Perfecting the Language of Comedy

As a person with a theater and radio background, Mike Eagan likes to view his stand-up as a performance.

Delivering his comedy with a monologist approach similar to George Carlin, Eagan takes his life experiences and embellishes on them, touching on relationships and topics he said many comics discuss.

He also likes adding some offbeat topics into his act, as well.

“I play on words, and I’m really into the language,” Eagan, who headlines this weekend at Scotty’s, said. “It’s probably what I’m known for the most, the way I use language and the way I express myself.”

Eagan started down the stand-up road in the late 1970s after getting out of the army. While working in radio at a local Philadelphia station, an extension of his work as a disc jockey in the American Forces Network while he was serving, he tried his hand at an open mic at a local bar in Barrington, N.J.

“I went up there and did stand-up, which was pretty new in the area at the time, and I finished third,” Eagan said. “If you finished in the top three, you could come back the next week. That’s how I started meeting some of the other comics from Philly.”

After working for about a year in stand-up in Philadelphia as one of the first 12 or so comics in the area, he moved up to the New York area, where he lived for 30 years before moving back down to South Jersey three years ago.

While performing stand-up during his time in New York, he maintained his radio career, doing morning shows at stations in Newburgh, N.Y., and Bergen County. However, he said he has been focusing strictly on stand-up for the last five years or so.

“I got tired of getting up in the morning,” he joked.

Now he works stand-up gigs every weekend, staying mostly on the East Coast with occasional shows in Reno and other bigger venues, and occasionally picks up shows on the weekdays and corporate events.

He said he enjoys being in a situation in which his kids are grown and he doesn’t have to constantly go on the road to make money.

“During the week, I spend a lot of time with my grandkids,” Eagan said. “I pretty much get to do what I want to do.”

Eagan will perform at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Comedy Cove at Scotty’s Steak House. His set will be preceded by comedians Laura Hayden and Mike Warsaw. Tickets are $12. Visit the club’s website  for more information.