Submitted photo Musical comic Tim Cavanagh wll perform Dec. 31 at YES Cinema in Columbus.
In a world sometimes filled with loss, Tim Cavanagh holds especially heartfelt empathy for pets en route to the vet for, well, a most personal loss.
Neutering.
He figures the procedure itself is bad enough for the furry one struggling to understand. But he believes the situation is made even worse by pet owners who lie to their little loved one just to get them in a carrier or the car for the surgery.
You know — something about just going for a ride. Soon enough, most critters realize they’ve been taken for a ride alright.
“It’s the ultimate betrayal to someone like a dog who would never, ever betray you,” Cavanagh said, speaking by phone from his home in Orland Park, Illinois, near Chicago.
The 70-year-old comic standup songster who still tours nationwide and still also reaches a national audience frequently via the nationally syndicated “Bob and Tom Show” will bring that new musical topic and several other fresh tunes to an 8 p.m. Dec. 31 special New Year’s Eve show to the 177-seat YES Cinema.
He last performed at YES in 2017 and last performed in town in 2018 at the former Harlequin Theater. Veteran comic Dave “The King” Wilson, a longtime friend who regularly sold out 400-seat shows at the original Commons downtown in the late 1980s, will open.
Cavanagh is aiming for some 35 minutes of music and the rest of his set devoted to stories and jokes. For those who are wondering, when onstage, he rarely broaches the subject of his stage II pancreatic cancer battle from 2021 that left him so weak at one point that he was unable to walk.
“I haven’t yet found a good, funny or a proper way to tell my story,” he said. “And that’s even though I did have some humor at the time I was going through it.”
Granted, he acknowledged that television’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest is an OK choice for some seeking perhaps reserved revelry for the holiday.
“But I’ve always said that there’s no better live entertainment than standup comedy,” he said. “And the laughter provides a good workout for both your body and your brain.”
He launched his life of laughs on the road in 1979. He was best known early in his career for songs such as “I Wanna Kiss Her (But She Won’t Let Me)” and “Get Drunk With Dignity,” and in more recent years for celebrity-oriented numbers such as “The Pat Sajak Song” and “Fly of the Tiger.”
His television credits include ABC-TV, Comedy Central, and Showtime. His special, “The Adventures of Uncle Dumb,” is available on the Dry Bar+ Comedy platform.
“I like to sing in the shower,” he sometimes has told audiences. “But I don’t turn the water on. It’s bad for the guitar.”
He still writes his material at home with a pen and paper, and makes a habit of scribbling thoughts regularly even if the mirthful muse seems gone forever.
“I’m old school,” he said. “I stick with the tried and true.”
He understands that some may never fully grasp the serious emotional and psychological impact of standup silliness and humor.
“I know that it seems rather frivolous to some,” he said. “But people still come up to me after shows — people who have just lost a family member — and say something like ‘I almost never thought I’d laugh again.’
“But, at a show, they’re reminded that laughter is part of the healing process.”
Some of his own humor was part of his own healing in 2021. And though his illness shook his memory and so much more, he was determined to perform again.
“I just can’t imagine not doing this,” he said. “It’s really the very best job in the world.”
About the show
Who: Musical comic Tim Cavanagh, still heard regularly on the nationally syndicated “Bob ad Tom Show” in Indianapolis.
When: 8 p.m. Dec. 31.
Where: YES Cinema, 328 Jackson St. in downtown Columbus.
Tickets: $25, available at yescinema.org
