Dana Carvey still a man of many voices

Open a conversation with comedian Dana Carvey, and pretty soon you'll start hearing voices.

Known for his comic impressions from his stint on "Saturday Night Live" from 1986 to 1993, Carvey shifts voices every time he drops a name.

During a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, Carvey spoke in Robin Williams' low, rambling mumble, Barack Obama's clipped oratorical style and Jay Leno's late-night TV opening monologue tones.

Carvey — and who knows how many of his voices — will be onstage May 31 at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. The show also includes appearances by two other comedians: opening act Mark Pitta, and Larry Brown doing a post-show Q&A with Carvey.

"I don't really do a lot of regular jokes," Carvey began, suddenly interrupting himself with a joke about his childhood:

"My parents really wanted me to be a typist, but they forced me to go into stand-up comedy so I'd a have a good solid career as a back-up."

Carvey, 58, has a San Francisco Peninsula background. Born in Montana, he grew up in San Carlos, and even today splits his time between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Carvey said he enjoys interacting with a live audience, and sometimes tries out new material at Northern California venues, including the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley.

"I was at an open mic night, and I was basically writing onstage," Carvey said, adding that the audience liked some bits but not others.

"I had some things that just clunked," he said. "I tried the Impatient Horse Whisperer. So, it's like 'Hey boy, settle down now. ... Oh come on! RELAX!'"

To his surprise, a deadpan improvisation about a Chinese documentary film on factory workers went over better — "Two kilometers north is the city of Shanti. It has 240 million people. They all make shoestrings. Million and millions of shoestrings. Last year, 38 million of them hung themselves with the shoestrings."

Despite his quest for new material, Carvey wants to assure longtime fans that his signature "Saturday Night Live" character, The Church Lady, is still part of the repertoire. He's sure other "SNL" alumni face the same demands for the show's classic bits.

"If Dan Aykroyd was doing stand-up, the audience would yell out, 'Do Conehead!'," Carvey said. "The other night, I had two very nice drunk ladies in the audience, who called out 'Church Lady!' I didn't mind at all."

Instantly switching to his patronizing Church Lady voice, Carvey told his tipsy fans, "We do like to have our little cocktail, don't we? We like to drink Mr. Alcohol. Mr. Mouth is moving, and Mr. Brain doesn't know quite what it's saying."

Carvey's famous impressions of presidents also keep him in demand, sometimes from past presidents themselves.

"I'm still friends with George Bush Sr. I'm going to see him. He wants to have lunch and hang out," Carvey said.

"When I started to do Obama, he was very tricky to do vocally for a lot of reasons. But people are getting used to the rhythm of his speech now, so they recognize it," Carvey explained.

Then in Obama's voice, he added, "There are people in the world who disagree with our way of life, and wish to do us harm."

And in George W. Bush's voice, he responded with, "You mean evil-doers?"

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.