Dom always was
a real clown

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

While growing up in South Philly, 6-year-old Dominick Irrera didn’t mean to provoke the nun at his elementary school, but when she determined to teach him a lesson, he decided he had no choice but to teach her one, too.
Always a funny little kid, the nun told little Dominick, "If you think you’re so funny, let’s see how funny you really are," Irrera recalled. "And so, she dragged me into this room where everything looked so big that the desks only came up to my eyeballs. But I started to talk and soon I had all these eighth-grade kids laughing. They thought I was really funny. After that, she really didn’t know what to do with me."
Irrera said it never crossed his mind to eventually become a comedian or that comedy was something that was hard to do.
"I knew it was something different but I didn’t think it was so wonderful," he said. "I never thought of myself as the Messiah of Comedy. It’s just something that came easy to me."
Nominated six times for an American Comedy Award, Irrera will display his comedic abilities on Saturday, July 14, at the Borgata in Atlantic City. He said much of his stand-up material was honed in a multi-generational Italian household with his mother, sister, grandmother, uncles and cousins all living under one big roof. A great-grandmother even lived across the street.
And even though his family provided lots of material for comedy, and he was even urged by one of his priests at West Catholic High School to study acting, entering show business was not an easy decision for a young man.
So, after graduating with a major in drama from Biscayne College in Florida, Irrera came back to Philadelphia and taught elementary school for several years. That experience helped him understand how difficult it was for the school system to deal with kids like him.
"There’s no avenue for a funny kid in class, because they have to have organization and discipline," he said. "I ended up teaching school for a while, so I know you don’t want a kid in class being too funny all the time, especially not in a Catholic school where I spent my early days."
But Irrera couldn’t continue to spend his days as a teacher. He needed to express his comedy and acting talents, and eventually moved to New York in 1978 to nurture those natural abilities.
His first break on television came with his appearance on Star Search.
"But my first real break came when I appeared on Rodney Dangerfield’s HBO Special," he said. "His special was like doing the Sopranos at the time. Everybody watched it, and so, being on that show got you instant notoriety."
Since then, Irrera has won numerous accolades and awards, and been seen, not only on TV — King of Queens, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond and more — but in films as well, including Hollywood Shuffle, The Big Leboski, The Godson and others.
"Right now," Irrera said, "I’m doing an animated series called Barnyard and I think mixing it up is the most fun. I’ve done a lot of guest shots, had my own sitcom and been a regular on others. It’s a lot of fun working with other people, but I came from an improv background, so I do miss stand-up when I’m not doing it.
"For my appearance at the Borgota, Craig Shoemaker, another Philly guy, will be opening for me, so I think it’ll make the show a lot stronger for everyone." ••
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