a comedian, my first job is to make people laugh, which I take very seriously,” he said. “The second part is to have content. If I can’t make it funny, it doesn’t belong in the act.

“Being a standup feels almost like being a mass therapist. We’re expressing things that during the week we not allowed to talk about. We wear a mask all week, and that’s where the comedy comes from, looking at everything we aren’t supposed to.”