Born to keep ‘em laughing

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

Who: Dom Irrera

When: 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. through Sunday

Where: Riviera Comedy Club

Tickets: $19.95, 794-9433

Some comedians use comedy to mask a darker side. Not Dom Irrer a.

"I have no real message. I'm not preaching. I have nothing to teach," he says during a telephone call from Montreal, where he's performing at the 25th-annual Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. "I just like to make people laugh. I love when they go, 'Man, my face hurts from laughing.' That's when I think, 'Job well done.' "

If you don't mind a hurting face you can check out Irrera's gig this week at the Rivier a Comedy Club, where he will be headlining through Saturday. Comedians Carla Rea and Lisa Mende complete the lineup.

Irrera's main - make that only - ambition has been to be a comedian and actor.

"One of the gifts I have is that I have no gifts other than comedy," he says. "So I was always really focused. It's not like I was a Benjamin Franklin type of person with a lot of choices. It was pretty well narrowed down for me.

"The only other thing I did well was teach school."

The Philadelphia native taught fourth grade for two years at a Catholic school after graduating from college. He'd majored in theater, but a teaching degree wasn't required.

"I liked it," he says. "I just didn't like getting up early."

He did stand-up comedy in the classroom.

"On Fridays, if the kids were good, after lunch we would have like a party and I would do kind of a stand-up for them," Irrera says. "The kids are grown up now. They say it was the best year of their life. It makes me feel good."

The educational system's loss was the comedy world's gain.

The 60-year-old Irrera gained national attention on Rodney Dangerfield's HBO special, "Nothing Goes Right." Irrera landed his own HBO comedy special, "One Night Stand," in 1989 and earned his first CableACE award. In '95 he won a second CableACE for the Showtime series he hosted, "Full Frontal Comedy."

While his mainstay has been clubs, he has a long list of acting credits, including movies ("The Big Lebowski," "Hollywood Shuffle") and television ("The Drew Carey Show," "The King of Queens," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Seinfeld").

He has done a lot of voice-over work, such as Comedy Central's animated series, "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist."

Irrera has opened for many performers, including magician David Copperfield.

Currently, one of his gigs is the voice of Duke the Dog in the TV series "Barnyard."

"I have a great bark," Irrera says. "When the series director said, 'Leave a space in the script for a dog to bark,' I told him I have a really good bark. I barked, and he said, 'Well, there's one dog that's out of work.' "

Irrera says his pal and fellow Philly native Cook E. Jarr, who has been a Vegas lounge performer for many years, also has a great bark.

"I love Cook E. Jarr," Irrera says. "When I was opening for Cher in Vegas I used to take the crew, the security guard, the gay dancers, everybody to see Cook E. And everybody liked him. He's so talented, and he's the only one with a better bark than me."

Irrera has a lot of friends in Las Vegas, among them Flamingo President Don Marrandino. Over the years he has worked with Bette Midler, who will be the headliner at Caesars Palace when Celine Dion leaves, and Cher, rumored to be another Dion replacement.

"I look forward to being there for a lot of reasons - friends and to just get back to regular stand-up," he says. "I had to do a lot of writing here in Montreal, specific stuff geared for Montreal. At the Riviera I can do anything I want onstage."

Television has created a glut of comedy which sometimes makes it difficult to keep coming up with fresh material, but Irrera is up to the challenge.

"Yeah, it's tough," he says. "That's why I stay away from a lot of topical stuff, because of that. 'The Tonight Show' has 10 writers. Letterman the same. Jon Stewart the same. So every night you hear how dumb George Bush is in a dozen different ways. But they can't compete with me talking about my cousins, my sister, people like that.

"I try to keep the material more like that than the broader political stuff. It seems to have worked for me for having a nice steady career."

One that has left a trail of hurting faces.