Comic Dave Coulier Finds Stage Mirrors Real Life

Real life keeps following Dave Coulier into his role on the sitcom “Full House,” like some overzealous gumshoe tailing him at every turn.

In real life, Coulier is a stand-up comedian with a penchant for doing impressions and the voices of cartoon characters. On “Full House,” the hit ABC show that airs Fridays at 8 p.m., Coulier plays Joey Gladstone, a stand-up comedian with a penchant for doing impressions and the voices of cartoon characters.

In real life, one of Coulier’s best buddies is comic Bob Saget, a friendship that dates back at least a decade, to when Detroit native Coulier ventured out to Los Angeles and ended up staying at Saget’s place. On “Full House,” Coulier’s character has moved in with his best friend--portrayed by none other than Bob Saget.

In real life, Coulier is an avid golfer. On “Full House,” Joey is an avid golfer, expertly swinging a club on both of this season’s first two episodes.

In real life--well, you get the idea . . .

In addition to these ongoing real life/”Full House” parallels, there are times when Coulier gets to fully merge the two. For instance, in a forthcoming episode, Joey appears on “Star Search”--for which Coulier actually performed a brief stand-up set on the “Star Search” stage in front of a real “Star Search” audience.

The story line is that, nearly a decade ago, Joey had publicly guaranteed on a college talk show (hosted by the Saget character) that within 10 years he was going to appear on television. Having all but forgotten the pledge, Joey suddenly realizes that the deadline is two weeks away and begins a flurry of activity at comedy clubs and elsewhere in pursuit of tube time. Meanwhile, his house mates (widower Saget, his three daughters and his brotherin-law, played by John Stamos) send one of his comedy tapes to “Star Search.”

Coulier picks up the story from there: “So then it comes down that my deadline is up today,” he said, “and the only thing that can save my career now is a miracle. All of a sudden, a letter comes from ‘Star Search,’ and I get to go on the show.” Then, acknowledging this tidy, deus ex machina solution to the crisis, he smiled: “Sitcom, right?”

Well, sure. It wouldn’t be a sitcom if a “serious” problem weren’t introduced, grappled with and conveniently resolved in 22 minutes. But there was an unusual amount of work that went into this episode: Coulier had to pull together a 12-minute stand-up set that he road-tested at the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach only one night before the taping. And shooting part of the show on the “Star Search” stage involved Coulier and the “Full House” crew operating on unfamiliar territory.

For all that effort, only a fraction of his 12-minute performance will end up on screen. “It will boil down to about a minute, maybe a minute-and-a-half,” Coulier explained over lunch at a studio commissary. “But I legitimately wanted the audience to see ‘Hey, this guy is a good stand-up. . . . Not a lot of people even know I’m a stand-up.”

But boy, is he: The 30-year-old Coulier--who headlines the grand opening bill this weekend at Jokers in Garden Grove--has been a comedian for 12 years. Growing up in an area near Detroit called St. Clair Shores, he fit the class-clown stereotype, performing shows occasionally in the school cafeteria.

He was a hard-core fan of cartoons and his early talent for replicating the voices of cartoon characters--and creating other voices--helped him land a job at the local rock radio station. Pretty soon, his stand-up act was coming together sufficiently well that he decided to go West, young man. He moved to Los Angeles, first working as a doorman at the Comedy Store, then working there and elsewhere as a comedian.

But Coulier found himself on the comedian’s treadmill of hitting the road 40-plus weeks a year (which is essential, at least initially, to get good and to make a living), and found he wanted to stay in town more (which is far less lucrative, but also essential, if a comic wants to be seen by casting directors and talent scouts, attend auditions, etc.).

Once again, his talent for voices proved to be a real boon, solving this dilemma by enabling him to get off the road without a significant drop in income. Interested in doing voice-over work for cartoons, he called Hanna-Barbera to inquire about sending an audition tape.

“I said ‘What should I put on my tape?’ They said to put on some original characters, so I made up some original characters, put a 3 1/2-minute tape together and sent it in on a Friday,” he recalled. “That Monday they called me and said ‘We have work for you today.’ ”

From that phone call on, Coulier has racked up voice credits for an enormous number of animated shows, among them, “Scooby Doo,” “The Muppet Babies,” “The Real Ghostbusters,” “The Jetsons” and a new show called “Rude Dog.”

All this voice work hardly meant that Coulier turned his back on stand-up. He kept working on his act, along the way adding key entries to his resume, including the all-important “Tonight Show.” But Coulier is one of the few comics around who actively delayed his first visit to Johnny’s place, balking when the show’s sultan of stand-ups, Jim McCawley, wanted to book him.

“The first time I showcased for McCawley, he said ‘I think you are ready to do the show.’ And I said, ‘Jim, I don’t think I’m ready,’ ” he recalled, adding that he told McCawley that he first wanted to acquire more experience in front of a camera.

That conversation was in 1983, and Coulier only waited a year to debut on “The Tonight Show.” Still, McCawley can probably count on one hand the comics who’ve opted to wait at all. Similarly rare is Coulier’s frankness in assessing how that first appearance went.

Asked if he brought the house down, he said: “No, honestly, I didn’t. . . . I don’t do well in a six-minute spot where you do joke, joke, joke. I tell stories and let the thing kind of mature and then-- bang , bang , bang-- all of a sudden everything that I’ve done for the last half hour starts to pay off. I’m a slow starter.”

But a strong finisher, considering that:

-- When he now does “The Tonight Show,” he goes right to the couch, which means he’s at the top of the comedians’ pecking order.

-- He’s been prominently featured in various cable programs, including HBO’s “Detroit Comedy Jam” and a Showtime special celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Comedy & Magic Club.

-- He’s starring in a network series that, at least last year, was the highest rated show on Friday night.

-- When he performs comedy shows paired with Bob Saget, the venues are large, usually theaters and small concert halls. And in one more connection between his acting work and real life, those engagements are, of course, dubbed “The Full House Tour.”

Dave Coulier performs at 9:30 and 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Jokers, in the Hyatt Regency Alicante, 100 Plaza Alicante, Garden Grove. Tickets: $15. Reservations: (714) 971-3000.