Funnyman Don Weaver, a former Marine, makes a life out of jokes.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published October 3, 2003
LUTZ - A man walks into a bar.
He's having a drink or two, listening to the comedian onstage, when his date turns to him and says, "I dare you to get up there."
The man, a former Marine who had just moved into the area, had never told jokes in the spotlight before. But he walks up to the club's owners and says he'd like to give it a shot.
A few weeks later, he steps onstage for the first time as a comedian.
Ba-dum-bum. Get it?
All right, so it's not exactly funny ha-ha.
But here's the real punch line: 17 years after that dare, Don "Wacky" Weaver is still walking into bars - both as an owner and as a headlining comedian.
Weaver is part owner of the Brandon Brew House on Lumsden Road, as well as JW's Dining and Lounge, a bar and restaurant in Lutz. For most of the past seven years, he hosted Wacky Weaver's Comedy Club, a weekly standup show at the Brew House.
He closed the Brew House show in anticipation of the state smoking ban but hopes to reopen Wacky Weaver's in a different location.
"It's something that's in my heart that I'm never going to get out," he said of comedy. "It's better than any drug you'll ever do in the world."
A Michigan native, Weaver said he was always a "wisecracker" in school and in the Marines, where he was stationed in Japan. He moved to Florida while in his early 20s.
While he loved comedy, he was convinced he could do better than the amateur comedians he saw onstage. So when he dared to try it himself, he gave it a whirl.
His first night onstage at McCurdy's Comedy Theatre in Sarasota was one of the most terrifying experiences of his life. He admits his first act wasn't too hot. But he got one big laugh near the end. He was hooked.
"I knew that I could go back, rewrite some material and go back up there and do it again and be very funny," he said.
His act relied on interaction with the audience, so improvisation became a specialty.
"When you do off-the-cuff comedy, you don't think about it before you say it. Nine times out of 10, it comes out real funny."
He calls himself an "adult comic," tending to focus on the innuendos of relationships and everyday life. His comedy routines are often personal. During the 19 months he and his wife were trying to conceive a child, he focused part of his act on that.
"I'm not an Andrew Dice Clay, by any means," he said. "But I'm not a Bill Cosby, either."
Early on, Weaver so impressed Les and Pam McCurdy, the owners of the club, that they invited him on the road with their comedy troupe.
"Did comedy in every state except Alaska and Hawaii," he said.
But it was a gig in Maryland that left the greatest impression on him. He met his future wife, Becky, during a show in Baltimore.
Weaver owned comedy clubs in Highlands and Polk counties before moving to Hillsborough County. "When you write a joke and the audience applauds," he said, "it's the greatest feeling in the world. Other than being married to my wife."
