Partway into the first act of "Just for Laughs: A Day With Gates and Mills," Tom Poston -- who co-stars with show's author, Tim Conway -- defines humor as "playing against the obvious."
It's a lesson Conway doesn't seem to have learned in this amusing but largely unoriginal comedy, which completes its brief run at the Lyric Opera House this weekend.
The play's thin premise concerns an over-the-hill comedy team hoping to make a comeback. The duo hasn't worked in 11 years, ever since the abrasive Gates (Poston) made a tasteless joke about their TV-star boss on the air. (How they've supported themselves since then is a question left unanswered.)
If the plot sounds reminiscent of the time Jackie Mason made an obscene gesture on "The Ed Sullivan Show," well, it is. Conway acknowledges the similarity by referring to the Mason episode in the script, but that doesn't make this material any fresher.
Nor is this the only derivative element. According to the program, Conway and Poston recently co-starred in a touring production of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." ("Laugh's" three supporting actors are also "Odd Couple" veterans.) Politely put, Conway clearly benefited from his "Odd Couple" experience; the entire opening of "Just for Laughs" plays like a scene between Felix and Oscar.
The play begins with Poston deliberately upsetting the order of the office he shares with Conway. He tangles the phone cord, throws out the answering machine tape, and sets a framed picture on a crooked angle. Then Conway arrives and straightens the picture, untangles the phone cord, etc.
Later the show takes on a resemblance to another Simon play, "The Sunshine Boys." But mostly, "Just for Laughs" seems to exist as a showcase for one-liners and physical shtick, particularly after intermission when Conway goes into extended riffs, first about doctors and then about Italians -- neither of which have anything to do with the plot.
The one-liners and shtick are the funniest part of the show, however. For example, Conway says that when he was 12, his parents gave him a book about the birds and the bees. The book confused him. His first date was with a hornet. And, when Gates and Mills finally get a chance to return to TV, they reprise Conway's old -- but still hilarious -- skit about a dentist who keeps accidentally stabbing himself with his Novocain needle.
Less humorous is a running bit about Poston's memory lapses, which leads to some Abbott-and-Costello-style "Who's-on-First" exchanges. Even so, it's fun to see Poston's hangdog expressions, or to see Conway top them with one of those deadpan looks that manages to be dim and wide-eyed at the same time.
The show's three supporting players are minor to the point of being extraneous. One, a Hollywood gossip reporter played by Sandy Roveta, exists solely to fill the time between scenery changes. The director, Roger Beatty, has a program bio consisting solely of TV credits (including "The Carol Burnett Show" and several other projects with Conway).
That, in the end, suggests the best description of "Just for Laughs." It would probably make a decent television special, because on stage, it's just TV.
THEATER REVIEW
What: "Just for Laughs"
Where: Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave.
When: 8 tonight, 2 p.m. today and tomorrow
Tickets: $22.50-$37.50
$ Call: (410) 889-3911