Comedian makes light of life issues

Rob Little gave up a job with IBM to hit the comedy circuit, and he s not one bit sorry.

Rob Little is not so little.

And that's OK with him. After all, if he was smaller, it might hurt his act.

"I do talk about my whole family being chubby," the 240-pound comedian says. "Like how we just got our family portrait done by aerial photography. And my sister was like, 'Why aren't they dropping food?'●"

But though he's got plenty of one-liners like that, Little says most of his act relies heavily - no pun intended - on physical comedy. Think Jim Carrey. Or, as Little likes to describe himself, "a bald Chris Farley with a smack of Jack Black."

Little, 33, brings his act to Toledo's Connxtions Comedy Club today through Saturday, and is hoping the Toledo crowd enjoys his brand of "goofy, high-energy" comedy. Don't count on Little for political comedy or current events type references.

"I hate that," he says.

Instead, he'll focus on the daily challenges we all face - or, at least the daily challenges faced by a bald guy. "I do talk about being bald. One of my jokes is, 'I don't mind being bald. Look at all the money I save by not going out on dates.'●"

Little, who was born and reared in a small "one-light" Michigan town, has been doing stand-up comedy for nearly eight years. He took up comedy after being bored out of his mind by his previous job: Web developer for IBM.

"I have a computer science degree, but I always wanted to do stand-up," he says.

It was a smart move. His stand-up routine has attracted the attention of Hollywood, where he now lives.

He's been a sketch comedy player on Best Damn Sports Show Period, and Last Call With Carson Daly. He's been in national TV commercials and appeared on Strictly Sex with Dr. Drew.

One of his recent TV gigs was appearing in an episode of Fire Me, Please, a reality TV show. Winners got $25,000 if they were fired under the rules of the program.

His task for the episode was to show up for a job and try to get fired as close as possible to 3 p.m. He was canned at 2:35 p.m.

He was quite bad at his "job" as a server at a barbecue joint in Kentucky. He showed up for work smoking and complaining that he'd been drinking the night before. When asked by a customer if the food was any good, he'd take bites of their sandwich and put it back on their plate. He won.

Rob Little will appear at Connxtions Comedy Club, 5319 Heatherdowns Blvd., at 8 tonight. Tickets are $8. College students with a college ID get in for $3 and military personnel get in for free. Little also will appear at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. Tickets are $12 for those performances, with military getting in for free, but no college discount.

Contact Luke Shockman at:

lshockman@theblade.com

or 419-724-6084.