popular thinking

JOKERS WILD: GARY GULMAN

Last year, I introduced Gary Gulman to an Arizona comedy-club audience as "the pride of Peabody."
Turns out there is now some truth to that.
Gulman, 34, lives in Los Angeles but returned to his hometown this summer for a special performance on "Gary Gulman Day."
"I got a proclamation from the mayor," he said. "I did a show to raise money for the YMCA in Peabody. The show took place at City Hall. It was really cool. So I am sort of the pride of Peabody, I guess - along with the Northshore Mall."
He comes back every couple of months.
"It’s very odd to go back there," he said. "Most people from Peabody, I don’t know if you know this, but they’ve never been to Boston. They’ve never seen me in person. So I’m pretty excited."
Plus, Gulman is a celebrity of sorts after two seasons in prime time on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Do people treat him any differently?
"I lift weights for free at PowerFit Gym, which is nice," he said. "I still have a core group of fans everywhere I go, but here I don’t worry about selling out the shows as much. That’s really helpful."
Fans have learned about his obsession with cookies, candy and snack food. Sold-out shows across the country during the Last Comic Standing run attracted long lines of adoring fans, many with bags full of cookies.
"I put on a lot of weight during that run," Gulman said.
But it hasn’t deterred him from keeping up on the latest snack-food news.
"KitKat has gone the way of the Oreo - every single combination possible to lure more eaters," Gulman said. "White chocolate. Extra creamy chocolate. Then they tried an experiment with an orange creme KitKat. Moving into the fruit world is a risk. You may lose your core audience. But they are thinking outside the wrapper, so I give them credit for that."
But an extra-crispy KitKat? No, no.
"Nobody gets off on the wafer in the KitKat," he said.
Then again, he added, "that’s how they discovered penicillin, so maybe one of these will be the next wonder of the world."
Just then, Gulman drives past a Bernie & Phyl billboard.
"I love that every person who owns a furniture store has to do their own TV commercials," Gulman said. "Every great thespian comes from a background of selling love seats."
Gulman flies back to L.A. next week to tape The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for Dec. 23, "with Sienna Miller of Jude Law infidelity fame."
Then it’s the ”very rare” convergence of Christmas and Hanukkah on the calendar.
"I’ve wanted to celebrate Christmas for so long," Gulman said. "And I’ve outgrown the toy aspect of it. But the trees and the lights, and I’m not sure about this, but there may have been a religious component to it at some point."
Don’t think Gulman missed the whole holiday-tree/war-on- Christmas debate.
"I think it’s a real waste of time," he said. "The more minute and unimportant, the more they rally around it these days."
When really, we should be talking about KitKats.
"Exactly!" Gulman said.

Gary Gulman at the Comedy Connection in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Shows at 8 and 10:15 tonight, at 6, 8 and 10:15 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets, $22.50-$25.