Published: April 11, 2007 11:25 pm         

B-Sides: An all-star comedy show for everyone

TERRE HAUTE — Somebody get Mr. Obvious on the phone.

Yes, “Bob & Tom Show” fandom falls under a broad umbrella. Some fans can relate to Mr. Obvious, a popular character on the nationally syndicated radio show. Others may fall eerily close to the “longtime listener, first-time caller” who naively asks Mr. Obvious what to do about such dilemmas as a snarling animal living under the kitchen sink. (The sound is, obviously, a garbage disposal.)

Tom Griswold, the real co-host, chuckled at a couple of examples Wednesday afternoon, speaking by cell phone while waiting to pick up his son, Charlie.

Their show originates from the NAPA Studios in Indianapolis. Now, most Hoosiers probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that studio is named for a sponsor, NAPA Auto Parts. But …

“We used to say, ‘Live from the NAPA Studios,’” Griswold recalled. “But people started calling and asking us if we were in Napa Valley.” As in California.

Thus, they’ve dropped that show opener to avoid confusing listeners of many of the 150 stations across the country that carry “Bob & Tom.” (The crew chooses not to identify Indiana as its base. “It’s really not that relevant,” Griswold explained.)

And then there’s Donnie Baker. He calls in daily to share personal experiences vaguely connected to the topic being discussed by the show’s on-air regulars — Griswold, partner Bob Kevoian, sports commentator Chick McGee and news anchor Kristi Lee. Baker only hangs up after shouting, “Shut up, Randy,” at his irritated boss, and concluding with, “I gotta go.”

Donnie has a loyal following.

“A lot of people think he’s some real guy who’s funny,” Griswold said laughing. “He’s a guy everybody knows. I went to high school with that guy.”

He was speaking metaphorically. Donnie is a character played by a member of the talented “Bob & Tom Show” staff. (Griswold wouldn’t divulge Mr. Baker’s true identity, but Internet reports insist he’s really show staffer Ron Sexton. I swear to God, it’s true.)

Well, “Bob & Tom” fans, Donnie, and several familiar voices on the show can meet you face to face April 20 in the Indiana Theatre. That night, the Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour will make a stop in that historic Terre Haute venue for a 7:30 p.m. performance. The lineup includes four comedians or “friends of the show” — Drew Hastings, Henry Phillips, Tim Bedore and Tracy Smith — as well as Donnie Baker and the Pork Pistols and the resilient Kristi Lee.

Griswold and Kevoian won’t appear at the Indiana that night (nor will Chick), but that isn’t unusual with the show’s Comedy All-Stars Tour. Busy schedules prevent Bob and Tom from performing regularly with the traveling group. The comedians, with Lee serving as guest host, “kind of represent the spirit of our show,” Griswold said.

Hastings, for example, defies comparison, Griswold said. The 6-foot-6 comic dresses like the Los Angeles resident he once was, yet Hastings now lives on a farm in Ohio “that he doesn’t know how to run,” Griswold said. “He’s kind of a fish out of water.”

Phillips is a singer-songwriter the show found through Dr. Demento, veteran host of a late-night song-parody radio program. Bedore does a “Vague But True” segment on “Bob & Tom” every Wednesday. And Smith is a Canadian standup who just moved from L.A. to Raleigh, N.C.

The idea for the Comedy All-Stars Tour came almost by accident. Three years ago, Griswold arranged a similar performance by the show’s regulars as a benefit for his daughter’s ailing school classmate. They staged it at a comedy club, and nearly 300 people showed up.

“I said, ‘Who’s been to a comedy show before?’” Griswold remembered asking the crowd. “And I heard one guy clapping. And it got me wondering, with comedy being so popular, why has just this one guy seen a comedy show?”

Griswold deduced that a lot of comedy shows happen in bars, and not everybody goes to bars.

“There are people who will go see a live theater production who won’t got to a bar to see a comedian,” Griswold said.

Thus, the Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour visits places such as the Indiana Theatre.

As she does on the daily radio show, Kristi will hold the craziness together. She’s done that on “Bob & Tom” since the early days of the show, which began at Indianapolis’ WFBQ-FM 94.7 in 1983. Griswold, a Columbia University grad who takes a ribbing from the others over his eccentricities, insisted Lee, himself and Kevoian all help maintain calm during the four-hour show from 6 to 10 a.m.

“The voice of reason is sort of like a ball passed around between me, Bob and Kristi,” Griswold said. “It’s never passed to Chick, and that will never happen.”

Chick was Chuck McGee when Griswold met him. McGee was working at a sister Indianapolis AM station, about to be fired, Griswold said, when “Bob & Tom” hired him.

“I would see him in the hallway,” Griswold said. “He’s a very funny guy, and I thought he was hilarious.”

So do fans, who’ve heard McGee’s classic radio-announcer voice earnestly selling products on commercial spoofs, narrating his own prostate exam or as, yes, Mr. Obvious.

Together, the foursome of Bob, Tom, Chick and Kristi, and contributors such as producer Dean Metcalf, complement the array of comedians, musicians, actors, actresses, politicians and sports figures who appear on their show. The Comedy All-Stars Tour, Griswold said, is an extension of that concept.

“It’s one of our strengths,” he said. “We’re good at giving people who are funny the forum to be funny.”

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

Bob & Tom Comedy All-Star Tour

Date: April 20.

Place: Indiana Theatre, 683 Ohio St., Terre Haute.

Time: Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show starts at 7:30.

Lineup: Comedians Drew Hastings, Henry Phillips, Tim Bedore, Tracy Smith and Donnie Baker & the Pork Pistols, with Kristi Lee as special guest host.

Tickets: $29.50 per person. Available at the Indiana Theatre Box Office during regular movie box office hours, or through TicketMaster. The show is open to all ages. Seating is general admission.