Maryellen Hooper returns to her former hometown to find humor in the way her life is going now.
By ROBERT HICKS
Published October 2, 2003
[Publicity photo]
Maryellen Hooper, who talks about whatever she’s going through in real life, is in her Fixer Upper phase.
Maryellen Hooper just got married.
"It took six years. Hello!," says the bride. "I think he must've gotten the ring off a dead lady. I guess that's why it took him so long."
The former Tampa resident has a knack for presenting the female side of life's little experiences. The guys - well, they just cringe and turn to their better half and say, "But that's not how you think of me, right?"
Right.
Soon, the guys are laughing, too.
Winner of the Best Female Stand-Up at the 12th annual American Comedy awards in 1998, Hooper will appear tonight through Sunday at the Improv in Ybor City.
"It's kind of fun, because I grew up there," Hooper, 39, says from Los Angeles. "It's kind of my hometown, so I have lots of family and friends. It's funny - people I went to high school with will show up. That's always fun, because it's like a mini-reunion, so I've been . . . making sure I look good."
Hooper's family moved from Long Island, N.Y., to Tampa when she was 7. She remembers doing a lot of comedy and performing in community theater productions during high school, first in Brandon and later in Land O'Lakes. But she attributes her love of comedy to her family.
"We've always dealt with things with humor," she says. "It was always about sitting around and telling funny stories. If something bad happened to you, you just made jokes about it. I've just always been that way."
Her first effort at professional comedy came at an open mike night at the Comic Strip in Fort Lauderdale in 1985. "I did a bit about my dad being a cop," she says. "It was things like, "My dad arrested my first date. He charged him with possession of condoms with intent to use.' " She also became licensed as a hairdresser and aspired to be an actor while working as a movie extra in South Florida.
At age 20, she moved back to New York, working odd jobs and doing open mike nights at Jimmy's Comedy Alley, Governors, Chuckles, Stand-Up New York and the Comedy Cellar.
Two years later, she moved to Philadelphia, where she moved up the comedy ladder to emcee suburban weekend shows during the late '80s and early '90s. After moving to New Jersey, she began to work as a featured performer and headliner on the college circuit across the United States. She appeared on Star Search and Evening at the Improv before moving to Los Angeles in 1994.
Hooper recorded her debut comedy CD, Dignity Under Duress, live at Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena, Calif., in 1998. Among her comedy bits on it were "I Burn and Peel" ("It's a story about how pale I am and how I have to put sunscreen on to walk to the mailbox."), "I Was a Hairdresser" ("People would come in with pictures of what they wanted to look like and I'd tell them, "It's a comb, not a wand.' ") and "I Totaled My Car."
She regards herself as a storyteller in the vein of Bill Cosby, Carol Burnett, Richard Pryor and Lucille Ball, and is careful to keep her language clean.
"I talk about whatever I'm going through," she says. "Recently, it's been the wedding. Incidentally, we were on TLC's Wedding Story. Women know what that is, but you may not because you have testosterone. It's a reality show where they film your wedding and everything leading up to it."
"Pretty much when people come to see me, it's sort of like a sitcom about what's going on next in my life," she says. "I'm sure the next time I come down to Tampa, I'll be talking about babies, or whatever it is I'm going through."
In October, Hooper will make her third appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in support of her new CD, Fixer Upper.
"That's what I've been talking about lately, because I'm recently married and we just bought a house. My husband calls it a fixer-upper. I call it a piece of c--. Therein is the comedy."
PREVIEW: Maryellen Hooper, 8 p.m. today, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. at the Improv, 1600 E Eighth Ave., Ybor City. (813) 864-4000.
