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Fitzgerald returns to the Backbowl in Eagle for Comedy Night

Caramie Schnell
cschnell@vaildaily.com
Vail, CO Colorado

EAGLE, Colorado – No one laughs enough.

At least that’s what comedian Kevin Fitzgerald says. And we think he’s right.

“Please get up off the couch, turn off the TV and come to the Back Bowl and laugh on Saturday night,” Fitzgerald said. “I hope to see you there. I promise I won’t make fun of the shape of your noggin.”



The Denver-based bouncer-turned-veterinarian and part-time comedian returns to the bowling alley’s stage Saturday night for its monthly comedy night. Gretchen Hess, a former Vail local who has also performed at the Back Bowl several times, will open the show. Hess was initially discovered while writing and performing for RSN TV.

Fitzgerald took the time to answer a few questions for the Vail Daily.

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1. Vail Daily: I understand that you worked as a bouncer for years with The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Police. You’re also a veterinarian and of course, a stand up comedian. Is there any connection between the three or do you just get bored easily?

Kevin Fitzgerald: Our lives are not one dimensional. It’s not Russia where if your father was a peasant, you’re a peasant. The sky’s the limit – you can do whatever you want if you work hard enough at it. Although some of it is genetics. I’m more believable as a bouncer than a jockey.

2. VD: You’ve appeared on TV and radio numerous times, both for Animal Planets show Emergency Vets and on various news programs like The Today Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and The Howard Stern Show. Is there one appearance or episode that stands out in your mind?

KF: It’s easier to be on the radio then on TV. The camera doesn’t blink. I have a face that was made for radio. At least people can dream about what I look like, rather than see a guy with shaggy hair that looks like he’s going to invent something. I’m just a person, no one particularly special – I still get very nervous in an interview. Before you’re on television, you’re sweating like Paris Hilton at a spelling bee. Plus TV adds 10 pounds to a person, and I’ve already got a head like a St Patrick’s day float.

3. VD: How did you get into stand up comedy?

KF: I started off a lot younger. I started writing for other people, and decided to do my own jokes instead. People do stand-up because they have to. There’s something wrong with comics. But I really did it because I couldn’t be a jockey.

4. VD: What can people expect from your show in Eagle Saturday night?

KF: No elephants, no trapeze artists, no belly dancers (shucks) – only me and Gretchen setting up our fire perimeters, establishing a killing zone, and bringing high hilarity to the Vail Valley.

5. VD: Is your show pretty clean? Why or why not?

KF: Well, I haven’t worked in 6-days, and audiences have been delighted. Really though – it’s harder to write a clean joke than a dirty one, but it’s so much funnier if everyone can be included and laugh. My act is pretty clean. Sometimes there are kids there, so – you have to do the kid jokes, like “why do all mermaids wear seashells?”, – “because B-shells are too small”. (laughs) I work pretty clean, why offend anyone?

6. VD: What inspires you to write material for your show?

KF: Just look around! You can’t write funnier things than what really happen – your family, your job, the shape of your father’s head. My friends laughed when I said I was going to do comedy. No one’s laughing now.

7. VD: How often do you write material for the show? Tell me about a recent piece of material you wrote.

KF: Writing is weird. Sometimes it comes easy, and sometimes nothing comes at all. It comes from the sky, from the comedy gods. Truly, you can’t write funnier things than what happens in your life. At the vet hospital the other day a woman asked me with a straight face “what do you give a Great Dane with diarrhea?” and I said “plenty of room.”


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