Arts & Entertainment
Morton Grove Comic Getting Gigs and Laughs
Mel Novit has had many incarnations in his career, but he's working clubs and has a projected "America's Got Talent" appearance. At 74, he's working it to make 'old' funny.
Life is a hoot for Mel Novit, ensuring he’s the butt of his own jokes:
“Ladies are always checking me out – boxers or Depends?”
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“I couldn’t get into porn. Those b******s told me my package looked like it fell off a UPS truck.”
“After 31 years of marriage, I’m still having protected sex. I’m carrying a gun. That’s the only way I’m going to get any.”
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Sounds like Henny Youngman material updated for the 21st Century. And if the truth be told, Morton Grove’s Novit, making fun of himself with these and other lines in area comedy clubs, is old enough to have seen Youngman just coming into his prime.
Age isn’t a state of mind for the 74-year-old Novit. It’s the angle he uses for his latest incarnation as a stand-up comedian. Perhaps Novit felt his previous occupations like public-relations man, journalist and letter-writter to the Tribune’s editorial section had elements of humor. But none like he employs on his present circuit, where he stands up against age discrimination: old is good, for laughs.
“I don’t want to take a back seat to anyone because of my age,” said the chrome-domed Novit, sitting by a rock-encrusted waterfall in his back yard hard by the Metra tracks. A basis for humor can always be found by the approach and passage of a train, which always brings the conversation to a pregnant pause.
“On the contrary, I capitalize on my basic experiences, in particular in comedy. Comedy is all about writing. If you can’t write, you can’t get up on the stage.”
Novit might be the oldest chap to break into stand-up comedy. He’s worked for peanuts for some gigs, $20 in others, $100 here or $100 there.
He recently appeared at the Laughing Chameleon comedy club, 1830 Tower Drive right in the middle of The Glen Town Center restaurant/shopping area in Glenview.
He’ll also be the featured act for headliner Michelle Balan on July 27 at the Comedy Shrine in Aurora. But at some point in the near future, Novit is supposed to reach a much bigger audience.
‘America’s Got Talent’ calls
YouTube videos of his act attracted the notice of the TV show “America’s Got Talent.” Novit was called by a producer, but hasn’t been told when to face the judgment of the ribald Howard Stern. To be sure, his age will be fodder for judge Stern’s own sense of humor.
“I’ve always taken a comedic slant to a lot of things I’ve written,” said the 29-year resident of Morton Grove, who shares his home with wife Susan Estes and 7-pound poodle Ted. “I wrote two plays that had stage readings at Victory Gardens. They were both comedies. Since I was a kid, I always had a comedic slant to life to cover up the frustrations and unhappiness I had as a kid.
Tim Kazurinsky praised Novit's work
“I was one of six Jewish kids in the whole school,” said Novit, class of 1956 at the old Niles Township High School on Lincoln Avenue. “If I dated a girl, I’d have to stand outside – they wouldn’t let me in.”
But Novit didn’t put his “self-deprecating” style to paper and then on stage until he was almost 70. He auditioned for a 24-hour cable TV show on comedy. He wrote a three-minute bit. Comic Tim Kazurinsky, on the panel of judges, praised Novit’s work.
'Funniest old man I've ever seen'
He took a comedy class at Zanies in Vernon Hills. Novit inaugurated his act for real in an open-mike night at the Chicago Center for Performing Arts. Dave Odd, who ran The Edge club at the center, told Novit, “You’re the funniest old man I’ve ever seen.”
Soon he embarked on the club circuit. A joke appears “as it comes to me, then I write it down." Novit will rehearse his act “30 or 40 times.” He’ll also rehearse while he walks Ted.
Novit does not have to concoct rolling-eyes facial expressions to cover material that click with an audience, in the manner of Jack Benny or Johnny Carson.
“I have never had a routine that didn’t go over,” Novit said.
He has a guiding philosophy for his routine.
“I subscribe to the theory – and I’ve earned it with old age – that there is only one of me,” he said. “I’m not going to deviate from that for any reason. As soon as I do and I’m not me…I’m don’t love comedy so much I’m going to copy someone’s act.”
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