October 23, 2002
Funny face
By PAT ST. GERMAIN
You may recognize comedian Harland Williams from such movies as Dog Park, Dumb and Dumber or Freddie Got Fingered.

You may have seen him hosting Just for Laughs on CBC-TV.

Or maybe you caught him in his supporting role on last season's The Geena Davis Show on ABC.

These days, almost everybody he meets seems to know Williams from somewhere -- and let's face it, with those post-Elvis sideburns and that fresh off the turnip truck jughead grin, he'd be hard to miss in a crowd.

"It's getting weirder and weirder. If I go out I get nailed, people know me everywhere I go," Williams says.

"I've had kids follow me in their car, I've had people come up to me in restaurants and ask me to sing Happy Birthday to their girlfriend -- because I'm an entertainer."

If you spot Williams, 34, while he's in town to host the Just for Laughs Comedy Tour with five fellow comedians at Pantages Playhouse Theatre tomorrow, take note: He doesn't really want to sing for strangers -- but he'll probably sign autographs and he won't necessarily balk at a little star treatment.

The Toronto-reared standup says the strangest experience he's had with fame occurred in an underground parking garage in Los Angeles. He was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap and driving a pickup truck with tinted windows, but still, four men in a car recognized him and followed him into the garage.

"They pull out these binders and they had these full-colour eight-by-ten photographs and they wanted me to sign them. I signed a few and I quickly got on my way," he says.

But there is an upside to being noticed. When Williams and a few friends went to catch the new Hannibal Lecter film Red Dragon on opening day in Los Angeles recently, they didn't have to cool their heels at the back of a long lineup after an usher recognized him.

"The guy's like, 'Oh Mr. Williams, I'm a huge fan,' and he led us to the front of the line."

A former Natural Resources worker -- he planted trees and did assorted forestry jobs in Ontario -- Williams has made the Hollywood rounds since 1995, appearing in more than a dozen movies and several TV series.

Since the late '80s, he's made a mark as an artist and author of children's books (Lickety Split, Where Are You?), he just shot a pilot for a CTV sketch comedy show of his own creation called Enter at Your Own Risk, and when he's not working on TV or film, he maintains a standup comedy stage presence, including frequent appearances at Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.

"I think I've performed four times over the years and then two times I've hosted their TV specials. It's a great little dual career to have, when one slows the other goes."

Williams performs at the beginning and end of tomorrow's show and appears between comics, all of whom he's worked with at some point in the past.

The all-star lineup features fellow Canucks Brent Butt and Mike Wilmot, Chicago's Emo Philips, Australian duo Supergirly and Texan Ron White.

Check out the Just for Laughs Web site at www.hahaha.com for more tour details.

Showtime is 7 p.m. Tickets cost $29.50 - $37.50 at Ticketmaster (780-3333).