‘Caveman’ star ready to shed role and roll on

Kevin Burke has performed “Defending the Caveman” so many times, it was almost too easy to break a world’s record.

But he made sure to get it on the books before May 13, when he surrenders the one-man show he has performed since 2007.

The comedian was researching Hal Holbrook’s record for “Mark Twain Tonight” when he stumbled upon another category for short-term performance in the Guinness World Records.

So it was really just a matter of picking the right stretch in February and March to tally up the “Most theatrical performances in 50 days.”

The standing record was 50. Burke did 60 “to try and put it out of reach.” But that was only about four more than his regular schedule, when a substitute usually gives him a weekly day off.

Comedians and variety headliners such as Mac King routinely crush this record, Burke points out. But “the rules for that particular record are very restrictive.”

They require the work to be scripted, in a venue of 300 seats or more and without cast substitutions, basically ruling out Cirque du Soleil or Broadway musicals.

Some of us will have a hard time adjusting to anyone but Burke performing “Caveman.” Author Rob Becker is still depicted in the cartoon advertising. But Burke has done the one-man show more than 3,000 times.

For years he wouldn’t even take a day off, even if it meant playing hurt.

“You take your cold meds and you put your big-boy panties on and you go to work,” he says.

For five years, he did “Caveman” and then rushed to Fitzgeralds to do his own comedy-magic show.

But “shows close on a dime for all kinds of reasons” on the Strip, he says. Burke never pulled the trigger on moving his wife and two children here from Indiana. Now his kids are 9 and 13, and he doesn’t want to miss any more of their growing up.

He’s far from tired of “Caveman.” He will come back to fill in for the new guy, Chris Allen.

“If my corporate overlords decide to produce a sit-down in Indianapolis, I’ll be happy as a clam,” he says.

But he’s writing his own one-man show about “all the weirdness I’ve seen from my privileged position” in Las Vegas for the IndyFringe Festival.

There was, for instance, the party for Paris Hilton where he whiled away the night with a Dean Martin impersonator, several Oompa Loompas and a gal in a bunny suit. The suit was shed and the gal evicted by the time Paris made a brief pass-through.

Even if you are here to perform another writer’s work, you don’t leave Vegas without some stories of your own.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.