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Laughter with a lesson

Comedian Richard Jeni puts on a rollicking and reflective show.

Richard Jeni loves a good laugh. But he also wants to get his audiences thinking.

"You want something that's hysterically funny and has some underlying point to it," he said. "That's always my approach. The point may not be something important or earthshaking, but there has to be a reason for me to be talking about whatever I'm talking about. That's what helps me shape it."

The veteran comedian, who will appear at Tampa Bay Performing Art Center's Ferguson Hall on Sunday, is touring in support of his new DVD from his 2005 HBO comedy hour special, A Big Steaming Pile of Me. He deliberately chose to perform in theaters rather than comedy clubs.

"I can count the ways that I prefer to do theaters," he said. "People, first of all, drink responsibly when they're in a theater. Maybe there's intermission and they get to drink then. There's an optimal amount of alcohol for a comedy show. A little bit too much can mess people up. For the kind of show I do, you have to pay attention. Theaters suit me better."

The Brooklyn native has enthralled audiences for nearly 23 years with his personable and anecdotal take on such hot topics as political correctness, terrorism, religion, ethnicity, Internet porn, gay marriage and that evergreen subject, male-female relationships.

Jeni's biggest supporter at HBO is chairman and chief executive Chris Albrecht, who came out to see the comedian at club showcases in Los Angeles in 2004.

"That was about a year before the actual show premiered on HBO in January 2005. Once they said, "Yes,' it was decided that I be the executive producer of the show," Jeni said. "That's not something every comedian wants to do because it's a lot of work. You're in charge of the money and the budget and hiring the producer and director who are the main guys. The problem with that is you're involved in every little decision and the upside of that is that you're involved in every little decision."

Editing his own material was his biggest challenge.

"No one can make those decisions, in my opinion, better than the comedian who wrote the material," he said. "That's not an opportunity that you'll get unless you are producing the show. Otherwise, you're just a hired gun. That's the big advantage of doing things at HBO."

After his current tour, Jeni will do comedy showcases in Los Angeles, club dates that will allow him to test and polish new material for his next HBO comedy hour special in 2006-07.

"I never start off with an idea for what the next show will be, because it's too big," he said. "It's too scary to conceive the thing in one shot. It's better to break it down into little achievable goals. It's really a trial and error thing. You've just got to go out in front of a live audience and try it. Eventually the ratio of hits to misses gets better."

Richard Jeni, 7 p.m. Sunday, Ferguson Hall at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. $25.50-$35.50. 813 229-7827; www.tbpac.org