Joker of all trades

Comedian Howard Hall wakes up at 5:30 a.m., kisses his family before heading to work at Lamar Graphics, works out during lunch, writes jokes after work then goes off to rehearsals and shows. With a full schedule like that, one could expect he’d be exhausted, but success keeps him working harder every day.

Aside from comedy, the Baton Rouge talent turned heads as “Harpo” in New Venture Theatre’s production of The Color Purple last July. But trying out for the play was hardly in Hall’s schedule.

“I was on my way back from doing a show in Houston, and my wife wanted me to audition, so she drove me there. I was in my pajamas,” Hall says. “I had no monologue prepared or a song to sing, but still killed the auditions.”

The musical ran at BREC’s Independence Theatre with a series of sold-out shows, but it was not Hall’s first acting gig. Two years ago, he was in the stage play All the Women I Love, which premiered at the Manship Theatre and is now on DVD at Red Box.

As a comedian, Hall has seen his fair share of comedy clubs and college campuses, giving him an optimistic view of the scene here.

“The [Baton Rouge] comedy scene is actually growing, and it’s bigger than what people think,” he says. “We have a strong following, and with that, we can draw interest to generate and produce our own shows and put out our own material.”

Hall produces two bi-monthly comedy shows, “Laughs on the River” and “Trippin’ on Thursdays.” He’s got a series of comedy CDs and will soon be adding a full-length DVD to the list. Hallarious filmed locally in December and will be released in February.

He is also a personality for the three-times-a-week podcast “Just Clowning Radio” with Martin Holmes, which was recently picked up by Lafayette’s 105.9 The Breeze.

But with all these opportunities elsewhere, Hall still makes time to sit on the board for a local arts program and mentors at-risk and AIDS-infected youth.

Hall says his family is his motivation—he even donated a kidney to his older sister, which he says required no thought at all. HowardHallcomedy.com