Friday & Saturday

Savatt occassionally treks to Cleveland or Youngstown on the weekend to get set time in front of a different crowd.
This week, however, he's tending to his personal life, namely his son and girlfriend.
Friday he assistant-coaches his eleven-year-old's basketball game.
"I used to be head coach, when they were younger," Savatt says, "I liked it because, at that age, it was all about life lessons and teaching them how to compete."
"Once they got to an age where I had to actually teach them basketball, I took a step back."
When he was his son's age, stand-up comedy wasn't even on Savatt's radar.
"I was all about Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy," Savatt recalls.
Even in his Nintendo and Super NES days, he was influenced by a friend of the family.
"My mom's best friend's husband, Ed, was really funny." he says.
"It made me realize that people really paid attention to you when you're funny."
By the end of high school, Savatt considered himself class clown.
"I've never been afraid of public speaking," he says.
Savatt graduated high school trying to be funny, but still wouldn't attempt stand-up until he was 28.

In that decade, he fathered a child, went to college and spent seven years keeping the books at a glass block contractor.
"A lot of people wake up and realize they never pursued their dream," he says. "Luckily I was still young."
Savatt never saw KSU comics like Drew Carey, Arsenio Hall or John Caparulo, though he respects the legacy.
"A lot of comedians did come up here. There's got to be something to that." he says. "How many comedians did Akron or Bowling Green produce?"
He did see Kent successes like Mike Polk and Chad Zumock come through the recently-demolished Robinhood Pub.
"I feature for those guys now," Savatt muses.
After three and a half years, he's now capable of performing a 45 minute set.
"Though only 25 of it would be good," Savatt says. "My best set was about 34 minutes."
He's opened for national acts like Todd Barry and Neal Brennan.
Ideally, Savatt would like to support himself as a local headliner, then become a successful touring comic, followed by fortune and fame...
"Who knows," he says.
Ultimately, though, he knows floundering in comedy wouldn't be the end of the world.
"I've always got degrees and skills to fall back on."
If Savatt leaves any kind of mark on Kent, he'd like it to be a more consistent comedy scene.
"It's always come and gone in cycles. But when it's there, we always have good comics come out."

Anthony Savatt in the
Morning After universe

Reality Breaking In ~ about the author ~ about the Post ~ return to Playground ~ return to Post