Vic Dunlop

Wednesday August 17th, 2011 - Fox Lake, IL

   Got some sad news that a comedian friend of mine Vic Dunlop passed away. Vic was a lot of things, most notably a down to earth gentle soul. I first caught him on the TV show ‘Make Me Laugh’ in the ‘70s, and it was a thrill to get to know him years later in real life.

   We first crossed paths when I lived in Salt Lake City in 2001. He was an in studio radio guest on our morning show and I remember how pleasantly surprised he was that I would be so familiar with his work. He had no idea I was a comic, and I didn’t tell him until we were on the air. We worked together quite a few times, and he was a genuinely nice man.

   Vic was also very entrepreneurial. He did a bit with some plastic eyeballs that he turned into a goldmine, and I say that with the utmost respect. He ended up importing them from China and packaging them himself to sell after shows. He’d close with about a ten minute high energy bit with one joke after another about the eyeballs, and buyers would line up.

   It was uncanny to watch those things fly out the door, and apparently he was able to buy himself a house in L.A. with the proceeds of that one gimmick. There are always the elite ‘purists’(translate: jealous) who make fun of anyone who doesn’t just do standup comedy, but from a marketing perspective this was sheer brilliance. Vic hit the marketing jackpot.

   It’s the ultimate product - dirt cheap, easy to store, light to transport, and he made it part of his act so he became known for it. That’s pretty hard to beat. I love to study both comic and marketing techniques, and Vic Dunlop was an interesting case study on both fronts.

   Whenever Vic would come to Salt Lake City I’d always make it a point to say hello and hang out whenever possible. He liked to talk about comedy and products, and was known for helping comics with their marketing. I was working on trying to market my ‘Be Funny Make Money’ comedy course at the time and he would always make helpful suggestions.

   We kept in touch via email after I left Salt Lake City, and the last time we got to visit in person was a week when we were both back there working different Wiseguys locations. I remember driving from Ogden to Salt Lake City in a nasty blizzard to hang out with him.

   Vic was also a diabetic. He lost a leg to the disease, and was just getting back out on the road the last time I saw him. Like any real comic, of course he had killer material about it. It made the audience howl with laughter, but I have to believe it wasn’t a picnic to have to deal with it off stage. Comedians get the lumps, audiences get the laughs. That’s the deal.

   I hadn’t had contact with Vic in a while, and I’m sorry about that. I don’t claim we were inseparable buddies, but we did cross paths years ago and I was very impressed with quite a few things about him. I’d seen him on TV years before, and it was fun to get a chance to work with him and hang out. I also learned a lot from his entrepreneurial acumen, and I’m still impressed with how he turned those eyeballs into such a slickly marketed product. To lose such a wonderful guy in a world like this when we need comedy so badly is a shame.

Posted via email from Dobie Maxwell's "Dented Can" Diary