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Rosh Hashanah. Haber advis-
ed the producer about the holi-
day. " 'Babe,' the producer told
me, he's very `60s,"I scheduled
this six months ago.' George,' I
told the producer, 'they
scheduled Rosh Hashanah
almost 6,000 years ago!' "
(Beginning at 1 a.m. Satur-
day on Channel 4, Haber will
appear on a new show, George
Schlatter's Comedy Club.)
Haber's family was not hap-
py with her decision to go into
comedy. "At first, they were
really like confused and disap-
pointed. I already had the ac-
ting under my belt. When they
heard I went to a nightclub,
which in my family is like 'Got-
tenyu, she's going into
nightclubs,' nothing could be
worse than me walking into a
nightclub and getting on stage.
To them it's like unspeakable.
It's like the lowest somebody in
the family could have ever
sunk." But, she says, they came
around. "Now my parents
think I'm the world's greatest
comic."
She often uses her family as
the basis for some of her
material, just to have
characters, not because they
really do the things she speaks
of in her routines. About her
father she jokes:
"My dad used to humiliate
me when guys used to pick me
up at the door in high school.
He would be standing there
with a shotgun. He would hand
it over to my dates and say,
`Use it if you have to. "
Haber looks to herself for
most of her material. "If you
come and see my act you'll see
it never leaves more than five
inches from my body." Some of
it reflects on being single as
well. Her phone number, she
jokes, is 1-800-MARRY-ME.
And she talks of relationships
gone sour. "I had to go in for
female surgery. I had to have
an old boyfriend removed." But,
she says she's not bitter when
a former boyfriend, whom she
adored, married someone else.
She wished him a good life, a
happy marriage and a happy,
healthy child, "like Damian!"
Haber writes most of her
material and would like to buy
jokes from other comedians.
Writing, she says, is the
hardest part of being a come-
dienne. "The really hard part
is coming up again and again
with all this material until TV
eats it up. But, if you know any
good writers. . ."
She tries to stay away from
off-color material, but will use
a couple of those kinds of jokes
on a rare occasion. "I have a
couple of jokes that have come
up to my head that I'll do in
clubs that are not family
oriented. But I only do them on
occasion, just for no particular
reason and they're show stop-

Karen Haber began performing at sweet 16s and at fund raisers.

pers. You don't expect to see me
do something like that."
Haber says she comes from a
conservative family, small "c"
and capital "C." She was bat
mitzvah and confirmed, two ex-
periences for which she says
she is grateful. She pursued
studies in college in an-
thropology, but dropped out. "I
was disappointed in college."
Today she mixes with the
likes of such nationally-known
comedians and comediennes as
Garry Shandling, Steven
Wright and Roseanne Barr and
she is complimentary toward
them. "There are comics that
I really love, like I love Joan
Rivers. I think she's the fun-
niest person on earth. I also
like Roseanne Barr a lot. She's
a friend of mine. I like Garry
Shandling — he's probably my
favorite. He just makes me
laugh more than anyone. I
didn't know any comics before
I did stand-up. . .I'm a comic
and I'm a comic fan. And I like
most of the comics and enjoy
watching most of the shows."
It is Joan Rivers who really
gave a boost to her career.
Rivers, former host of Fox
Broadcasting's The Late Show
Starring Joan Rivers, had sent
her talent coordinator to the
comedy clubs to search for
guests for her show. The talent
coordinator had approached
Haber about being on the show
and the next week showed up
with Rivers. After watching
Haber perform, Rivers ap-
proached her. Giving Haber a
friendly smack on the arm,
Haber explained, Rivers told
her "You're on the show, you're
on the show."
Yet, despite all the national
TV exposure and Las Vegas ap-

pearances, Haber said she feels
that her big break is yet to
come. "I think it's (TV) a
tremendous break, but my big
break is bigger than that."
Haber will continue to
hone her craft on the road,
because until the sitcoms and
TV appearances come, she'll
need a paycheck.

The best part of being a
comic, • says Haber, is the
laughter and applause,
"especially after a new joke."
The worst, she says, is when a
comedian "bombs." "It's the
worst thing in the world when
you get up there and you're
bombing (when nobody
laughs). Especially my act,
because it's so personal. You
don't want to bomb, but it hap-
pens."
Haber is not limiting
herself to stand-up comedy. She
writes for TV and her fondest
wish is to produce a film, the
proceeds of which she could
donate to someone less for-
tunate. "The film I would like
to do the most is about a man
who takes his entire fortune,
and it's on the Rocke-
feller level, and turns his estate
into a model orphan-
age/old-age home. I would hope
to make this movie and the
movie could actually ac-
complish that with the money.
I always hope that besides hav-
ing a wonderful career. I'll also
do things that will help other
people."

Haber's career is taking off
like great guns. But, she says
this is really only the beginn-
ing. "Most people take ten
years to be on TV. For a comic,"
she says, "I'm really a baby." ❑

