Brian Regan

Brian Regan doesn’t play comedy clubs too often anymore — a couple of Comedy Central specials and albums have given him big-theater status. This means he no longer deals with the distractions of the club scene, like the menu. “I was always intrigued when they served food in a comedy club,” Regan says. He tells the story of a guy in the front row who was really into the show — until his meal arrived. “The cheeseburger, all of a sudden, trumped me as the headliner in his life,” Regan says. “His eyes rolled back into his head…[I thought], ‘I’ve lost this guy; I can’t compete with a delicious cheeseburger.’”

Although he no longer contends with burgers, fame has brought new obstacles. “I’ve always been careful not to become a caricature of myself,” he says. He points to his tendency to prowl the stage and get physical in his joke-telling. He says if he reads about any one aspect of his act too regularly, he tends to move away from it. “I don’t want to be a thing that you can easily hang your hat on. I don’t want to be the ‘Brian is the guy that dot, dot, dot,’” he says.

His quest to keep fresh has garnered him respect from both the general public and his peers. His jokes about everything from doing badly in school to raising children to the ridiculousness of Fig Newton serving sizes have earned him accolades from comics both big and small. “It means an awful lot to me,” he says. I’m always flattered to have people who do what [I] do like what [I] do.” 8 p.m. Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas. For tickets and information, call 713-230-1600 or visit www.verizonwirelesstheater.com. $35.50 to $39.50.
Sat., April 19, 8 p.m., 2008