Comedian Irrera left Philly but it never really left him

Dom Irrera was luxuriating in the surf off Oahu last week with an old friend from Philly. Irrera was doing a stand-up gig in Hawaii, but was thinking of his show this weekend at the Borgata in Atlantic City.

"I said to her, 'Hey, can't you just wait to get to the Shore?' " Irrera said over the phone from his Los Angeles home. "Now, how Philly is that? You're on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but you know being at the Jersey Shore in the summer is the best."

While Irrera left Philly long ago for brighter lights in New York and Los Angeles, Philly has never really left him. He comes back a couple of times a year for family, and whenever he can to headline in Atlantic City.

His home there over the last several years has been the Sands, but with that casino-hotel's demise this summer, he's been signed by the Borgata. While clearly a step up in the Atlantic City casino food chain, that's not without its nostalgic consequences.

"I loved the people and the food at the Sands," said Irrera. "It had that Rat Pack thing going on. I played there with Sinatra, and the people were always good to me. I like the noise, the interaction with the crowd. I don't want it silent.

"But the Borgata is good, real good," he said. "I'd much rather be the headliner in Atlantic City than in Vegas. It's home. What can there be better than that?"

Irrera was a bouncer and waiter at the old Doc Watson's on 11th Street in Center City in the 1970s, trying to make it in acting.

"I wasn't too good at being a waiter, but then some people said I should try stand-up," he said. "I was always coming into the place with a good line or two, so I thought I might have a chance."

At the time, Philadelphia was flush with comedy clubs like Grandma Minnie's, Going Bananas and the Comedy Factory Outlet, and young acts like Bob Saget, Craig Shoemaker (who is on the bill at the Borgata with Irrera) and Big Daddy Graham. Irrera made his mark by talking about his extended family from South Philadelphia.

"I don't really do political jokes or current events. There is too much competition in that, and it's hard to come up with something that's new, or even seems new, especially after you've seen 'The Daily Show,' " he said. "With me, the family stuff resonates. People in the crowd can relate. They can laugh and scream at me."

Now that he's tripping through his 50s and is part of the look-good-at-all-costs Los Angeles entertainment scene, Irrera said he is trying to figure out his sport.

"I deteriorated from basketball to racquetball to pingpong," he said. "I didn't want to play golf, because I didn't want to suck at something else at this point in my life. I'm looking at pool. I like the idea of a sport where you end up where you started."

He will be on the WIP (610-AM) morning show today, as he is about once a month from California. It's another thing he loves about his connections back home.

"They really get Philly. I don't know what it is about Angelo [Cataldi] and Rhea [Hughes], but they seem to know the Philly I know," he said.

Irrera has pieced together a good, varied career. He was Ernie Potts, the demolition guy, in "Hey, Arnold" on Nickelodeon, has had his own HBO comedy specials, and appeared on myriad TV sitcoms. Stand-up, though, is still his favorite.

"A movie, you do it and it's nice, but you don't see it for two years and you can't change it," he said. "If I'm in the Borgata dressing room and I'm about to go on and I think of something, I can use it right then.

"But I'm a Philadelphian, never all that sure of myself," he said. "When I am out there headlining at a casino, even then I say, 'I can't believe I made it past Going Bananas. Oh, my God, isn't this great?' " *

Borgata, One Borgata Way, Atlantic City, N.J., 8 p.m. tomorrow, $39.50-$45, 609-317-1000, www.theborgata.com.