Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Rea enjoying her role as one of the ‘Divas’

Lisa Ferguson

Friday, April 23, 2004 | 8:20 a.m.

At an early age Carla Rea found herself in the presence of comedy greatness.

That isn't so remarkable considering her upbringing in Reno: She is the daughter of Don Rea, one-third of the trio the Gaylords, which packed casino lounges in Northern Nevada and Las Vegas during the '50s and '60s.

When Dad was performing, Rea and her siblings would "go backstage all the time and hang out," she recalls. "I got to see some of the older acts ... like Pete Barbutti, Pat Cooper," as well as Joan Rivers and George Carlin.

Growing up, she says, "I really, really knew that was what I wanted to do, and what I was going to do."

Starting in the mid-'80s, shortly after earning a journalism degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, Rea hit the road for a dozen years performing stand-up comedy nationwide, even after settling in Las Vegas 14 years ago. She built a new career here as a radio personality, but has stayed true to comedy and is featured in the "Divas of Comedy" show Mondays at Sahara. Also, she's on the bill through Sunday at Riviera Comedy Club.

"That's turned out to be one of my home clubs," Rea says of the Riv, though she has also performed at other area clubs, including The Comedy Stop at The Trop and Golden Nugget's defunct "The Funny Bone Comedy Showcase."

During her years on the road, Rea worked alongside the likes of Ray Romano, Ellen DeGeneres, Roseanne, Paula Poundstone and Dana Carvey.

Rea, who formerly lived in San Diego, was visiting a friend in Las Vegas during the early '90s when she began taking the stage for weekly showcases at Catch a Rising Star (formerly housed at Bally's). That's where Rea says comedian-turned-Flamingo headliner George Wallace caught her act and urged the club's talent booker to give Rea a weeklong gig.

"I just kind of planted myself here, and it worked out great," she says, explaining how she continued performing on the road and also shticked locally, including shows in 1997 with local comedian Cork Proctor at the Gold Coast. "When I moved here, he was really good to me ... He threw a lot of work my way. He had a lot of faith in me, that's for sure, and I did not do him wrong."

The same year, she began juggling her comedy duties with a day job, co-hosting a show with Pat Frisch on former talk-radio station KVBC 105.1-FM (now a Spanish-language station sporting the call letters KQRT). Rea worked with Frisch until he left the show. Frisch was replaced by another co-host, who departed six months later.

Throughout 1999, Rea helmed what was renamed "The Carla Rea Show," until the station was purchased and its format changed. "The words I know in Spanish I couldn't say on the air, so I couldn't stay," she quips.

The following year, Rea says she was asked by local radio mainstay Mike O'Brian to join his morning show on KXPT 97.1-FM -- a job she held until last year when the station's program director gave her and O'Brian the boot. "Our ratings were great," she contends, "but (management) just wanted to make a change, which I can't have real hard feelings about because it's just so typical in the business."

Rea continues to work a day job: She's a career placement coordinator for Las Vegas College, a career-training school. Meanwhile she's considering making a return to local radio in the not-too-distant future, though she has concerns about the ongoing industry-wide crackdown on indecency that's designed to rid the nation's airwaves of questionable content.

"I was really taught to think outside the box -- we were really encouraged to do that ... up until recently in radio," she says. "Now I think a lot of that is being taken away really unnecessarily, and along with that some of the creativity is being taken away as well." She contends freedom of speech is "being stepped on right now ... It frightens me, the thought of getting back on the air. I was very excited about it until all of this started, and it's very discouraging."

Where the 40-year-old Rea says she has the "ultimate freedom" to speak her mind is on the comedy stage. "I'm not the dirty comic; I'm very suggestive. But that is the one place that I feel I can truly be me and say what I want."

As of late, her material has covered the impact of aging on dating and relationships. "I don't know which way to go now. Am I supposed to be mature? Am I supposed to act mature? I feel a bit misplaced, but I certainly feel more confident and stronger than ever."

She's "having a ball" working in "Divas of Comedy" each week with fellow comics Kathleen Dunbar and Carole Montgomery. At clubs around the country, she explains, it's considered "taboo" to book female comics on the same bill. "So this is a kick in the butt for us to be working together as women.

"I was very much afraid in the beginning with the name 'Divas of Comedy,' " she says, explaining her concern that it might "carry a stigma" with audiences. "But it doesn't ... It's three women doing comedy. It's what I like to call 'non-gender humor' -- anybody can enjoy it, anybody can appreciate it and just play along."

Next on Rea's to-do list: put together her own one-woman show. "I've got a lot of material to go along with it, and that is one thing that I definitely want to work on, and I'm shooting for that in the next couple of years."

"I feel like at my ripe, old age of 40 -- God help me -- that I'm in this different phase of my career," Rea says, "and I'm loving it."

Out for laughs

Not long ago Mark Gross was warming up audiences for country-comic Rodney Carrington. These days Gross -- who headlines Palace Station's Laugh Trax from May 4 through May 8 -- is working as a writer and producer on "That's Just Rodney," the ABC sitcom pilot starring Carrington, which was slated to begin production this month and air this year.

Mike Epps is a busy man. Having co-starred in the flicks "Next Friday," "Friday After Next," "All About The Benjamins," "How High" and "The Fighting Temptations," he's gearing up to grace the screen again in the forthcoming films "Resident Evil 2" and a remake of "The Honeymooners." Meanwhile, he still finds time to return to his stand-up roots and is set to perform June 11 and June 12 at the Las Vegas Hilton.