December 12, 2004 Sunday
A Night Out With Eugene Mirman
Bull's-Eye for an Easy Mark
By KRISTER JOHNSON
IT has been an excellent year for Eugene Mirman, the 30-year-old stand-up comic. He's released his first comedy CD, ''The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman'' (Suicide Squeeze Records); toured with indie-rock standouts Yo La Tengo; and enjoyed the success of ''Invite Them Up!'' his weekly show at Rififi in the East Village, which has gained popularity. His Web site, www.eugenemirman.com, which has been entertaining and disturbing people since 2000, is still going strong.
To cap it off, Mr. Mirman, 30, is to appear on ''Late Night With Conan O'Brien'' on Dec. 28, and in February he will perform at the prestigious U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo.
But none of that mattered a whit on a recent evening to the child-patrons of the playland Chuck E. Cheese's near his home in Brooklyn. They were interested only in in having their way with him up and down the gaming area. After a dreadful performance on the Skee-Ball machines, he was challenged to a free throw shooting contest by Egypt Wilson, 11, who figured the hulking fellow with the messy hair and the childish grin to be an easy mark. She was right. He lost 24-2, and Egypt took his remaining tokens as payment.
Out of tokens and back at the table, the comedian shared pizza with his friends and made fun of his status as an ''alternative comedy star.'' Others tweak him, too. A fellow comedian, David Cross, wrote the liners for Mr. Mirman's CD, saying, ''Please regard him as you would a slightly retarded, but supersexy grandma.'' When asked what shows he would be doing in Aspen, Mr. Mirman laughed and said, ''I think they're putting me on 'Boundary Breakers.' Maybe 'Immigrant No-Rules Comics.' '' (His family moved from the Soviet Union to Lexington, Mass., when he was 5.)
His performances are usually peppered with slide shows, audio clips from phone conversations and recitations of mock-indignant letters he has written to major financial institutions. A DVD of several video shorts -- shot in or near his apartment in Brooklyn -- is included with his CD.
''My aspiration is just to do comedy, in whatever context,'' he said. ''I would love to have a TV show or make a movie, but I also love just touring and doing stand-up, or maybe making another album or doing a lot of short film stuff.''
What he wanted most after an hour in Chuck E. Cheese's, though, was a real drink, so it was off to Great Lakes bar in his neighborhood, Park Slope.
If Great Lakes were a town, Eugene would be the mayor. Three people were moving across the room to greet him before he had ordered his first drink. This happens more and more often these days. Some people he knows well. Others claim to have met him at a show. Still others, he says, ''don't know if I'm in their family and distantly related, or if they saw me on VH1.''
For his part, Mr. Mirman is just happy his success allowed him to ditch his temp job. He has little patience for pondering ''what it's all about,'' and when the talk among his friends turned to their crafts and artistic ambitions, he righted that ship. ''Of course, hopefully we'll also be rich and famous,'' he said, grinning. ''But through our sincere appreciation of really commercial art.''
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