Comedian Larry Miller takes the stage in Rhode Island on May 14

By FRANK O'DONNELL, Valley Breeze Entertainment Writer

Larry Miller likes words. "Defenestration. That's my favorite word," said the comedian recently, on the phone in his Los Angeles office.

"How do you make a word just for that? Was it that common, throwing people out of windows? Was there someone at a monastery, making up the words, who said, 'You know, we need a word for that. We're seeing 12, 15 of these things a day, and we have no word.'"

Miller, who'll appear at the Comedy Connection in East Providence on May 14, kept the defenestration stream going for a good 10 minutes. "Was there a spurt of fenestrations? We'll toss you through the window, where you'll land on a couch. It will be nice. But when we've had enough of you, defenestration for you."

Miller enjoys word pictures. "I love odd or hopefully interesting sentence structure, and the images that come up."

Miller, now 54, has been at the comedy game for about 30 years now. He started at New York's Comic Strip as its drummer, and has since enjoyed success as a stand-up comic, a writer and an actor. "It's a world where you get a chance to get better every day. If you've got the health and the years, you can keep going and keep getting better."

I mention that my children really enjoyed him as the principal in "Max Keeble's Big Move."

"That really means a lot to me," says Miller, whose own children are 9 and 12 years old. "It means a lot when my own kids' friends say they like my work."

Miller plans to take his kids to a show at the Hermosa Beach Comedy and Magic Club - "It's my home club. It's a convivial place to try out new things." - to watch him work with a live audience. "It will be their first glimpse at a green room you get to through a kitchen." Miller says he wouldn't have it any other way. "Bernie Brillstein, who manages me, always said, 'You're not a comic until you walk through the kitchen.' If you slip and fall on the floor, that's your first lesson. Watch your step, it's a kitchen."

Miller finds writing for his stand-up act the toughest writing of all. "You have all those coils, and a little drop comes out. With scripts and books, you can put in a six-hour day without getting worn out. If you do a couple of hours of stand-up writing, you're a monster, you're Mister Universe. Then you actually have to memorize it and try it out."

Tough as it is, Miller wouldn't trade it for a thing. "I feel like the luckiest man on the planet ..." Miller pauses, realizing that he's paraphrasing Lou Gehrig's farewell speech, then resumes. "... who's not about to die of a horrible disease, of course."

Larry Miller performs at the Comedy Connection on Warren Avenue in East Providence on Wednesday, May 14.

Call 438-8383 for tickets and information.

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