Brad Upton will coach hurdlers at EWU and riff at Spokane Comedy Club

A number of pundits wrote that sports and comedians do not mix after ABC’s failed experiment with cerebral comic Dennis Miller as a Monday Night Football color commentator, who fell upon Damocles’ sword, babe, in 2001.

However, jocks and jesters can co-exist. When Brian Regan was excelling on the gridiron at Heidelberg College but struggling with his accounting classes, his football coach suggested a switch to theater – and it worked. Regan eventually became a stand-up.

Fellow clean humorist Jim Gaffigan played college football for Purdue and Georgetown.

And then there is Tri-Cities native Brad Upton, who was a hurdler a generation ago at Eastern Washington University. Whenever the veteran comic returns to perform at Spokane Comedy Club, he stops by his alma mater to guest-coach with the school’s track and field coach Stan Kerr.

“I like going back to Eastern Washington just like I enjoy going to the comedy club when I come back to Spokane,” Upton said while calling from his Seattle home. “There are similarities between track and field and comedy. I get the same feeling from when I used to get ready and take off my sweats and stand behind the block as I do now when I’m introduced to perform.”

Upton is off and running whether he’s on the track or delivering comedy. The former elementary school teacher believes there is a common denominator between teaching fourth-graders and connecting with comedy club denizens.

“There is not much difference between teaching 10-year olds and entertaining a room full of drunks,” Upton cracked. “Often, I’ll be up there just amusing myself.”

When Upton performs Friday and Saturday at Spokane Comedy Club, expect the observational humorist to riff on family life.

“I’ll talk about raising our two children with my wife and being married and being an empty nester. I’ll also make fun of 20-somethings since both of my kids are in that age range,” Upton said. “I don’t understand a lot of 20-somethings. I was talking to a comic friend, and he told me his 25-year-old son is super-smart, but he’s addicted to gaming. How could that be smart?”

Upton is impressed how Spokane has changed without altering the core of the city.

“If you come down Sunset Hill, the skyline looks the same to me as it always did,” Upton said. “But when you walk around downtown, there are some nice new restaurants, and there are some cool brew pubs, and Kendall Yards is so nice. I would sell my house here in Seattle and move to Spokane if it weren’t for winter. I’m always looking for more weather. I can do without snow.”

That might explain why Upton is returning to Spokane prior to winter. “I love everything about Spokane but the cold,” Upton said.