WHERE ELSE CAN YOU PICK UP THE PHONE, MAKE AN APPOINTMENT WITH A
FURNITURE DESIGNER TO COME TO YOUR HOME AT NO CHARGE, CUSTOM DESIGN
YOUR NEW FURNITURE TO FIT YOUR ROOM AND THEN FINANCE IT FOR YOU?

Center Stage

Comedenne Gilda Hauser studied music and
worked the stock market before making it in comedy.

JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER

T

,

, • • •

. • ***** • • •

e' .

Installation Special

'50 Off

We Now Welcome VISA and MASTERCARD

RICK WALD

Call For Details 489.5862

SMUMSICOMINIMMM

he two things
one should never
say to an offstage
comedian are:
"Tell me a joke," and
"So, are you funny?"
Gilda Hauser, a
Southfield comic in her
early 30s, has been
asked these questions
since she began her
professional stand-up
career in 1989.
"When we're not on
stage, we're just regu-
lar people," said Ms.
Hauser, who studied
music at the Universi-
ty of Michigan and
took a job as a stock-
broker before entering
the world of comedy.
"People often have ex-
pectations that come-
dians are always going
to be telling a joke. That's not nec-
essarily true."
When Ms. Hauser delivers her
material, it's almost always on
stage. Some of what she talks
about relates to news and current
events. The majority of her rou-
tine is centered on what's hap-
pening in her life. "I tend to talk
a lot about dating," she said.
One of her favorite jokes is
based on a statistic indicating
that single women in her age
group have a better chance of get-
ting hit by a bus than getting
married. Later she tells how some
psychics say people marry their
spouses from former lives. Ms.
Hauser guesses she is still single
because of a bus accident in a
former life.
"It's hard to be a comedienne
and date because a lot of your
time is taken up traveling or your
shows are on Friday and Satur-
day nights," Ms. Hauser said.
"There are also a lot of men who
think that because I'm a comedi-
enne, they have to be funny."
Ms. Hauser Wasn't always a
comedienne. Although she liked
to perform, she never took the
stage in college. Even after she
graduated, she worked as a stock-
broker for 10 years before mak-
ing the transition to comedy full
time.
"Being a stockbroker is not
that far away from being a com-
ic," she said. "To get people in-
terested in talking to me I would
tell jokes. Now, I just do it on
stage."
Before launching her new ca-
reer, Ms. Hauser secretly began
taking classes at Mark Ridley's
Comedy Castle in Royal Oak.

Now she's teach- Gilda Hauser
ing there. At first says comedy
she didn't want to is about doing
tell anyone about the same
the classes be- thing over and
and
cause she was over
making it
skeptical about seen natural.
how people would
react.
Then, slowly, she began doing
open-mike nights and secured a
few master-of-ceremonies jobs at
local clubs. Booking in- and out-
of-state performances got easier
and her career took off. Last year
she was a semifinalist in the 1995
Vail International Comedy Com-
petition.
"Gilda is an outstanding
teacher," said Mark Ridley, own-
er of the Comedy Castle. "She is
very excited about her students
and it carries over to the improv
night she does," he said. "Her
style is not unlike other female
comics, yet Gilda brings more en-
thusiasm and excitement to her
act."

"It's hard to be a
comedienne and
date."

Gilda Hauser

"A lot of people think, 'Gee, I
could be funny,"' Ms. Hauser said.
"Being persistent in setting up
gigs is key in this business. You
also have to be willing to have
your ego smashed a lot."
Ms. Hauser said a comedian's
stage personality will determine
how an audience reacts to a per-
formance. On stage, she tries to