Spring Break
ANT attack on campus
Abbi Novotny
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Features
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ANT, whose real name is Anthony Steven Kalloniatis, grew up in Londonderry, N.H., which he jokingly described as the "whitest state in the union."
"I'm not kidding," he said. "My high school was so white that our foreign exchange students were from Detroit."
This is the kind of comedy ANT expects to deliver to the audience. He also plans to talk about things from childhood to adulthood.
ANT was a contestant on Last Comic Standing for five seasons. On the fifth season, he was a talent scout with Alonzo Bodden, season three's winner, and Kathleen Madigan, another fellow show contestant.
"I auditioned in San Francisco the first season and made it to Las Vegas, but I didn't make it into the house," ANT said.
However, he made it into the house for the second season. For the third season, the producers decided to change the format of the show to Battle of the Best, which was season one versus season two.
Although ANT never won on the show, he was proud of the determination he showed by returning season after season.
ANT's interest in comedy began in 1994 when he attended an improvisation. He said he was heckling someone and the emcee told him to go up on stage if he thought he could do a better job, so he did.
"I'm not a quitter, I don't quit. The pie is big enough for everyone," he said. "The people with success are the ones who never quit. I didn't want to be the Susan Lucci of comedy," ANT said.
After being a contestant on a couple of shows, producers asked ANT if he would be a scout.
ANT credited his success as a talent scout to a temporary job at Photomax where he used to look at photos of people and judge them by writing notes on the back.
"So when Last Comic Standing asked me to be a talent scout I said, 'Sure, I've already had lots of practice,'" he said.
ANT did admit he got fired from the Photomax job.
"It was really bad because I was the only person in the little booth," he said.
In addition to Photomax, ANT said his resume includes Dairy Queen, 7-Eleven, The Candy Store, the U.S. Postal Service and Orange Julius.
However, he said he was fired from all those jobs.
"I couldn't make the swirls at Dairy Queen, so they fired me. I was fat so I kept stealing all the fudge at The Candy Store and I ate more hot dogs than I sold at
Orange Julius," ANT said.
This will be ANT's first time at Sac State. He said he's been on Last Comic Standing, so why not do stand-up at Sac State?
ANT said he does not expect anything from the audience and said the crowd can expect to go home with a stomach ache.
"I can't stand comedians who say the audience was awful," ANT said. "I feel like your job as a comedian is to be present in the moment and that's what my audience can expect. I feel if I do my job, then the audience will laugh."
Jeff Hodges, who is also a comedian, will be ANT's opening act.
"I remember when I first met him, thinking that he was a really funny guy," Hodges said.
When ANT isn't making people laugh, he enjoys traveling, his favorite place being the United Kingdom.
"The people were fun. I loved the architecture and I could walk up to a Queen's house and ring the doorbell," he said.
ANT's next gig is shooting the sixth season for VH1's Celebrity FIT Club, of which he is the host. He also has his own website at www.nbc.com/ant.
"I am thankful to God. I thought it (success) would change me and it didn't and I'm so happy about that," ANT said.
Abbi Novotny can be reached at anovotny@statehornet.com.
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