- MILWAUKEEAN
PLAYS OFF HIS FOREIGNER STATUS
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- Are
any of you people from Milwaukee?" an emcee
asked when HBO was taping one of its "One Night
Stand" programs at the Vic Theatre Last
December. "Well, for any one of you that is,
this next guy's a local guy... Fred
Klett."
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- "And,
of course, the crowd kinda grumbles a little,"
Klett remembers now of the night when he was one
of the warmup comedy acts. But that's the kind
of response you'd expect, seeing as though
Chicago and Milwaukee have a hate-hate
relationship going. A setup like that isn't
exactly the best way for a comic to get a crowd
on his side.
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- But
Klett, forged ahead that night to turn his usual
high-energy performance. And Klett says that he
wants Chicago crowds to know that he's a
Milwaukeean (Milwaukeeite? Milwakeer?), because
he can work that to his advantage.
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- "In
comedy," says Klett, "you usually have something
to play off of, it just makes it easier to get
going. Chicago does react to Milwaukee. You get
the usual people calling out 'cheesehead' and
'yah-dere-hey.' It just gives you something to
play off of."
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- Klett,
who calls Chicago "one of my favorite cities to
play," says that he doesn't have any real
problems in Chicago, because the crowds are
paying to hear jokes, and it doesn't matter
where the person who tells them hails
from.
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- "If
you make them laugh, they laugh," Klett says.
"They don't say, 'Well we're not gonna laugh
'cause this guy's from Milwaukee. Even if he's
funny, let's just not laugh.' They don't do
that."
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- He
started in comedy five years ago by doing
open-mike amateur night shows in Milwaukee. In
addition to playing some regional cable
television programs, Klett has been featured on
Showtime's "Comedy club Network."
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- --
Chicago Tribune
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