Meet Steve Donovan
By Annette Cinelli
October 2005 -
Imagine getting paid for doing what you love most ~ seems too good to
be true, doesn’t it? Well, for Steve Donovan, it’s reality.
This local 104.5 FM WXLO funny man gets paid to make people laugh not
only on the Zito and Jen Morning Show, but also as a stand-up comedian.
Steve was born and raised in Malden, MA, then headed off to Syracuse University
in Central New York State, about 5 hours north of NYC. Graduating with
a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Spanish, Steve briefly
came home to teach junior high school but then returned to NY to break
into the comedy scene. The trouble with New York is that there are more
comedians than there are comedy jobs. So Steve performed wherever and
whenever he could ~ including staging some nontraditional shows at laundromats
and supermarkets. “The only regular we had,” Steve laughs,
“was this homeless guy who had no where else to go. But I think
he would have hung around even if he’d had someplace else to go
– he loved my stuff!”
Doing whatever it took to get time on stage, he also worked a lot as a
“bringer,” winning performance time based on how many paying
customers he could bring into a club.
The stage time he was able to log paid off and ~ after four auditions
~ Steve earned a regular spot performing at New York’s The Comic
Strip, famous for alums like Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock
to name but a few. Steve was performing there up to 5 times a week and
loving every single minute.
According to Steve, “Comedy is incredibly hard, but when it’s
done right it looks so easy. Everybody is convinced that they can do it
because they make their buddies laugh at the bar.” But it’s
a lot harder then that, starting with coming up with quality material
for a routine. Steve’s routine is very story driven, focusing mostly
on his family and his life growing up. Family was certainly the inspiration
behind one of Steve’s most memorable shows, a spur-of-the-moment
performance back in his hometown in 1999 after his cousin had just died
tragically in a car accident. His big Irish family was gathered at his
cousin’s widow’s house and no one really knew what to do or
say.
Suddenly Steve’s father, one of Boston’s finest cops and therefore
“professionally trained to be intimidating,” turned to his
son with, “Stephen, I understand you’re down there in New
York and
you’re telling jokes about me.” Steve nodded and his father
said, “Well I can’t come to New York so I want to hear what
you’re saying about me.” Steve began his routine and told
jokes about his father for a full fifteen minutes. He finished up about
two minutes before the priest arrived, just in time for the family to
(almost!) compose themselves. Steve’s comedy was exactly what everyone
had needed and the laughter helped ease the pain of a very sad situation.
So how did Steve wind up back here in Massachusetts (which we’re
glad he did!)? A friend of Steve’s from Syracuse remembered how
funny he was and contacted him in June 2003 when she heard there was an
opening at WXLO’s morning show. Steve came back for the audition
and got the job. He then made the move from New York to Worcester and
traded late night standup for early morning studio time. Although Steve
is from nearby Malden, Worcester was new territory. But now he’s
becoming a “local,” familiarizing himself with all the perks
of a city ~ colleges, restaurants, the art museum, the nightlife ~ and
appreciates that the city offers lots of opportunities while maintaining
a small-town feel. He can go to the Boulevard Diner and know everybody
there. He can go to Bagel Time on Park Ave. and “…for the
first time in my life I can say ‘I’ll have the regular.’”
And according to Steve, now is an exciting time to be in this part of
the state. “So many cool things are starting out in Worcester, that
you really feel like you can be a part of it.” In addition to having
a great time getting to know Worcester, Steve is also having a great time
working for WXLO,
especially because he’s given a lot of creative space. One of his
favorite segments on the morning show is based on the idea that “somewhere
in the world there is always someone doing something weird.” The
segment, airing every morning at 6:55, is called Weird Off The Wire and
consists of random news stories that are more than a bit odd, like the
one about a German man who was buying computers, taking out the internal
parts and replacing them with potatoes, then demanding his money back,
claiming he had been sold a defective potato-filled computer. (What’s
more amazing is that he actually got money back the first time he did
it!) These truth-is-stranger-thanfiction stories are fun both to find
and put out there for the audience to enjoy.
Steve has also gotten to do celebrity interviews with stars like Alan
Alda, Don King, Sylvester Stallone and Cher, amongst others, and says
that this part of his job is as much fun as you’d expect it to be!
Doing the morning show does have one downside as far as Steve is concerned
~ it means that he has to get to the station at 5 a.m. “It’s
not natural to get up in the middle of the night, unless you’re
a farmer, and even they wait till the sun comes up.” But other than
that one small drawback, Steve loves his jobs. “The whole point
is to have fun and entertain people.
It may be that no two days are ever the same but I know I’m going
to laugh every single day.”
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