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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. |
ONSTAGE at the city's
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."
His big break came in 1991 when a staffer of comedian Jay Leno saw Leake in a club and loved his act.
A few auditions and weeks of honing his act with the "Tonight Show" staff led to his debut on the show that's the gold standard for comedians. He became the first disabled comedian to perform there, and, as Leno himself said, Leake "broke up the whole room."
The native Virginian made several return appearances on what became Leno's show, and was featured in a PBS comedy special "Laughing Matters with Brett Leake."
In 1998, he gave up the stand-up part of comedy when he could no longer physically pull off a show that way.
Not wanting initially to admit why he needed to sit, Leake said he told the club that he'd injured himself and would need to prop himself up on a stool.
Soon after, he dropped the pretense and simply performed that way. A chair that helps him move, and lets him stand as well, has him truly doing stand-up again.
In his gig with the teachers--Leake also does humorous/motivational talks for corporate clients--the comedian stressed the theme that humor is necessary for people to cope with problems large and small.
"That's not true for anyone more than you," he said to the teachers.
These days, with the degenerative disease taking more of Leake's strength and mobility daily , he's had to trim his schedule. His new target: two or three jobs a week.
"Bumping into limits like that are the way we recognize when change is occurring," said Leake, whose discourse on humor will have Leno and Aristotle in the same sentence.
While his talks are thoughtful and stress the need for "a path of heart" in
"Notice that Dodge and Ram now appear on the same vehicle?" he asked. "Watch out! You might get run over by an oxymoron."
Or this, about making lists.
"I was making a list of things to do the other day, and thought of something I'd already finished," he said. "I wrote it down and crossed it off!"
brettleake.comRob Hedelt: 540/374-5415
Email: rhedelt@freelancestar.com
