
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 15, 1995                   TAG: 9507180126
SECTION: SPECTATOR                    PAGE: S-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: N.F. MENDOZA LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGGINS CONTENT PLAYING `ELLEN'S' RESIDENT CYNIC

Bitter. Dark. Not exactly a typical description of a sitcom character. But when ``Ellen's'' David Anthony Higgins adds, ``like a cup of coffee,'' there's an obvious smile that follows. Because Higgins plays Joe, the resident cynic - and ``master coffee brewer'' - on the hit ABC show.

Joe's an apt foil to star Ellen DeGeneres. From the suburban Los Angeles home Higgins shares with girlfriend Kim Berry, he says it's nice ``that someone isn't going to just be a yes man'' on ``Ellen.'' ``I think any time you have somebody'' - such as Joe - ``who'll shoot you down to Earth, that's necessary. I think everybody has friends like that.''

Higgins joined the show in a recurring role midseason during the show's troubled first season in early 1994. (It was then called ``These Friends of Mine.'') During the second season, Joe's cynicism was toned down. Higgins has ``no idea at all what the new season will bring.''

``It's a time of changes,'' Higgins says of the upcoming third season. He's hopeful that new executive producers Eileen Heisler & DeAnn Heline and Vic Kaplan will give the show ``a real focus.''

The Des Moines, Iowa, native, 33, got an early start on performing. The middle child of five, Higgins won a scholarship to the local community theater in the fourth grade. ``My father did high school plays and worked as a broadcaster, and my mother was the biggest movie fan there ever was,'' he says of his early interest in the craft.

While Higgins dislikes the moniker ``class clown,'' he acknowledges, ``I used to joke a lot. I was somewhat disruptive, but teachers enjoyed it. It wasn't the type of thing where they didn't like me.''

Higgins took to performing right away.

Post-college, while working at a local grocery, Higgins joined the now-defunct Iowan Summer Operetta Workshop, one of the few companies doing exclusively Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, and there the Higgins Boys & Gruber was born.

The Higgins Boys & Gruber featured Higgins, younger brother Steve (now a writer, along with youngest brother Alan, on the recently canceled ``The Jon Stewart Show'') and friend Dave Gruber Allen. The trio took their sketch comedy on the road, and their perseverance paid off.

``The Higgins Boys & Gruber'' - with the trio as stars and writers - landed on the then-Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central). The show took them to New York and ran for a year-and-a-half.

The show's pilot received a Cable Ace nomination for best special.

Moving to Los Angeles, Higgins worked for several years as a stage hand at UCLA.

Still unsure of what the new season will bring, Higgins continues to write, work on projects with partners as well as his brothers. ``Whatever happens, you hope you'll do the best you can.''

But as for ``Ellen's'' Joe, he says, ``he'll, hopefully, remain acerbic'' as ever.

``Ellen'' airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13.

by CNB