ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 TAG: 9604160039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: R.D. HELDENFELS KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Comedy fans should be warned: Hangin' with Mr. Curry is not the same as ``Hangin' With Mr. Cooper.''
Mark Curry, the actor who stars in the ABC family series ``Hangin' With Mr. Cooper,'' also is a stand-up comic. People should not expect to see his character, teacher Mark Cooper, onstage.
``My [stand-up] show has never been safe for kids,'' Curry said in a recent telephone interview. ``This is for people 18 and over. The TV show, that's Mr. Cooper's show. This is mine, and it's completely different. I'm doing a one-hour special for HBO and I'm thinking about calling it `This Ain't Mr. Cooper.' ...
``In the show I talk about sex, about crack, about growin' up in the 'hood,'' the Oakland, Calif.-born Curry said. ``I do observations, like what it's like being on an airplane,'' something he knows plenty about from his travels to stand-up shows between ``Mr. Cooper'' tapings.
But situation comedy and stand-up do have one thing in common to Curry. ``It's the laugh,'' he said. ``That's my job, getting the laugh.''
It's a job the thirtysomething Curry has had for a little less than a decade. After playing basketball at California State University, he worked in and eventually managed a drugstore where, the story goes, he kept cracking up the customers. Finally, in 1987, he took his first steps onstage at a comedy club and worked his way up to headliner.
In 1992, ``Mr. Cooper'' came along and Curry had to learn another craft. Unlike stand-up, he had less control over what he had to do.
``There have been so many changes,'' he said. ``They didn't know what to do with me at first.''
``Mr. Cooper'' started as a three-character comedy, with Curry playing a former basketball star-turned-teacher who lived in the same house as two women. The women were played by Dawnn Lewis (``A Different World'') Holly Robinson (``21 Jump Street''), two pros who nearly overpowered Curry on camera in the early going.
At the beginning of the second season, the series moved from Tuesdays to Fridays, where ``Mr. Cooper'' has remained (it's on hiatus for now) as part of ABC's T.G.I.F. family-comedy lineup. There was also a change in tone, with Lewis leaving and several new characters, notably ``Cosby Show'' moppet Raven-Symone, arriving.
Things have been relatively stable since, and the series has lasted long enough to accumulate 100 episodes, which will begin rerunning in syndication in September. And ABC has ordered more new episodes for next season.
Curry also does far more than just recite his lines. ``I have input,'' he said. ``They've realized I'm funny.''
And however adult his stand-up may be, he watches out for his TV audience - for instance telling the writers Mr. Cooper would not look at another character and say, ``My God, she's got a big butt.''
``The kids figure, `Mr. Cooper did it, it's OK,' '' he told the Detroit News. ``People imitate you when you're on a series.''
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ``My [stand-up] show has never been safe for kids,''by CNBCurry said in a recent telephone interview. ``This is for people 18
and over. The TV show, that's Mr. Cooper's show. This is mine, and
it's completely different."|