Colin Quinn Brings His Show To The Bay Street Theater In Sag Harbor

Raspy-voiced comedian Colin Quinn, who is a regular performer in the Hamptons, will return to Sag Harbor on Saturday, May 27, as part of Bay Street Theater’s Comedy Club series.

But don’t just expect to get a simple stand-up comedy routine. Be prepared to walk away with a comedic take on history that goes way back in time while relating it to topics of today.

Mr. Quinn, who frequents Twitter, was seen giving advice to up-and-coming comics in April—though, it should be noted, his tweets are often tongue-in-cheek.

“Advice to young comics: be vague when delivering a punchline. Specifics are for math types and they bog down the show,” he tweeted.

“Advice to young comics: don’t make fun of the town [because] a lot [of] the audience lives there full time,” another tweet read.

Mr. Quinn grew up in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and considers himself to be a Long Islander. Often times, he would visit relatives across the island in places like Valley Stream and Centereach. He spent a full year studying at Stony Brook University before realizing that wasn’t for him. Instead, he worked odd jobs as a bartender and even behind the counter of Westhampton T-Shirts in the summer of 1982.

“It was a random job,” Mr. Quinn said in an interview with the Press last year. “If you ask them what kind of employee I was, I can almost guarantee they’ll tell you I was the worst employee.”

A couple of years later, Mr. Quinn began doing stand-up comedy and landed on the comedy club circuit. In 1987, he was cast alongside fellow comedian Denis Leary on the MTV game show “Remote Control.”

The show was “Jeopardy!”-like in the way that it was conducted. There were three contestants, and questions often dealt with pop culture. At the end of the show, the last contestant standing would have to guess which videos were showing on a wall of nine cathode ray tube televisions in 30 seconds.

Mr. Quinn said he was “frighteningly good” at naming each of the videos. One time, he and co-star Kari Wuhrer whispered the answers into a contestant’s ear. “They ended up winning something like a Mitsubishi Mirage,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

Spring break of 1988 was the first time that he and the rest of the cast realized they had reached fame. The cast met fans who recited lines word-for-word from the theme song and the show, which shocked Mr. Quinn.

He eventually auditioned for “Saturday Night Live,” in 1995, but said he bombed. But he was hired as a writer and would go on to perform as characters on the “Weekend Update” segment. He took over the anchor duty from former-“SNL” cast member Norm Macdonald in 1998, holding onto the role until 2000.

One of Mr. Quinn’s latest projects, “Cop Show,” is a comedy web series in which he portrays a fictionalized version of himself trying to make a cop drama. The series lasted three seasons, and although Mr. Quinn said he would like to do a fourth if possible, there were no plans at this time.

Until then, he said he is working on at least two projects at a time and continuing to perform stand-up.

His stand-up routine now, as it has been for at least the past seven years, integrates some form of history lesson. In 2010, Mr. Quinn performed in a one-man show called “Long Story Short” at the Helen Hayes Theater in Manhattan. The show was directed and produced by fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and put a comedic spin on the history of the world and humankind, while touching on topics like the financial crisis, the Middle East and pop culture.

When asked how the Hamptons ranks with Los Angeles, Mr. Quinn said, “The Hamptons has the most people, per capita, that are least satisfied waiting in line.” Just go to the nearest deli tomorrow morning and you’ll see what he means.

Colin Quinn will perform his newest stand-up show on Saturday, May 27, at 8 p.m. at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Tickets range from $55 to $75. Call 631-725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.