Way back during the past century, 1995-98 to be exact, comedian Jim Breuer was a regular on Saturday Night Live.
If you can't remember his name, you'll no doubt remember his most notable character Goat Boy: That hideous hhhalf goat, hhhalf man character on SNL who baaaas like a billy goat while talking.
However, Breuer told the Herald in a recent telephone interview that the character didn't really start out to be a goat boy.
"I originally created the character to be a guy with Tourette's (syndrome)," Breuer said. "But (SNL writers) changed it to a goat boy and that made it an even funnier character."
Breuer will bring his stand-up routine to the Tri-Cities on Oct. 6 for a one-night performance at 8:30 p.m. at Joker's Comedy Club in Richland. Tickets are $35 general admission, $45 for VIP seating. Tickets are available at Joker's.
What's unique about Breuer's lovable, off-the-wall humor is that he doesn't sully it all up with foul language and controversial topics.
"I like to think of myself as a modern day Bill Cosby," Breuer said. "I don't cuss or talk politics, nothing dark."
Instead, this silly father of three talks about all the everyday struggles of life, including marriage and raising children, and how he deals with it all.
Breuer, 44, says he comes from a family of comics, though he's the only one getting paid to deliver comedic shtick. He grew up in a blended family, the youngest of seven siblings in Long Island, N.Y.
"My 88-year-old father was always the family anchor," he said. "He was very funny. Everyone in my family is funny."
But there's more to Breuer than making people laugh for a living. He's a devoted family man. He and his wife Dee have been married for 18 years and have three daughters ages 12, 9 and 6.
When his dad's health began to go downhill, Jim didn't want his father to fall too deeply into dementia isolating himself from the family.
So in 2008 Breuer decided to take his dad on his Breuniveristy Tour, hoping it would lift the old man's spirits. Breuer made a video of the experience. The footage ended up a documentary called More Than Me.
"I'm a firm believer that we always need play time," Breuer said. "My dad needed some play time back then."
The documentary follows father and son from college to college across the country and shows how they interact with each other.
"I'm very excited about this documentary because I know there are so many people who can relate to it," he said. "Taking him on that tour definitely had its moments, but I wouldn't trade that time for anything."
Some of those strained moments included clashes of opinion between father and son on a few occasions.
Breuer describes his dad as having a darker sense of humor and a potty mouth that rivals George Carlin.
Though Breuer is a huge fan of Carlin, he prefers to keep the colorful language out of his arsenal of humorous anecdotes.
Breuer was recently named one of Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time. He has a weekly radio show on Sirius/XM Radio called Fridays With Breuer and a podcast hit called Podcast Masters.
Breuer also writes books, including his autobiography, I'm Not High: But I've Got a Lot of Crazy Stories about Life as a Goat Boy, a Dad, and a Spiritual Warrior, which was released this month.
Besides his Goat Boy character on SNL, Breuer also is praised for his memorable impressions of Joe Pesci.
Post SNL, he went on to make movies like Half Baked with Dave Chappelle, and Zookeeper with Kevin James.
* Dori O'Neal: 582-1514; doneal@tricityherald.com
