HEARTLAND COMEDY SHOW TO BE FILMED HERE

The big difference between David Letterman's show and Jay Leno's is their address, says Jeff Batts.

"That's why Letterman is at the top of the game he doesn't have all the glitz that Leno and Arsenio do because they're in Hollywood," he continues.

That bioregional theory of comedy is behind "The Search for Humor in America's Heartland!," a comedy, variety and talk show to be filmed April 24 in Cape Girardeau.

The 28-year-old Batts, a Benton, Ill.,-based comedian who tours nationally, will host and promises, "When you watch our show, you'll say, `That's different.'"

Batts, who has performed at Funny Bone nightclubs, the Punch Line, Catch a Rising Star and the Comedy Zones, calls his humor "unoffensive."

"It's high energy," he said, "zanier than Seinfeld and not as out-there as Robin Williams.

"I work retirement homes and colleges, sometimes in the same week."

Co-hosting will be former KGMO radio personality Derek Adams, who now lives in Southern Illinois, and musician J. Frederick Gemoets.

Gemoets, a guitarist who also plays songs on his head with a wooden hammer, twice has appeared on ABC's "America's Funniest People."

Batts and Adams' Double Naught Productions created the show, which they hope to syndicate nationally. If no syndicates are interested, Batts said, they will try to sell the show to television stations themselves.

Two shows will be filmed at Vision One Productions in Cape Girardeau April 24. Chris Moore, owner of Vision One, will be the director and segment producer.

Guests scheduled for the first show April 24 are Warren Bass, winner of the "Funniest Man in St. Louis" competition, and former SIU basketball star Ashraf Amaya.

The second show will feature an interview with Playboy model Tamara Unverzagt from Carbondale and former Southern Illinois congressman Ken Gray, whom Batts calls "a wild man."

Gray will show folks around his museum in West Frankfort, home of a car with two front ends. Such filmed segments are referred to as a "video adventure."

The house band for both shows will be Carbondale's Girls with Tools.

Batts says he always put on shows in high school and wanted to write for TV.

"But I don't live in the part of the country where that is possible and I don't want to live there," he says.

"The Search for Humor..." is an attempt to prove that comedy can occur here as well as on the coasts. "We wanted to do something here in the heartland," Batts said.

Wednesday is the deadline for ordering tickets to the first filming. The Vision One studio, located at 201A N. Spanish St., accommodates an audience of about 100.

Tickets can be obtained by calling 1-(800)-666-6620, Ext. 7469.

The first show will air at midnight May 1 on KBSI-TV in Cape Girardeau. It will also be broadcast on Harrisburg, Ill.'s WSIL-TV at 12:30 a.m. May 7 and at 12:30 p.m. May 8.

Plans call for a third show to be filmed in Branson, and a fourth at Roseanne and Tom Arnold's restaurant in Iowa.