Too 'Not Cool' for School

Despite nearly 40 years as a stand-up comic, Melvin George is still not cool.

Of course, that’s all a part of the act, stemming from an unplanned occurrence during his first gig in the 1970s when he was an emcee at the Improv comedy club.

Nervous and with his hands full – he had to place his glass of water in his pocket to carry the stool and microphone – as he got on stage, things started to worsen quickly as his first few jokes resulted in barely a peep from the audience.

“I look down to my pants, saw I couldn’t keep my legs from shaking and said to the audience, ‘You probably can’t tell from looking at me, but I’m not cool,’” he said.

The audience then broke out in laughter, instantly boosting his confidence.

At that point, he remembered a glass of water he had placed in his pocket and saw another opening.

“So I nod and pull out the glass, and that’s when the audience just erupted,” George said. “That was the beginning of my career.”

Although he said it took him until the early 1990s before he started using the brand throughout his act, most of his set nowadays is based on trying to “be cool.”

He said his act, which he brings to this weekend, is designed to make people feel better when they leave than they did when they walked in.

“I want to feel like there’s a purpose to me being in this business,” he joked, “so I’m making one up.”

George got his stand-up start in the ‘70s in Boston when the comedy circuit had not yet arrived there. He said it was a perfect time to start, though, for both himself and the audiences, if only to “break up the monotony of the folk singing.”

Most nights, he said, he would make some money driving a cab, go to a club to do his 20 minutes and then get back in the cab and pick up more passengers.

But he enjoyed it and has seen being a comic as his calling since he was a kid.

Now, in addition to his stand-up career, he also balances his time working for Mortgage Apple Cakes, which began as a goal for his fiancée Angela Logan to bake 100 apple cakes in 10 days to pay the mortgage on her house and, as a result of media attention and public interest, has grown into a business.

In his new responsibility as the company’s administrative assistant, George said he is using abilities, such as graphics and organization skills, he never realized he had.

“I’m really good at business skills when it comes to something like this,” he said. “I didn’t know I had it in me until my fiancée started this business that America.”

George 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 Joe Larsen and Joanne Filan. Tickets are $12. Visit the club's website for more information.