comedy Photo Illustration by Sean Tevis / KANSAN Live from Lawrence... Saturday Night Live comic Adam Sandler turns goofing off into a job with characters such as Cajun Man and Opera Man By Traci Carl Special to the Kansan dan Sandler was 17 when he first got up on a Boston comedy club stage and tried to make people laugh. "It was a bad time," said Sander, who is now a writer and performer for Saturday Night Live. "Nobody laughed. I was a goober. I had braces. I wasn't funny." Now 26, he will be performing at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Kansas Union Ballroom. And he's not too worried about whether students will laugh. Most of them have already laughed at him on Saturday Night Live. They also may have thought he was funny on MTV's "Remote Control" or when he did stand-up on MTV's "Half-Hour Comedy Hour." So soon they will see him in the Paramount Pictures' movie "Conehead," where he sells Dan Akroyd a fake ID so that Akroyd's alien character can become a citizen of the plane. But just as Akroy was famous as a conehead, Sandler makes people laugh with characters like "Cajun Man" and "Opera Man." He also uses improvisations by goofing off with friends. "Opera Man was something I just did around the office," Sandler said. "Then the writers picked it up. I just like to be funny." Last week Sandler turned a string of stand-up appearances at East Coast colleges from Penn State to Dartmouth into a road trip with two of his friends. The three of them entertained each other on the endless stretches of highway by talking in funny voices. "I felt like Bon Bion," Sandler said. "I was a cowboy. It was me and a couple of guys who write for Saturday Night Live. We were just talking in character all through the trip. It's not like work, it's fun." When he's on the road, Sandler said, he feels like a rock star. That may be the inspiration for his impersonations of heavy metal stars, such as Axl Rose. He said he was in a band in high school and thought about being the next "Alice in Chains." "It itdon't go that way," Sandler said. "I turned out to be a goodball, not a star." But his parents are still proud, and his father thinks he is funny, Sandler said. And, on major holidays, he sets up a dinner place on SNU's "Weekend Update" and has a one-sided conversation with his parents, who are supposedly watching the show at home and talking to him. The skits usually end with Sandler pretending to yell at his father and his mother supposedly crying. Along with Rodney Dangerfield, his father is one of his heroes, Sandler said. He said he admired his father because his father had a dry, intelligent sense of humor. "I'll commit to anything to make someone laugh." he said. "I don't think my father would wear the Opera Man wig and sing." Sandler also dressed up in drag to play a female salesclerk at a Gap clothing store to work with his customers, salesclerks don't make him laugh, he said. "There's something about them that draws my attention," Sandler said. "When they don't have anything to do, they just look so lost. I like Gap girls. They're sweet and when I need stuff, like loose-fit jeans, they help me out." Alex Sulzer, Student Union Activities special events coordinator, said Sandler's stand-up made him laugh. "Some of his impersonations of Jewish mothers are very well done," Sulzer said and then laughed as he thought of an example. "I think the best stuff is when he does his bits on the news and is just himself." Apparently, KU students think Sandler is funny. The $8 tickets for Saturday night's show at the Union sold out Friday. They had been on sale for only five days, Sulzer said. "That's phenomenal." Sulzer said. "I had a good feeling about it, but I had no idea it would sell out that fast." It's been awhile since Sandler bombed in Boston. Sandler said that after years of practice, he was more comfortable on stage and thought Saturday at the Union would be a success. "I'm going to try and be funny," Sander said. "I might do some characters. I'm going to sing some songs at the end. I think it'll be fun." music Festival offers jazzy alternative By Ezra Wolfe Kansan staff writer Don't let the winter do drums or