Stand-up comedy revue coming to Naperville club

More than once, area company executives have attended a corporate-sponsored motivational speech led by Matt Foley.

The fictional down-on-his luck, thrice-divorced, 35-year-old who lives in a van down by the river was brought to the "Saturday Night Live" stage by comedian Chris Farley in the 1990s.

These days, Foley's comedic cautionary tale is delivered by comic actor Matt Kissane, via his Farley impersonation. Kissane is hosting a stand-up comedy revue Feb. 5 at Naperville's Comedy Shrine.

"It's something I do at parties, events, sales meetings," Kissane said. "Sometimes a sales consultant will hire me to bust into a sales meeting and do Matt Foley. It always goes over very well."

Kissane, who lives in the Western suburbs where he runs his own entertainment company, has reprised the role dozens of times on WGN-TV's morning news show over the past seven years.

He also appears on stage in Las Vegas and has been on stage at North Central College and at a couple of comedy clubs that have since closed their doors - the Funny Bone in Naperville and Who's on First, a popular club that once thrived on the corner of North Avenue and Route 83 in Elmhurst.

Who's on First, he said, featured acts such as Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Arnold before both attained stardom. Kissane said he did his debut stand-up performance there in February 1989.

Kissane said such clubs may not be as high profile as they once were, but comedy won't ever go out of style.

"There were always comedians around but for a while it was like a fad," he said. "Every town had a comedy club or a comedy night at a bar. Now, every town has a karaoke bar."

The Comedy Shrine show, he said, will feature about two hours of stand-up performed by Kissane and several of his brethren, set to include Dan Brennan, Ryan Budds, Brian Stephenson, Brian Dejka and Anthony Sarfino.

"I'll bring each one up. Each guy does a different bit," he said.

Kissane said he gets his material from his everyday life, the way most comics do.

"I talk about my family, talk about my life. I'm Irish, my wife's Italian and I talk about that," he said. "I try to do as much stand-up as I possibly can."