Satire, solace for Jon Lovitz in Laugh Factory run

Jon Lovitz is not defined as a “resident” Las Vegas comic, though he headlines the city enough to be considered one.

“I’ve been coming to Vegas since I was 15,” Lovitz says. “I’ve really enjoyed coming here as a visitor, and coming here to do my show.”

The “Saturday Night Live” alum returns to the Laugh Factory at the Tropicana from Sunday through Tuesday. Lovitz, 64, performs multiple weekends a year at the club operated by his comic buddy Harry Basil.

Lovitz initially picked up dates reserved for the late Louie Anderson. The two were close for decades.

Another of Lovitz’s friends in the comedy world, Bob Saget, died in January. Saget’s death at age 65 shook up Lovitz, who had long performed a ribald, satirical musical routine directed at his comic friend. With Lovitz singing and playing a keyboard, the number was so barbed that audience members wondered if the two were feuding. They were not.

Lovitz spoke of Saget, Las Vegas and more in a recent interview:

Johnny Kats: Was it difficult to continue using your material about Bob on stage?

Jon Lovitz: At first it was really tough. I’d known him for 35 years. He was a great person. We had the same manager (the late Brad Grey). I had just done Bob’s podcast, which was a great time. So, he was a close friend, and a very funny guy.

How did it feel the first time you used the musical bit after he died?

I was in Florida, I was at the piano, and I said to the audience, “I used to do this, but I don’t even know if I want to do it …” and they were screaming at me to do it. I thought about it, and it seemed it would be kind of a relief from the pain of losing him. I just wanted to get back to being funny and silly, how he was. I actually, originally was singing about our manager, but Bob said, “Nobody knows him! Do someone that people know!” So I said, “OK, I’ll make it about you!” And he loved it.

You have been really well-received in your shows at the Laugh Factory. People are laughing and clapping through some of your familiar bits, right?

Yeah, I get these applause breaks. I have audiences that laugh at everything; they applaud a lot. I gotta be honest with you: I don’t particularly like it when they applaud. I mean, I understand what they’re doing, but that’s not what I’m going for. I want to make them laugh. I’m not up there on a soapbox. It kind of stops the show, turns it into something else.

You’re a fan of Vegas entertainment, I know that.

Over the years I’ve seen Wayne Newton, great. Sammy Davis Jr. and Jerry Lewis at Bally’s, great, the summer before Sammy passed away. Great. More recently I’ve seen Criss Angel’s show, which I thought was great. Carrot Top was hilarious. I think the acts in Vegas who are here every week and doing their shows over and over are all at a very high level. It’s like anything, whether you’re playing tennis or whatever, if this is what you do every day, you become better and better at it.

Got a good Vegas story?

We were here shooting “City Slickers II” (in 1993) and the first scene was cut. The very first scene we shot was supposed to be the last scene in the movie, but we were shooting out of order. On our first day we were in Vegas, at The Mirage, and the scene was us meeting Siegfried & Roy. I’m there with Billy (Crystal), they are in the dressing room, and Roy really wanted us to see them do this one single trick in the show. Billy didn’t want to, because it would take too long, and was saying, “I’m sure it’s great. I’m sure it’s fantastic.” But we end up seeing this trick.

So what was the trick?

They bring out a glass case, and it’s empty. They pull down the curtain, and there is a tiger. Well, the tiger is clearly peeing — a lot. He looks scared, he’s urinating and pee is hitting the glass case. It’s not subtle. Roy gets the tiger and starts circling the stage with, and all of a sudden he slips and falls and lets go of the leash. And now there is this giant tiger on stage, loose, running around. Everyone was going, “Holy (expletive)!” Luckily he got scared and ran off stage. Everyone is yelling, “What happened!?” I said, “I’ll tell you what happened: He just slipped in the pee!”

Oh, no. When was this? Had to be years before Roy was injured in the show.

This was long before that happened. I remember when it happened, they said the tiger was saving him after he slipped. He lifted Roy up from the stage.

Did you ever see their full show?

I can’t remember, but I do remember that meeting them was really something. We did the Secret Garden and white tigers out there. They were great to us, real legends.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.