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Show Show offers up comedy Carvey-styl- e By GAIL PENNINGTON St. Louis h So, Bill Chott, youre doing Dana Carveys new comedy for ABC. Whats it about? Umm, says Chott. Well ... But Chott, 26, a veteran of the Second City touring company, is never speechless for long. The show, he quickly explains, is still in die process of defining itself. What we know: The Dana Carvey Show will feature com- sketches in the Iedy but most likelyCarvey not recycled Saturday Night Live characters: it will make its debut at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on KTVX Channel 4; and Chott (pronounced cot) is thrilled if still a little dazed to find himself part of it The troupe is small, just Carvey and four others, and Chott expects to use skills in mimicry he read it once, as 23 different characters. Chott is still a little in awe of Carvey, although hes doing everything he can to break down any kind of wall there might be between him and the rest of us including once teasing Chott as Mr. Shy Guy when Chott hesitated to sit down at his dinner table. The Carvey is very much like the Carvey, Chott says, always popping in and out of character and making everyone laugh. When he turns serious, Chott says, weve learned that hes deep in thought, and an idea is about to pop out. Right now, everyone involved is high on the shows possibiliy ties, but can a series succeed in prime time in 1996? I really think it can, Chott says. I think people are ready for some variety on TV, and sketch comedy can give them that. It's like vaudeville in a sense; it gives comedians a chance to stretch, to show everything they have. en Who has his own sketch comedy series? Could it be Dana Carvey? The comic who created such characters as the Church Lady and Garth brings his humor to ABC in The Dana Carvey Show, airing Tuesdays. and improvisation that hes been honing since childhood. When I auditioned (for the Carvey show) for the first time, they gave me a monologue from Harold Pinters The Homecomnot, he notes, a humoring and asked me to ous work read it three times, as three different characters. Instead, Chott suggested that Hew to use your TV Movies Symbols Shaded in gray CC Closed captioned for the hearing impaired. A- Stereo broadcast, News Denoted with triangle Preview sketch-comed- Sports Denoted with - - - Repeat program. R - Movie rated R. (r) dot MARCH 9 -- 16, 1996 Standard-Examin- er 3 |