Austin Elks Club hosts comedians to tickle your funny bone

by Lee Bonorden

Austin Daily Herald

It’s time to have your funny bone tickled.

The Austin Elks Club will host three comedians Saturday, Feb.26.

“Wild” Bill Bauer headlines the trio of comedians.  The show will also feature Craig Allen and Jeff Polis.

Show time is 8 p.m., Feb. 26 at the Austin Elks Club, which is located at 102 First Ave. NE.

Tickets are $10 at the door.  They may also be bought in advance at the Austin Elks Club or the Coffee House On Main, 329 N. Main St., Austin.

Bauer, the headliner, is one of five Minnesota comedy legends still performing.

Bauer began performing at Mickey Finn’s, the tiny bar on Central Avenue in northeast Minneapolis 25 years ago.

Louie Anderson, Scott Hansen, Alex Cole and Jeff Gerbino are the others.

Bauer has performed on such television shows as “Roseanne”, just about every standup comedy show and MTV’s Spring Break and in two Tom Arnold movies.

Allen’s successful “Standup for the Troops” fundraiser in April 2003 helped raise badly needed funds for the USO and the VFW’s Operation Uplink.

And Polis is not just a standup comedian.  He’s the producer of the comedy show. 

Polis of Albert Lea began performing several years ago.  Now, he is producing a series of comedy shows in the area and bringing Bauer’s zaniness along with Allen and how own comedic tales to new audiences.

Mickey Finn’s is no more; replaced by the Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis.

There may be places – bars, veterans clubs and other watering holes – where open-mike opportunities exist for aspiring comedians, but with an entire cable channel, Comedy Central, devoted to yuks, local comedians face stiff competition from those who prefer to stay at home and laugh at the television screen.

Polis aims to change that.

“What we have going for us is that we are a clean act,” he said.  “Anybody can enjoy our humor.  Some of it may be off-color, but we offer comedy for the entire family.”

Polis was the “jokester of my family” as a child and performed when he was in college.  Now, he wants to fine-tune his act into a full-time job.

“I get most of the material for my act from life experiences and what goes on around me,” he said. 

He has been influenced by Minnesota’s own Louie Anderson as well as Rodney Dangerfield and Bill Cosby.

Polis plans to bring the trio of funny men to Austin, Rochester, Owatonna and other small cities in the area every three or four months.

For more information, call Polis at 437-4020.