Almost 10 years ago, a pair of performers who billed themselves–true to corpulent form–as A Coupla Fat Guys, were playing for whatever change or bills patrons deigned to drop into the otherwise empty beer pitcher that sat at the edge of the stage in Earl’s Pub on Lincoln Avenue.
The two men, Dave Grier and Pat Hall, had recently formed their act, having met when delivering pizzas for a Rogers Park restaurant and discovering that they shared a similar, if slightly warped, comic sensibility and a taste for blues, rock and jazz.
They started writing songs and performing; Hall on keyboards, Grier on bass, and both singing. One of their earliest numbers was a ditty called “Big Fat Waitress” that went something like this: “When I get a few beers in me, she starts to look fine/Then she bends over, and I’m glad she’s not mine.”
“That was a good one,” said Grier.
A couple of weeks ago, he and Hall were sitting in a downtown saloon, recalling those mid-1980s days at the bygone Earl’s Pub, when the future looked bright with possibility.
“That turned out to be the steadiest gig we’ve ever had,” says Hall. “Almost two years, playing every weekend at Earl’s.”
A Coupla Fat Guys, who perform as a duo and, with four others, as A Coupla Fat Guys Band, have survived a decade on the precarious, sometimes heartbreaking show-business highway. They have played bikers picnics. They have played in front of businessmen and a group of amputees. They’ve played for kids’ parties and for a convention of actuaries. They once opened for a unicyclist who juggled apples.
Though there is a strong tradition of performers like them who mix comedy and music–Victor Borge, Spike Jones, Jack Benny and (ouch!) “Weird Al” Yankovic–those names do not exactly set the hearts of contemporary club owners afluttering.
So, A Coupla Fat Guys have not gotten rich. They have not gotten famous. But they are not without fans.
“(Former Chicago Bear) Tim Wrightman first told me about them. He said, `You’ve got to catch this act,’ ” said Fred Winston, morning man on WPNT-FM (100.3). “I went to see them at this place that was a real bucket of blood, a scary, scary club. They were really funny, and Pat was an astonishing keyboard player. I hired him to play with my blues band.”
Hall has, but for a brief interlude driving a cab, always made his living playing music; he was booted out of Koko Taylor’s band and Son Seals’ band for joking around too much. Grier has held a variety of jobs, and is currently working for an air courier outfit.
They are an affable pair, less fat than seriously sturdy, like a couple of small-college linemen who’ve spent too much time at the local tavern.
Their 10 years of performing (and not performing) have left them remarkably–or might it be irrationally?–upbeat and optimistic.
“Yes, we have gone for long stretches without work,” said Grier. “Yes, we have played some of the strangest venues and scariest places. But there hasn’t been a crowd that didn’t, eventually, have fun.”
For nearly a year in the late 1980s they were hosts at the upscale Catch a Rising Star comedy club at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and later performed, as Grier is proud to say, “from Marquette, Mich., to Lake Charles, La., and 17 states in between,” opening for such acts as Drew Carey and Elayne Boosler. They have appeared on WTTW’s “Wild Chicago.”
“It’s always been a struggle here,” said Hall. “Club owners are reluctant to take risks these days and our act isn’t an easy one to define. But give us a crowd–any crowd–and we’ll win them over.”
Denise McGowen will attest to that. She booked the duo into Catch a Rising Star and, in her role as entertainment coordinator for Navy Pier, has had them perform a couple of times at the pier.
“They are fabulous,” she said. “I’ve loved them from the day I met them. They are not only funny and their songs amusing, they are incredible musicians and totally professional.
“Of course clubs have a problem since they are a hybrid of comedy and music, but I know they’ll succeed. Will they ever be at Carnegie Hall? Why not?”
“Gee,” said Grier, pausing to laugh, “that would be great. But most people can’t really conceive of people being talented at two different things.
“We’ve been out of work a lot,” he added, “so when we finally get on stage we’re so frustrated, so angry that we really let loose.”
They let loose on their first CD, a 11-number compilation called “The Wide Album,” which features the CFGB (Tino Cortez on drums, Chris Winters on guitar and Laura Caragher and Liska Swanstrom on vocals) and is mostly music, blues-based with wicked lyrics, and a couple of fine comedy bits.
It was produced locally by Jim Reeves.
“Man, did we get lucky,” said Hall. “We picked his name out of the ads in the back of the Illinois Entertainer and then we meet a guy who’s produced albums for ZZ Top, Gregg Allman and Edgar Winter. He was amazing to work with.”
Seeing is believing
One can certainly get a taste of the group from the CD, but no disc could properly prepare one for the experience of the Fat Guys live.
They are as unconventional as any act around. Their music is first rate and their material is often ribald and raunchy. They are ever determined to drag audiences into the act. They are unbridled in this increasingly careful age–a jolt of uninhibited fun in this politically correct clime.
That’s one of the reasons they are so appealing and one of the reasons that Winston wants A Coupla Fat Guys with him when he takes his morning show on the road in the fall. But at the moment, the CD is all you get.
“We are, as they say, between engagements,” said Grier, meaning that there are no performances scheduled.
But they are encouraged by the response to the CD. Orders have come in from Philadelphia, Miami, Sacramento, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Arizona. (It’s available at some local record stores or can be ordered by calling 815-398-0569.)
It’s getting air play on a number of college radio stations in New York, at Purdue and all over Illinois.
“It’s being played at IIT, Quincy College and NIU,” said Grier. “It’s on the air at Downers Grove South High School. . . . That’s how we know we made it.”
A month or so ago, the pair were in the studio of WRCX-FM (103.5) morning man Mancow Muller, along with First Brother Roger Clinton.
“Roger was cool,” said Hall. “He’s a big, burly dude. He fit right in.”
Clinton told Hall and Grier that he would like to jam with them during the Democratic National Convention.
“But he never called,” said Hall.
The pair have, over the years, learned to deal with such bumps on the road to . . . Carnegie Hall.
“Do we want success? Of course we do,” Grier said. “We always have, but we won’t change to get it.”
“And we’ll be ready,” said Hall.
“More than ready,” said Grier.