a boring rock 'n' roll band ruin another weekend. Drive up to Kansas City this weekend and check out the Winter Jazz Festival. There are lots of musicians scheduled, and its cheap. Gary Foster The Kansas City Jazz Commission and the University of Missouri — Kansas City are the co-hosts for the festival, which begins Karrin Allyson oday and concludes Sunday Karrin Allyson, a Kansas City jazz singer and pianist will perform the opening night. Allyson will sing, but not play the piano at the Theater at Waldo, a former dinner theater never before used for jazz performance. "We're really looking forward to it because it looks like a great acoustical space," she said. Alkison, who has been a professional musician for 13 years, said she would sing mostly standards and some popular modern jazz tunes. On Friday night, the festival will feature a performance by an all-star high school band and Saturday's events include a jazz band competition. The band competition gives high school jazz bands the opportunity to perform and be judged, said Doug Alpert, director of the festival. Allyson said she had attended similar clinics as a college student in "They really open your ears up to music," she said. "But the most important is to get out and play." "Gary Foster is one of the most asked for session players in Los Angeles," Alpert said. "And Ahmad Alaadeen and Kerrin Alison are two of the more prominent players on the local scene." he said. be a clinic as well as a performance." At the clinic, professional musicians will provide instruction about playing jazz. Abert said. Other musicians performing at the festival include Gary Foster and "Jazz education is a strong theme of the festival," said Alpert. "There will be a clinic as well as a performance." Check out this jazz Beginning jazz listeners may want to check out these suggestions from Dan Galley, director of jazz studies at KU and Dick Wright, associate professor of music history. - Miles Davis Kind of Blue and "Perry and Bess" * Bob Cotton Gig Stops - Oscar Peterson Trip - We Get Requests - Louis Armstrong — "Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five" - Dekker Elison The Blanton Webster Band Duke Ellington Gambone and Colton - Cannonball Adderly — Cannonball and Coltrane Berry Shields — "No birth of the Cool" Stan Getz — Stan Getz Plays Weather Report — Heavy Weather Charlie Parker — "Bird, The Savoy Recordings" Jon Hendricks — "Freddy the Freeloader" Kansas City Winter Jazz Festival Schedule Today Karrin Allyson and Sharon Thompson with Bob Boewen, Paul Smith and Todd Street, 7:30 p.m. at the Theater at Walbo, 619 West 45th Street, $10. Call 333-9200 for tickets. Tomorrow Kansas City Jazz Band Festival, featuring Gary Foster and the Kansas City Jazztet with Ahmad Alasdeen and Kerry Williams. White Recalctal Hall at UMMC. $5 or $6. Call 215-2700 for tickets. Sean Tevis / KANBAR Your guide to Entertainment in the Lawrence Area. calendar Nightlife Benchwarmers Sports Bar And Grill 20th St. 1601 W. 23rd St. The Wake and Milhous Nixons, Today, Tomor Jack-O-Pierce, Saturday Bottleneck The Urge with Sinister Dane, $4 Shindig Shop with Pumpkin Head, Tomorrow $4. Lonesome Hounddogs and Savoy Truffle, Saturday, $4 New Fast Automatic Daffodils and The Goats, Monday The Wallflower with Which Doctors? , Sunday Consolidated, Monday Allgood with Salty Iguanas, Tuesday, $4 Freddie Johnston and Bean Land, Wednesday Dos Hombres 815 New Hampshire St. Dixie Cadillacs, Today, $2 Gusto's 925 Iowa St. Cowherwell with Teramakras, Tomorrow Cawcauns, Saturday, $3 Harmony Hall Dr. John Walker, a professor of philosophy, singer, songwriter, guitarist evocative of greats such as Woody Guthrie, Hudie Ledbetter and Bob Wills 8 p.m., Friday, $6 at door Hockenberry's Tavern 1016 Massachusetts St. Baghdad Jones, Today, $4 L.A. Ramblers, Tomorrow, $3 Chubby Smith and His Orchestra, Saturday, Acoustic open mike, Sunday Evergreen and Covote Dreams, Wednesday Jazzhaus 926 1/2 Massachusettsets, Lonnie Ray's Blues Jam, Today Soul Shaker, Tomorrow Cato Trio, Saturday Johnny's Tavern Johnny's tavern 401. N. Second St. Fast Johnny, Tomorrow, Saturday The Stringers, Wednesday, $2 Continued on Page 8.