Kevin Brown calls his current cross-country, comedy-club-hopping jaunt his coming-out party.
Whoa, whoa, he's quick to clarify: "No, not that," he sputters during a phone call from New York last week.
"Right now Kevin Brown is on a mission to show people what I can do," he says in a very odd mix of third and first person. "After being in the comedy game for a while, the position I'm in is an amazing position."
His amazing position: After five years playing Tracy Morgan's sidekick Dot Com on NBC's "30 Rock", Brown is well known enough to take chances, like his current national standup tour of clubs that this weekend includes Tucson's Laffs.
"I know I'm funny, but nobody knows that that guy who plays Dot Com is a tremendous standup comedian," he says. "When I go to comedy clubs ... the audience will come out to see Dot Com, but they have no idea how skilled I am. I've been doing comedy 14 years and I'm a beast on stage. They're going to have a great time."
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In his show, Brown focuses on his life - material that his fellow comics can't easily jack, he explains. He chats about his relationships - he's divorced and has a teen daughter living in Maryland. And he'll happily announce his single-hood: "I date a whole lot of women," he says, "but I plan to spend this entire year single."
He'll also talk about his five seasons on "30 Rock," which is on hiatus until August.
" '30 Rock' to me was a rags to riches story, working with such big stars. ... I'm a guy who just came in," he says. "The journey of being on '30 Rock' has absolutely changed my life."
In the show the 6-foot-5 Brown, who pegs his weight north of 300 pounds, plays a member of Morgan's posse, a role that reunited him and Morgan years after they worked together at Brown's Harlem Uptown Comedy Club.
Brown owned the club throughout the 1980s and early '90s, working with a generation of comics that included Morgan and HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star J.B. Smoove. But when the comedy world became so saturated with ha-ha peddlers making far more bank than Brown, he decided to cash out and join the game.
"There was such a demand for comedians that everyone started jumping in. But they weren't that good," he says, and after years of taking notes and watching the evolution of urban comedy, Brown figured he couldn't do any worse than the comedians he was seeing.
"The bar was so low I could get over that bar," he says.
His comedy is geared toward "grown-folks" with adult language and material. But that doesn't mean he couldn't do clean jokes.
"If you ask me to be squeaky clean, I can do 35 minutes of really strong material without thinking about it, but the last 10 minutes, I have to think about it," he says with a chuckle.
Brown's "30 Rock" gig has led to other acting opportunities, including a movie role with Christopher Lloyd that begins production this month.
"I really enjoy the moments of my life," he says. "This is work that I love."
If you go
• What: Comedian Kevin Brown in concert.
• Featuring: Zach Selwyn.
• When: 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
• Where: Laffs Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway.
• Tickets: $20 by calling 323-8669 or online at laffstucson.com
