FaidAy, jANtAay 1 5, 1988 ChnoNtclE Pqc Nisi Cartoons offers comedy atmosphere in Salt Lake By Kelly Hindley Chronicle staff writer When Pat Johnson first told her husband and friends she wanted to open a comedy club in Salt Lake City, they laughed. They told her she was crazy. Salt Lake City is too small to support a comedy club, they said. Utah's capital city isn't ready for such a risky and novel enterprise, they said. But Johnson geared up for the adventure. She commuted to Salt Lake Gty from her home in St. George, rented space in Sugarhouse, made frequent trips to Los Angeles to book comedians, and nervously opened Salt Lake's Cartoons Comedy Club. "It's a different kind of entertainment. It's not like where three or four hours in people spend nightclubs oblivion. People can come in here and have a great time for an hour and a half. " Today, four years after the club's opening, Salt Lake residents turn out five nights a week to be part of the stand-u- p comedy phenomenon. Comedy clubs have become big business. And despite most people's predictions of disaster, Cartoons was among the first handful of comedy clubs east of California to become a success. "Freedom of speech that's what it's all about," Johnson said. Comedy clubs have become smash hits, she added, because they offer the public an unusual alternative to the regular entertainment routine. The clubs invite their audiences into a comfortable atmosphere where they can relax, meet with friends and, most of all, laugh. "It's a different kind of entertainment," Johnson said. "It's not like nightclubs where people spend three or four hours in oblivion. People can come in here and have a great time for an hour and a half." shows at Cartoons the audience is During the entertained by an emcee, a middle act and a headliner. The 90-min- ute emcee warms up and relaxes the audience, makes announcements and introduces the other two acts. The middle act is generally a fledgling comedian who is testing material, learning the routine and beginning to establish a reputation. A regular middle act performer at Cartoons is Richard Carter, a Salt Lake native in his late 60s, who tells his usually younger audience what it's like to be a cranky senior citizen. To cap off the show, the audience is entertained by a more established comedian, someone who earns his or her living traveling the country headlining comedy clubs. Several of America's better-know- n comics, such as Billy Crystal and Saturday Night Live regular Dennis Miller, headlined at Cartoons while their stand-u- p comedy careers were beginning to take off, Johnson said. She continues to book all of the acts for the club herself, usually from one to two years in advance. She receives an average of 20 audition tapes and resumes a month and makes regular trips to Los Angeles to watch comedians at clubs such as The Comedy Store and The Improv. But comedy is not always a funny business, Johnson said. She sometimes suffers from a case of comedy burn-ou- t. While most comedians are genuinely nice, easy-goipeople, she occasionally has to deal with comics who arrive ng toting huge egos and belligerent attitudes. Because Johnson houses the traveling comedians in an apartment built onto her own home, she, her husband and her four children get to see the performers in close proximity an experience that's not always enjoyable, she said. She often becomes a therapist, nanny and confidant for the comics who come through on a regular basis. Johnson often becomes a therapist, nanny and confidant for the comics who come through on a regular basis. Despite the hazards of the job, Johnson thoroughly enjoys owning and managing Salt Lake City's only comedy club. Last fall Cartoons moved back to Sugarhouse after being located downtown for a couple of years. Tuesday is still open-mik- e night, when anyone foolish or brave enough to te routine. Cartoons features one try can perform a show on both Wednesday and Thursday nights, and there are two shows per night on the weekends. Cartoons is a bargain for University of Utah students. U. students with current ID are admitted free on weeknights, and on the weekends they receive a S2 discount on the regular $7 admission charge. During the show the club serves beer and a variety of soft drinks and mixers. Currently Johnson is trying to organize a Collegiate Laugh Bowl a comedy contest between students from all of Utah's universities. But what she'd really like to see is a comedy competition between students of the U. and BYU. "Now that would be funny," she said. five-minu- 'Good Morning Vietnam' works well despite By Fara Warner Chronicle news editor SAN FRANCISCO It took