Arts & Entertainment

Robin Fox Brings the Funny on Her Terms [VIDEO]

Bridgewater housewife showcases her comedy stylings at Parsippany's Mount Halloran Towne Tavern Wednesday.

For more than 17 years, Robin Fox was a housewife with a dream: She wanted to be a stand-up comedian. 

"I'd wanted to do comedy for more than 20 years, but that vanished when I got married and had a baby at 30," Fox recalls over the phone from her home in Bridgewater. "I was the mom cracking jokes at the PTO."

By taking a gamble, Fox made that dream come true. Now, the Cranford native performs at clubs in New York, entertaining crowds on the lucrative corporate comedy circuit and bringing the funny at bridal and baby showers. And Wednesday, the in-demand jokester will make a stop at the Mount Halloran Towne Tavern in Parsippany's Lake Hiawatha on Wednesday night. 

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Usually, weekly comedy nights at the Towne Tavern feature comedians just getting started in the business. Robin Fox, in comparison, is a big name. But while some successful comics might consider themselves beyond playing a small venue, Fox disagrees.

"It's a great opportunity for me to try out new material, see what works and what doesn't," she said. "And the audience gets to hear some fresh stuff. I love [show organizer and rising comedian] Lisa Etkin and all the people there too, so I'm really looking forward to it."

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Fox attributes a lot of her success to her spouse of 28 years, who noticed that she was unfulfilled in her role as a stay-at-home mom. She recalled languishing for lack of a creative outlet.

"I tried so many things, like craft shops and art work. My husband says I was always looking for an audience," she said. "When I told him that I wanted to pursue comedy, he said, 'Everybody deserves a chance to follow their dream.' He's been really supportive."

Before Fox could move forward, though, she had to overcome a major hurdle: her own insecurity.

"I was worried. What if I wasn't good at it?" she said. "I had a false start in the mid-, late '80s, but that stopped when my daughter was born in 1987. Later I got into advertising sales and manifested my creativity through that."

In the 1990s, she stumbled onto an improvisational comedy group at a local Jewish Community Center.

"I joined a group called the Improvables at the Watchung Arts Center; I helped come up with the name," Fox said. "I loved it there. I'm a big ham and loved it like a freaking crack fiend."

The Improvables out on a monthly stand-up comedy night that featured three New York comics. Fox helped run the events but was reluctant to perform herself.

"A friend suggested that I write 10 minutes and try," she said. "I finally did and I did really well."

From there, she went to New York in search of opportunity. Fox took comedy classes at Gotham Comedy Club and gained experience doing open mics and clubs as often as she could. On some occasions, she said, she would perform as many as four shows in a night.

"I hustled to get all the work I could," Fox remembered. "I handed out fliers, worked in clubs' offices, chauffeured club owners around, anything to get a spot."

In time, she graced stages at clubs like New York's Ha!, where she worked four nights a week, doing four shows a night for more than two years.

Wanting to create other opportunities to practice her craft, Fox said she began doing events for corporations and organizations.

"People liked it and I started to get work," she said. "That's how you build a career: Become so funny they can't deny you. And make sure owners get a bang for their buck."

Fox recalled a club owner once telling her that she was a memorable performer. Others might get bigger laughs, he told her, but the next day, it was her jokes that people remembered. She discovered as she toiled through the years that it was important to be funny and original, but consistently so. And she developed an appeal that was broad enough to amuse a wide range of audiences.

That appeal paid off, earning her the Gilda's Club Laugh-Off prize in 2010.

Fox describes her style as unique, with elements of "Roseanne, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers and Kathy Griffin." Her subjects include relatable topics like the suburban housewife's life, crafting, "raising kids who aren't sociopaths" and shopping in big-box stores.

"In the end, it's all about relationships: mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, so I talk about that," she said. "People want to hear you talk about people."

And while there may be themes in common with the early shtick of "domestic goddess" Roseanne, Fox said, "Her humor is angry and sarcastic. Mine isn't. I always really looked up to Totie Fields. I pray for her to be with me on stage, and in my mind's eye, she is. She's like your best friend and that's what I want to be."

In an effort to better control her career's trajectory, Fox spends most of her work time doing private shows and corporate performances.

"I have no agent and no representation. It's all done through word of mouth," she says of her do-it-yourself career. "I make a good living and it suits my needs. I don't want to travel the country. I just don't have that desire. I'm paying the bills, and that's good."

Fox is serious about being funny.

"Being a comedian is a calling," she said. "Yes, we're attention whores, but what we do is important. We make people laugh. We make memories for people. We alter people's moods. If you get to do that for someone, it's a great gift."

Robin Fox headlines the Mount Holleran Towne Tavern's Comedy Night Wednesday. The free show, which opens with up-and-coming comics, begins at 8 p.m.  The Towne Tavern is at 450 N. Beverwyck Ave. For information, call  973-794-3366.


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