BY ALICE ANNE CONNER
Chicago native trying to make it in the world of comedy
Denise Ramsden - appearing at the Brat Stop's Comedy Shop tonight - is relatively new to the comedy circuit, so she still has to hold onto some of her day jobs.
Like substitute teaching and selling beer at the Cubs games.
"I get a lot of material from my day jobs," the Chicago native said. "Like in substitute teaching, I would love just to make the kids laugh all day, but they get too loud and rowdy."
"I can't take that."
The beer job, besides helping her make a few bucks, is a great ego-booster.
"I have a tendency to laugh a lot doing that job," she said, "and apparently more people recognize my laugh than they do my face."
"They'll say 'I thought I recognized you, but wasn't sure. Then I heard your laugh.' That feels good."
Ramsden originally thought she'd move to California and try to break into the film industry.
"I went to film school, so I figured I better head west," she said.
Once she was there, however, she attended a class on stand-up comedy and it changed the course of her life.
"I had always had comedy in the back of my mind as something I wanted to do, but didn't quite know what," she said.
"So I decided to leave California, move back home, and start on the comedy circuit here around Chicago."
Ramsden frequently appears at Zanies in Chicago, Riddles in Orland Park, and other Chicago clubs.
She was voted Chicagoland's Funniest New Talent at the Barrel of Laughs contest in 2004.
"It was like 'Survivor' where people were eliminated every week over 10 weeks," she said.
Her comedy influences over the years have been Roseanne and Jerry Seinfeld.
"When I graduated from junior high I got tickets from my family to see Seinfeld when he came to town," she said.
"They were the worst seats in the world. We sat in folding chairs up in the balcony behind the last rows of seats."
"But he was so funny, and he didn't use dirty words or sexual things in his routines - which was the reason I was allowed to go."
Ramsden said her sense of humor appeals to people of her generation - 20- and 30-somethings, but occasionally to older people, especially teachers - who come up and tell her they identify with her.
"I guess you never know who will like you or will like your humor till you just get up, be yourself, and find out," she said.
"That's pretty much what I do."
Joining Ramsden on stage will be Ken Sevara, a well-seasoned comic who has been on Comedy Central and other TV networks and TV shows.
He has headlined in clubs in Chicago and Las Vegas and has shared a stage with Richard Lewis and Jerry Seinfeld.
He also has his own talk show on Chicago cable TV airing in 45 markets around the Chicago area.