the movie industry more than 10 years to make a movie about Vietnam that was accepted by American audiences. But the newest film about the Vietnam War takes on an even harder task comedy. Barry Levinson's Good Morning, Vietnam starring Robin Williams- is likely to be a hit even though it approaches the Vietnam era in a comic light. In fact, the phrase "Good - Morning, Vietnam" has already gained notoriety among those who have seen the trailers. Trying to approach Vietnam with comedy is not an easy task, but Williams pulls it off with his quirky improvisation and a concerted effort. Williams said in a group interview Saturday that he wanted to be funny, but not mess with people's memories. Certainly the film, which is very loosely based on the life of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey in 1965 Vietnam, doesn't attempt to pulverize its audience as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket did, nor does it tug diligently at our emotional heartstrings as did Oliver Stone's Platoon. Levinson Diner and Tin Men) has attempted to achieve a satisfying balance of humor and horror by stressing the laughs. Giving Williams his head, Levinson lets Williams improvise much of the radio dialogue, but this is not just a stand-u- p comic routine for Williams. Williams did say that the Cronauer character is 95 percent Williams. He did not meet the real Cronauer, nor did he base the character on the man who actually jockeyed on the Armed Forces Radio in Saigon. The film works for several different reasons, including the tempting soundtrack that is sure to bring back Big Chill memories. Levinson also capitalizes on Williams' ability to be the funny, as welhas introspective, protagonist and the fact that the film takes place in 1965, not 1968 or 1972. The time frame lets Levinson take greater levity with the war than could a film based in the later years. Cronauer (Williams) arrives in Vietnam from Crete, ready to blast the airwaves with some Bob Dylan and the Stones. His superiors, however, tend toward Montovani and Lawrence Welk and censored news items that pass over Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war. Unfortunately for the film, this plot line is carried too far. The continuous bantering and bickering between Cronauer and Lt. Steven Hauk (Bruno Kirby) and Sgt. Major Dickerson (J.T. Walsh) is taken to its culmination and about five miles beyond. What saves the film from being a constant barrage of quips and jibes is Cronauer's fascination and apparent love for the Vietnamese people and a need to satisfy his curiosity about the people he believes he is helping. He begins to teach English to some Saigon residents to get acquainted with a Vietnamese girl. In the end, he becomes good friends with her brother, who is a supposed Viet Cong. This underlying theme is the most interesting part of the film but it is often lost under the unnecessary and often annoying conflict between Dickerson and Cronauer. hard task For most audiences, however, the film should be a relief from the heavy-hande- d films of the past few years. It is certainly not a spoof of Vietnam. It is a film that, although not totally evolved, seeks to show Vietnam in a new light. Fortunately, Williams is the perfect Adrian Cronauer who can make the audience laugh and cry and leave the theater feeling as if they may have a lighter, although no less striking, perception of the Vietnam War. Planning to Run for ASUU ASSEMBLY? In order to be eligible, you need to have declared a major by Friday, January 15 at the Academic Counciling Office, 450 SSB Additional Information: Call 581-686- 6 asuu NEXT YEAR, WHY NOT SHUFFLE OFF TO BUFFALO, OR FLORIDA, OR HAWAII, its OR... WINTER FRATERNITY RUSH Puerto Study for a year at one of 81 different campuses around the U.S., U Rico, and Virgin Islands, while still maintaining your status as a U of student. January 20, 21, 22 from 5 pm Receive full academic credit for all classes taken at your host school. . Pay University of Utah tuition while attending the other school. Expand your educational horizons and experience a new geographical and cultural setting. Sound too good to be true? Well, it National Student Exchange Program. is (581-5151- the University Union (581-7066- or call true, when you participate in the , For more info and application materials, come visit our office on the lower level of the main lobby in Van Cott Hall For more information go to 270 Union or Room 270 of C 1 Beta Theta Pi Phi Delta Theta Pi Kappa Alpha Sigma Chi 581-806- 1 Lambda Chi Alpha Sigma Phi Epsilon Phi Gamma Delta Phi Sigma Kappa Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Nu