Rich Vos is still standing

To a lot of comedy fans, Rich Vos is a guy they discovered in 2003 on the first season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing." A few others might remember him from before that, when he was the first white comic to play HBO's "Def Comedy Jam" 13 years ago, or more recently from his work with shock jocks Opie & Anthony, hosting the Traveling Virus Comedy Tour, or filling in for Jim Norton on the radio.

All of these are career highlights, and Vos has picked up fans from each one along the way. But what has sustained Vos in between each career boost has been working the clubs, something the 51-year-old comic has been doing for 24 years. He plays Dick's Beantown Comedy Escape in Worcester tonight and tomorrow.

"In between, you're still doing stuff, but who knows what's going to hit?" he says from his native New Jersey. "You never know, it could be the dumbest things."

This year, Vos has hosted Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham," and he's been working on a CD and pitching pilots with his wife and fellow comedian, Bonnie McFarlane. Vos says it's been hard to guess what will find a foothold on a network schedule. "It's so tough or so [expletive] easy to get a show on TV, there's no in-between," he says. "You get something like 'Lost' that costs a fortune to shoot, or you get 'Sleep With Flavor Flav's Mailman.' "

In the meantime, Vos is enjoying professional and personal stability. Besides the road work, he's a regular on Opie & Anthony, and he and McFarlane had their first child late last year. "I'm sitting in a Porsche right now," he says. "I got it at the auto auction, but people don't know that. I drive around in a Porsche, I wear a nice Rolex, and then I go home at night and sit by the fireplace because my electric's cut off."

Vos can be aggressive and offensive onstage, so much so that he asks that his most offensive joke not be described in this article (he needn't have worried: The sexual mores of the joke can't even be hinted at in a family paper). And he also gets his fair share of abuse from the O&A crew.

"Everyone knows he can take it," says Norton, adding, "he's the first one to fire out a vicious line at someone. Vos is a mean little man."

Vos has seen worse than some chops busting on morning radio. He mentions his parents' divorce (he has been divorced once himself), not graduating high school, and having gone through a monthlong rehab for alcohol and drugs about three years into his comedy career. Humor, as it has been for comic and noncomic alike, was a defense mechanism.

"I remember when I was in rehab, they said, you're not allowed to joke or make people laugh because it was just a mask," he says. "They said you have to be who you are, come out of the closet and live your life."

Almost in the next breath, that defense mechanism shows itself as Vos tries to lighten the mood. "Why don't I just throw myself in front of a bus?" he says. "Good interview. 'It was going well, then he started crying, and the next thing you know, I heard brakes, and he threw himself in front of a bus.' "

Vos will admit, somewhat more seriously, that the rougher experiences taught him how to read people, which has helped him onstage and off.

"Everything I went through has helped in my comedy, which has helped my life," he says. "A good comic, a good, good comic, in my opinion, has experienced a lot of things. It's hard to be a great comic at 23 because you haven't done enough in life."

Around town
Joe Yannetty Tony V, and Steve Calechman are at Giggles in Saugus tonight and tomorrow. . . . The Bethany Van Delft Show hosts Chris Coxen, Dan Crohn, Arielle Goldman, Nicole Luparelli, Ellen Moschetto, and others Sunday at the Comedy Studio.