Colin Quinn is host of a 'Tough Crowd'

NEW YORK -- The formula for "Tough Crowd" is familiar: Four guests yammering about current affairs, plus a host to stir the pot. So what makes it different from "Politically Incorrect"?

"Our show is all comedians," host Colin Quinn explains. "'Politically Incorrect' (which left ABC's airwaves in June) actually had real experts every once in a while. We have NO experts!"

And no network nervous Nellies keeping things politically correct.

"How often," says Quinn, "does anyone in comedy get that chance: 'Here's six months. Do whatever you're gonna do. Let's see how funny it is.' Without network interference!"

Airing Monday through Thursday at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central, "Tough Crowd" begins its run this week, after an eight-show tryout in December whose far-flung topics included: should you spank your child, why is it so uncool to be white, the myth of male monogamy, the looming war with Iraq, and, of course, the French.

Internet pornography was invoked, prompting panelist Nick DiPaolo's observation that "the Internet ruins relationships. I spend so much money on porn sites, I haven't talked to my coke dealer in two years."

Meanwhile, the debate was escalated with personal brickbats, including "Shut up!" "Who wrote that for you?" and "Sit down, and give that sweater back to Al Jarreau."

You were expecting "Hardball"? This is "Spitball"!

"It's comedians attacking each other's very existence in the guise of changing the world," says Quinn with battle-scarred but puckish approval.

Make no mistake, "Tough Crowd" is funnier than "The McLaughlin Group." And sometimes even noisier.

Besides, when you watch panelists on a political talk show play their designated ideological roles, you know what they're going to say before they say it. But enlist wisecrackers who abhor party lines, and, in the resulting free-for-all, someone might blurt out a fresh idea.

Does the media trigger violence in its audience? Heck, no, declared panelist Greg Giraldo. "People see Keanu Reeves," he reasoned, "but they don't go out and become crappy actors."

"Tough Crowd" gives viewers a fly-on-the-wall perspective on a comics' private confab. And "fly" may be the operative term (along with "roach" and "dust bunny"): The setting is a loftlike space -- with leftover snacks on the coffee table -- that doesn't seem to have been tidied up since Chevy Chase was getting laughs.

It's a homey scene for Quinn, who gets to invite his comic cronies (among them Sarah Silverman, Denis Leary, Janeane Garofalo, Sue Costello and Patrice O'Neal) to join him on-camera for what they might be doing anyway at some club's corner table.

"The only place I hear the truth is in comedy clubs," Quinn was saying over a pre-show cup of tea at the Comedy Cellar, a Greenwich Village club where he's performed for years. "Comedians are sarcastic, juvenile! Everything's a joke to the third level. But whatever their other problems, comedians don't lie."

A 43-year-old Brooklyn native and college dropout, Quinn says he resolved to join their ranks after he quit drinking at age 24.

"I had nothing to do at night. I was so depressed, I thought, 'My life is over.' Then I remembered how people used to tell me I should be a comedian. I said, 'I got nothing to lose. I already lost the love of my life: going to bars and drinking."'

As a rookie, Quinn learned what many before him had discovered: It takes a long time to find your comic groove.

"You can't reach for your audience," he explains. "You have to get them to come to you. It takes putting out this attitude: 'Look, this is all there is. So enjoy it. 'Cause this is it!' When there's some part of you that knows that, then you're totally secure."

Quinn became co-host of MTV's "Remote Control" in 1987, then in 1995 began six seasons with NBC's "Saturday Night Live" -- the last 2 1/2 as the raspy-voiced anchor of "Weekend Update."

"It was an amazing experience," he says of his "SNL" stay. "But I like being in charge, and I wasn't in charge."

Now, with war brewing and "duct tape" a punch line, Quinn is in charge of a "Tough Crowd" of comedians. Considering the people in charge around the world, who better than comedians to make sense of it?

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On the Net:

www.comedycentral.com

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EDITOR'S NOTE -- Frazier Moore can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org