Tim Cavanagh's music provides a comedic rush. Literally. Sixty seconds is all he needs to sing his praises for Ted Williams or distaste for Enron.
"You learn in comedy that you get the joke in and you get out," the parody songwriter said. "You don't need to have repeating choruses because you've heard the joke already."
On his latest album, "The One Minute Song: Volume II," Cavanagh wonders aloud about such topics as airport restrooms and Jesse Ventura on Broadway. His music will race the clock at the Student Center Tally tonight.
A regular on morning radio's "The Bob and Tom Show," Cavanagh has performed comedy for more than 23 years. He began his career as a religion teacher at an all-girls Catholic school in Chicago, with aspirations of becoming a mainstream musician.
"I'd been writing songs for a long time, but whenever I tried writing a serious song I found it was a disaster," he said. "I tried to audition at real music clubs in Chicago, but never really got anywhere."
He didn't find comedy, but rather comedy found him, he said. One night he walked into Zany's Comedy Club in Chicago during an open-mic session and within a week was hired as a regular emcee.
The three year teaching stint helped him put together his act.
"Stand-up comedy and teaching are not that far apart in terms of getting up in front of a large room full of people and pretending you know what you're doing," he said. "But the amount of work you do as a teacher, especially in the first year or two, involves a lot of preparation, a lot of discipline. That has certainly helped me in terms of writing."
Cavanagh occasionally runs into former students at the clubs.
"I'm still a decent show that I'm proud of, so I'm not embarrassed about seeing these kids that I taught 20 years ago, who are now about 35."
On "The Bob and Tom Show" he used to perform a weekly segment, during which he'd try to squeeze in a song in under one minute. He has also appeared on Comedy Central, ABC and Showtime.
For the most part Cavanagh likes to keep his show clean, though a bit of scandal is involved. His first comedy song was a parody of John Denver's "Thank God I'm A Country Boy," titled "Thank God I'm an Atheist." One of his more recent pieces is a parody of comedian Todd Snyder's song "Beer Run," titled "Ennrron." He misspells the company's name because of the crooked business practices.
His favorite song on the current album, "Eric Roberts," is a lament on Julia Roberts' older, less successful brother. From a payphone at a Burger King in Illinois he recited a few lines.
"Hey Eric Roberts, too bad you weren't born your sister, you got a tough break with that Y Chromosome that turned you into a mister," he sang. "Now with your sister Julia's fame you'd think the offers would be pouring in just the same for Runaway Groom, or maybe Pretty Man or Aaron Brockovich, spelled A-a-r-o-n."
Cavanagh likes to meet his audiences during the show, but avoids humiliating them.
"There's nothing to be afraid of," he said. "I find that a lot of people when they go out to comedy shows, they don't want to sit up front. I interact with my audience, but in a way that's non-threatening. I'm not going to rip anybody in the first row. My show is way better if you sit up front."
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