Brett Leake of Louisa County talks to Fredericksburg educators during a city schools convocation at James Monroe High School on Monday. Leake, who was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a youth, is a comedian who uses humor in his motivational speeches. PETER CIHELKA/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

Chair has role in comedy

Louisa County's Brett Leake uses humor from everyday life in clubs and motivational talks

Date published: 8/28/2008

By Rob Hedelt

ONSTAGE at the city's James Monroe High School, comedian Brett Leake was on a roll.

Mixing rib-tickling observations about daily life with an underlying claim that humor is critical in problem-solving, the Louisa County resident, a one-time "Tonight Show" regular, had the teacher convocation in stitches.

With lines like:

"I'm giving up eating natural foods until people stop dying of natural causes."

"I was late getting here today because of car trouble: I didn't get into it on time."

"I don't understand down jackets, made from an animal that has to fly south for the winter."

And "The black shirt I got the other day doesn't match the black pants I had to go with it. The one color that supposedly goes with everything doesn't go with itself," he said. "I'm not the Man In Black, I'm Johnny Clash."

And so it went for nearly an hour with the comedian who calls himself a sit-down, stand-up comedian.

"My new chair has brought me back to stand-up," said Leake, who has had to deal with the progressive weakness and fatigue of Muscular Dystrophy since he was 13.

After the talk that's one of 30 or 40 Leake will do for school districts this year, the William & Mary grad from Gum Spring said he ended up in comedy largely because of the feeling he got from seeing a comedy show at a club in Richmond.

An economics major--"It came in handy when I was unemployed. I understood why."--Leake decided he wanted to do that after graduating in 1982.

"I thought it would be great to be able to make that same sort of connection," he said.

With the same dedication and doggedness that would later have him doing 225 shows a year despite the challenge MD presents, Leake began putting together an act. He took it to a Richmond comedy club, where he worked his way up the pecking order to host.

"The club was connected to clubs in Greensboro, Raleigh, several others," he said. "Soon enough, I was hosting at each one, leaving home and doing a few nights at each in turn."

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Date published: 8/28/2008