Last time he took to a Tucson stage, retired ad man and comedian Jay Taylor took us through his life — a sometimes tragic tale that he was quick to spin into a comedy of errors.
This time, he’s taking us into his twilight years, or what he likes to call the “Initial Stage”: EKG, MD, ED and all those other abbreviated medical terms folks of his age are encountering.
During his show Wednesday at Oro Valley’s Great American Playhouse, he might even put all those initials together in a little tune that will remind many of the old George Burns shows.
There are new rules to follow when you reach 77, which is where Taylor is now.
“Don’t eat read meat,” he said last Friday, sitting on the Starbucks patio on the corner of Broadway and Campbell Avenue as a fire truck screeched past, its sirens piercing the buzz of the midmorning traffic. “Red meat killed my friend. He was climbing out of bed with his mistress when he tripped over a side of beef and hit his head on his Ferrari. He would have lived if it would have been a chicken.”
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Taylor tells jokes that will strike a chord with his audience of alpha boomers — baby boomers who have crossed into their 60s and 70s.
He doesn’t curse and his material never goes over that line of common decency. You might hear him flirt with sexual innuendo.
“It’s fail-safe material,” said Taylor’s friend David Fitzsimmons, the Arizona Daily Star cartoonist and standup who is opening for Taylor on Wednesday.
Fitzsimmons and Taylor have been friends for seven or eight years, bonded by their common love of comedy.
“I’m doing his eulogy,” Fitzsimmons said of his appearance Wednesday night. “I’m delighted, because I can see him for free.”
Taylor has appeared with Fitzsimmons’ Arroyo Cafe Players in benefit shows at the Rialto, but this is his first one-man show since he did “Thankful for the Road” at the Temple of Music and Art in 2008.
He did two shows, and both sold out. The shows were filmed for a DVD, available on his website laffbiz.com
Taylor’s eponymous ad agency was at one time among the state’s most successful, with memorable campaigns including “That Green Valley Grin” for a retirement community that many argue put Southern Arizona on the map as a retirement destination.
He also created Windfall Willie, the craggy little miner who kicks up his feet for the Arizona Lottery.
But he thinks he might be onto something even more memorable with his newest show: “Better Late Than Sorry.”
“There is a niche there that would like to have funny, clean stuff,” Taylor said. “All these people 50 and up, they buy tickets to these shows. I could do Broadway, but not the matinee because that’s nap time.”
His tagline: “The funniest, clean, old, straight, Republican gentile in America.”
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com or 573-4642. On Twitter @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
Reporter
