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BEEF • SEAFOOD • SPIRITS 1 26855 GREENFIELD S. OF 11 MILE • Southfield • 557-0570 (Also good at all Detrott Locations!) Expires 2-28-91 I MINI MIMI- MINI III= MIME MIME MIME t FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1991 RITA CHARLESTON Special to The Jewish News C omedian Dennis Wolf- berg says he got some of his best material from his 12 years as a sixth- grade teacher in New York's tough South Bronx neighborhood. "My school was so tough it had its own coroner and the school newspaper had an obituary column," Mr. Wolfberg recalls. "I once assigned an essay on the topic `What I want to be if I grow up.' At show and tell, one of my students brought in a sub- poena." Though Mr. Wolfberg gave teaching a chance for more than a decade, it was never his first career choice. A self- described "nice, compliant son of classic Jewish parents!' Mr. Wolfberg attended Queens College ("which ranks on a par with the Na- tional Bartenders Institute"), and took pre-med courses. He later earned a master's degree in clinical psychology. "But I never wanted to be a teacher or a psychologist," he admits. "I always dreamed of becoming an entertainer. That was my lifelong fantasy, which gives you some idea of how pathetically limited my fantasies were!' So in 1976, without leaving the security of his teaching job, Mr. Wolfberg auditioned one night for a spot at a New York City comedy club. "It was 3 a.m. and there were two people in the audience who promptly left as soon as I took the stage so I had an audience of zero!' Undaunted, but with no one around from whom to elicit laughs, Mr. Wolfberg picked up the guitar he always car- ried with him and started to sing "Bye-Bye Miss American Pie!' which turned out to be the club owner's favorite song. "He liked me, hired me and boom," Mr. Wolfberg laughs, "I was in show business. And the rest, they say, is history!" It wasn't, however, as easy as he pretends. Billed as a singer, Mr. Wolfberg added comedy to his act, but with constant dread. "I didn't come out from behind the guitar for three years, even after I stop- ped playing it. I was so afraid I wouldn't get laughs, I think I started to use my eyes in a funny way to increase my chances. If the joke wasn't funny, maybe my face would be. Beyond that, my style just sort of evolved!' Dennis Wolfberg Today, as early in his career, one of Mr. Wolfberg's signatures is his bulging eyes. "Some people have bedroom eyes," he notes. "I have headlight eyes." His punch lines, too, con- tinue to be delivered by a man who seems to fear he will be pulled off stage at any minute, emphasizing words and syllables to make sure the audience gets the message: "I was in Mobile, Alabama, where men are men and Jews are BAIT .. . We were very Reform Jews. Our rabbi was a part-time PORK distributor." Mr. Wolfberg also continues his anecdotal style of comedy, reflecting on his life and various changes he goes through, from his youth and the complexities of being Jewish, to the painful narra- tion of his complete physical examination and the subse- quent prescription of fiber cereal, "the nuclear laxative in a box," to his marriage and the rigors of natural childbirth as prescribed by the "Marquis de Lamaze!' In 1980, the same year he turned professional come- dian, Mr. Wolfberg met fellow comedian Jeannie McBride. The two became fast friends, worked the comedy circuit in tandem, married in 1985 and became the proud parents of Daniel in 1987. "My wife is half-Jewish," he says. "And that makes my parents half-crazy!" Today Mr. Wolfberg has the opportunity to reflect on his life as a husband and father in his act. "We just found out we are expecting twins. That's God's way of saying you've slept enough!" Actually, Mr. Wolfberg ad- mits he is very much a fami- ly man who, at the age of 44, continues to look forward with great joy to having children while continuing his climb up the comedy ladder. Voted America's "Top Male Comedian of 1989" by Rave magazine, and nominated as "Best Male Stand-up" at the American Comedy Awards, Mr. Wolfberg is quite happy with the way his career is shaping up. A regular guest on all the major daytime and night-time TV talk shows, he also hosted for Regis Philbin recently when Mr. Philbin was struck with an attack of kidney stones. "In fact," remembers Mr. Wolfberg, "as a token of my appreciation for all that ex- posure on national television, I sent him an enormous calcium tablet. "But seriously," he con- cludes, "television exposure has greatly enhanced my career, as it would for any per- former. So I'm very happy with the way my life is going. For the future, I just look for- ward to being even happier and sharing some of that hap- piness with audiences everywhere." ❑ Youth Symphony Sets Concert The Metropolitan Youth Symphony, consisting of 250 young people in three or- chestras led by prominent music educators, will present its winter concert 7 p.m. Feb. 24 in Orchestra Hall. The musicians, ranging from 5th through 12th grades, come from over fifty communities in the tri-county area. The String Orchestra will be conducted by Jackqueline Coleman, department head and director of the middle school music program at Detroit Country Day School. Richard Piippo, conductor of the Concert Orchestra, is a cellist as well as teacher and conductor at Wayne State University. His musicians will play the Symphony #8 in G Major, opus 88 by Dvorak from the original score. Alan McNair is concert- master and assistant conduc- tor of the Rochester Sym- phony and orchestra director at Troy High School. His sym- phony orchestra will play the entire Symphony #5 in E Minor by Tchaikovsky. For ticket information, call 644-8105 or 375-0206.