OTO BY NICOLA GOODE

Funny Guy

CL

In his newest film,
High School High,
Jon Lovitz stars as
Richard C. Clark, a
whitebread young
idealist who goes to
teach at Marion
Barry High, a
notorious inner-city
school so tough that
it has its own
cemetery.

While he yucks
it up . in his
new movie, Jon
Lovitz yearns
for more
dramatic roles
in his future.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR
STAFF WRITER

S

ometimes, when a comedic actor starts
to talk, you sort of expect funny things
to just fall out of his mouth. You want
him to make you laugh, off as well as
on stage.
But that is not the case with Jon Lovitz.
Probably best known for his roles as the
Pathological Liar and Master Thespian dur-
ing his five-year stint with "Saturday Night
Live," in person, Lovitz is not an effusively
funny guy. Occasionally funny, sure, but a
constant scream, no.
In town to promote his new movie, High
School High, the talented actor, with exten-
sive training in drama, was gracious, intel-
ligent, charming, handsome and compelling.,
far from another of his popular "Saturday
Night Live" personas, Annoying Man.
Lovitz, the son of a California internist
who aspired to be a singer, became hooked
on acting at a young age. Although his father
was known to frequently belt out tunes while
hanging around the house, little Jon was
more influenced by a film he watched at the
age of 7. Home from school while recuperat-
ing from a bout with the flu, he caught a re-
run of The Jolson Story, the 1946 film in
which Larry Parks lip-synched to the voice
of Al Jolson, and was sold on his destiny.
"He has to go on stage the night his moth-
er dies and he is singing, 'Mammy, Mammy,'
and he is in black face," Lovitz said. "He looks
at the audience, and the theater is packed,

except for that one seat where his mother al-
ways sits.
"It is really powerful. I just started crying.
So that is what got me then. I was 7 and
singing Al Jolson," he says, breaking into
song and flinging his arms wide open in an
impersonation of a 7-year-old doing Jolson.
"Mammy, Mammy. You ain't heard nothing
yet."
After attending a private, all-boys prep
school, Lovitz went on to the University of
California-Irvine, where he majored in dra-
ma. Instructors there taught him to use his
own personality and idiosyncracies in his
work.
"That was the best thing they could have
said," said Lovitz.
But even with the degree, he wasn't sure
about what he wanted out of life. His father
told him to have something to fall back on,
and his friends encouraged him to get an-
other job. Working as a messenger by day
and in an improvisational group at night, he
happened one day to hear a preacher who
asked the question: "Are you willing to do
what you have to do to get what you want?"
"At the time, I was 25 and had no money,
but I wanted acting. So when I asked myself,
`Am I willing to do what I have to do to get
what I want?' I thought, No,' " he said, with
a laugh. "So, I thought, then I better quit or
think 'yes' and really do it."
And he did. He collared the spot in the

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"Saturday Night Live" cast, went on to ap-
pear in A League of Their Own and several
other motion pictures, and performed voice
spots on The Simpsons and The Critic.
And now he's nabbed his first leading role,
in High School High. While he is pleased to
get the comedic lead, he wants his future to
include more dramatic roles as well.
"I can do [drama] because most of my
training was in it," he said. "Most dramatic
directors say, 'Well, if we put you in the
movie, then people will start laughing.' "