Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

A Full House at HFSC

ELIZA MINEAUX/THE HOYA Comedian Dave Coulier, best known for his role as Uncle Joey on the ABC sitcom “Full House,” performed a stand-up routine in an event hosted by the Georgetown Program Board in the Healey Family Student Center last Thursday.
ELIZA MINEAUX/THE HOYA
Comedian Dave Coulier, best known for his role as Uncle Joey on the ABC sitcom “Full House,” performed a stand-up routine in an event hosted by the Georgetown Program Board in the Healey Family Student Center last Thursday.

Comedian, actor, impressionist and television host Dave Coulier is a familiar face to the millennial generation. Most commonly known for his role as Joey Gladstone on the ABC sitcom “Full House,” Coulier performed a stand-up routine in the Healey Family Student Center on April 7 in a performance sponsored by the Georgetown Program Board.

“I chose Dave because he connected strongly with our generation through his roles in ‘Full House,’ ‘Scooby Doo,’ among others,” Georgetown Program Board Special Events Chair Jennifer Henry wrote in an email to The Hoya. “An iconic face with strong stand-up talent, Dave drew a wide range of students and was a pleasure to host.”

Coulier said in an interview with The Hoya that he enjoys performing at colleges, having visited Princeton University, Pennsylvania State University and Seton Hall University in the week prior to coming to Georgetown.

“It’s nice because people come out to see me because of ‘Full House’ and ‘Fuller House,’ but then they a lot of times don’t know I’m a stand-up, so they’re not quite sure what’s going to happen. I think that afterwards I can put a bunch of smiles on faces and keep people laughing, it’s a really nice feeling,” Coulier said.

While he is perhaps best known for his role as Joey Gladstone in “Full House” — a role he reprised for the sitcom’s reboot, “Fuller House,” which premiered on Netflix this February — Coulier is also an accomplished voice actor and stand-up comedian.

ELIZA MINEAUX/THE HOYA
ELIZA MINEAUX/THE HOYA

Coulier has brought his knack for voices and impressions to 1980s cartoons including “Ghostbusters,” “Scooby Doo” and “Muppets Babies,” but admits he started honing his talent as at a young age.

“[My brother and I] used to sit on our front lawn, and we used to call in narrating the neighborhood, and characters would go by … and we would narrate what was going on. And then we would lay in our bunk beds and our dad would run in and say, ‘Would you knock it off? It’s midnight and I’m tired of hearing Mr. Hooper’s voice!’” Coulier said.

His newest project is unlike anything he has done before in his diverse comedy career: a digital musical storybook for tablet computers called “The Adventures of Jimmy Bugar.” The book chronicles the life of Jimmy Bugar, a 10-year-old booger who lives in “Nose-ascotia” and dreams of a career in show business.

Interwoven with Jimmy’s stories are 15 songs from a range of genres including jazz, reggae, blues, country and rock, all of which Coulier wrote.

“It’s very sophomoric, it’s funny, it’s quirky, and it’s all the things that I tried to write from a nine-year-old’s perspective. If somebody bends over, I’m going to blow a hand fart. And boogers are funny and farts are funny,” Coulier said.

“Full House” fans will hear some familiar voices when browsing through the e-book, which became available for download last Friday. John Stamos, Lori Loughlin and Jodie Sweetin all lent their voices to various characters in the book.

Members of the “Full House” cast have collaborated with each other several times in the two decades between the hit sitcom’s finale in 1995 and its reboot this winter.

Coulier, Stamos, Sweetin, Loughlin and Scott Weinger all voiced characters in the 2007 direct-to-video mockumentary “Farce of the Penguins,” starring Bob Saget, who also directed the film. Coulier guest starred on an episode of Stamos’ Fox sitcom “Grandfathered” last fall.

“We really respect each other’s talents, and I think that we try to utilize those talents, because it’s fun to work with your friends,” Coulier said.

Coulier said that because of their love of working together, it was surreal to come back together with his “Full House” co-stars — except for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who did not rejoin their cast mates — on the same set to shoot “Fuller House.” The reboot was filmed just two stages over from where the original show was shot.

“You know, they should’ve called it ‘Full Circle,’ because that’s what we feel we’ve done,” Coulier said.

Coulier said many of his favorite stories from that studio during his time on “Full House” are too horrible to share.

“Not ‘mean’ horrible, but disgusting like underpants jokes and poop jokes and stupid, stupid stuff,” Coulier said.

Coulier also said he would walk around in his underwear and would sometimes even enter scenes completely naked when the kids were not around.

“The moms caught me one time, because the kids had to shoot something late, and they all had monitors in their rooms. And here come the three moms and they’re like, ‘Really, Dave?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry. It was to make the crew laugh!’” Coulier said.

Coulier did not reveal any details about the upcoming second season of “Fuller House,” which was announced less than a week after the first season premiered on Netflix. He said that producers asked him where he would like to see his character at this point, and that he hopes Joey’s wife and kids would be incorporated into the next season.

Producers initially gave Coulier a lot of freedom with his character on “Full House,” often leaving space in the script for him to improvise. Coulier even came up with the name Joey Gladstone, which creator Jeff Franklin liked.

“Being able to improv on a TV show and come up with something that you create out of thin air is a great freedom. Being able to go out of the script for a second, pull something out of thin air, and then have it reincorporated into the script, that’s a nice freedom for a comedian on television to have,” Coulier said.

Although Coulier has enjoyed a successful career in comedy over the past decades, he said that some of his favorite comedic moments have been the more private ones, like when he goofs off with his hockey teammates in the locker room.

“Robin Williams once told me that the best shows you’ll ever do will be the ones that are free. … It’s those moments when you just get to be funny with people,” Coulier said. “That to me is the most fun in the world.”

 

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