Dan St. Paul took his dog for a walk for the pooch to do his business the other day.
“He went twice — and I was jealous,” St. Paul said.
At age 64, the seasoned, San Francisco Bay area comic figures he’s at the perfect stage of life for his “What’s Funny After 50” stand-up act coming to the YES Comedy Showcase at 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at Columbus’ YES Cinema, Fourth and Jackson streets.
The 80-minute, PG-16 performance, different than any other St. Paul show locally through the years, will include dozens of photos accompanying his material.
“One thing great about getting older is that you can get into the movies for about three dollars less,” he said. “But then you have to go to the bathroom halfway through.”
The man who made his name in the better-known comedy clubs nationwide and the syndicated, Indianapolis-based Bob and Tom Show now focuses significantly on senior audiences willing to laugh about their changing bodies and reshaped roles in life. St. Paul is careful to steer clear of serious illness and disease, an element he has seen his 89- and 93-year-old in-laws face.
Older audiences appreciate that the energetic comedian who swims regularly for fitness puts a youthful face on near-retirement.
“You know,” a woman told him after a recent Florida show, “I couldn’t believe it earlier when you told us (on stage) that you were 64. But now that I’m up close to you, well, yeah, you do kind of look 64.”
Well — thank you for half of that,” he said.
He understands when some people worry that he might offend his peers or others who are older. As of yet, he hasn’t seen that happen. In fact, audiences in ritzy retirement locales from Florida to Arizona readily embrace his jokes from his multiple reading glasses to trying to keep up with his slightly younger wife.
“I want to repaint the bedroom,” she told him recently.
“Why?” he asked. “It’s not peeling.”
“I’m just tired of the that color,” she said.
“Isn’t that the idea? You want a bedroom color that will make you tired, right?”
St. Paul said the added life knowledge of his later years is wonderful. One slight personality change in his later years stands as something less than wonderful.
“I’m much less patient than I was when I was younger,” he said.
Area fans may remember him most for his classic, comic call of the first baseball game in history or the mostly true story of his wife’s C-section delivery of their son. He remains a big sports fan, especially of major league baseball’s San Francisco Giants and professional football’s San Francisco 49ers. But he acknowledged that the length of some NFL games, delayed by plodding instant-replay reviews and TV timeouts, have stretched to boring extremes.
“You know the NFL games are getting long when even the baseball fans say, ‘Hey, could you possibly pick up the pace a bit?” he said.
YES Cinema’s Randy Allman always has lauded the comic for his clean sets, safe for mostly every family member.
“It’s one (show) you can bring the whole family to,” Allman has said more than once.
And St. Paul has drawn well enough to sell out back-to-back New Year’s Eve shows of the past in Columbus. He swears that, unlike aging sports of today from Peyton Manning to Kobe Bryant, he’s hardly slowing down in his game.
“I’ll shut up and stop doing this when people decide to stop paying me,” he said.
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Who: YES Comedy Showcase and standup comic Dan St. Paul with his “What’s Funny After 50” show with ample slide illustrations.
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 30.
Where: The 177-seat YES Cinema, Fourth and Washington streets in Columbus.
Tickets: $20 in advance at 812-379-1630 or at YES Cinema or $25 at the door. Benefits programs of the nonprofit Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center.
Information: 812-379-1630 or yescinema.org.
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