Rochester native serious about being funny

By Christina Killion Valdez

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

No, this is not an April Fool's joke. Rochester, the city that prides itself on its seriousness, has spawned its share of comedians. Among them is Scott Novotny, who's made a career out of being seriously funny.

That doesn't mean "Mayo Clinic, Minnesota," as Novotny calls it, is always a fun place to visit though, even for the hometown boy who will headline comedy shows Friday and Saturday at Goonies Comedy Club in Rochester.

"It's not a romantic city like Duluth," he said. "When you say you're going to spend a week in Duluth, people say 'Oh, take me with you.' When you say you're going to spend a week in Rochester, they say, 'I'm sorry to hear about that. Can we help plan the estate sale?"

Nonetheless, Novotny said he is pleased Rochester has a comedy club, something the city didn't have when he was growing up. Yet even with the club in place, Novotny's show at Goonies will be a rare public appearance for the comedian who now performs mostly at corporate events and has begun teaching others the skills needed to make people laugh.

As a teacher, Novotny pulls from his almost 30 years of experience. Over the years, he's performed at comedy clubs around the country and appeared on "MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour,""Comedy on the Road," and "Show Me the Funny." He's also written for: HBO, Dudley Rigg's Brave New Workshop, television commercials, two children's plays, "Strange Brew" daily comic strip, "Saturday Nite Live" and released a comedy CD "Monu-Mental" in 2005.

Through it all he's learned laughter is important. "People need it almost like a drug.," he said

Stand-up comedy is good way to administer that drug, by providing an intense dose of laughter in 45 minutes to an hour, he said.

That's something he's found to be true everywhere, including the place he and his family now call home, New Richmond, Wis. The performances by his first students there were the talk of the town, he said, noting that now he has students coming from the Twin Cities to try their hand at stand-up.

Still, stand-up is not for the faint of heart. If doing stand-up comedy were a challenge on a show like "Fear Factor," Novotny thinks some contestants would say, "I'll eat the bug."

Yet, just as laughter is good for the audience, doing stand-up is a rush for the comedian.

"It's like an amusement ride," Novotny said. "You have so much fear while you're waiting in line, then once you do it, you want to get up there and do it again."

For Novotny, "It's been a fun ride. As long as I enjoy doing it, I will continue making people laugh."

That brings him back to the serious side of comedy.

Back in the time of Greek comedies and tragedies, a comedy was not necessarily funny, but in the end the character has hope and some say it was his fate, while the tragic character was doomed to his destiny, he said.

"I think 'life with hope' is a nice way to look at comedy," he said. "I'm like a preacher on the pulpit teaching the word of comedy as life with hope."