RIP To Vic Dunlop And His Buggy Eyes

Oh, how I am going to miss those buggy eyes! I just heard that Vic Dunlop, one of the nicest men I have ever met in comedy has passed at age 62.

I began watching Dunlop perform on what was one of my favorite shows, the original Make Me Laugh TV show. On that show, I used to love to watch him with Bruce Baum, Gary Mule Deer, Murray Langston (as The Unknown Comic) and others use plain silliness to make the contestants laugh. No swearing, no racial references, just silliness. Even as a kid I knew that if I were ever to become a contestant on the show, I would buckle under Dunlop’s buggy eyes prop.

In the late 70′s and 80′s, Dunlop appeared on many shows, including The Richard Pryor Show, An Evening at the Improv and even appeared (as did a young Robin Williams) in a very cheesy sketch comedy movie called Can I Do It Til I Need Glasses?

In 1993, Dunlop, with the help of writer David Lee Miller, wrote and produced the movie, Breakfast of Aliens, where, as it is summarized in IMDB.com as “A lovable loser, Walter Clydepepper (Vic Dunlop) eats an alien from outer space in his cereal and becomes a deadly stand up comic.” Not surprising, I didn’t get to see it but it had appearances by both Murray Langston as The Unknown Comic, but also Jamie Masada, the owner of The Laugh Factory as the Porno Director.

Throughout the 80′s and 90′s Dunlop appeared as a character actor in movies, (The Devil and Max Devlin), TV shows, (Adam-12) and on many comedy shows.

In the mid 90′s I had the privilege of meeting and hiring Dunlop to perform in the small town of Modesto, in a Holiday Inn that was lovingly converted to an “Evening at the Improv” setting for a Friday night. The shows were sold out and the small rural community talked about it for months. It wasn’t until December 2009 that I got to see Vic again. He was performing at a regional comedy club in the Sacramento area and as I head a Meetup group here in town, I brought about 20 people out to see him. The amazing thing was that Vic took one look at me and remembered me and when I came up to him to shake his hand, he gave me a massive bear hug and asked me whether I still had the Modesto room.

My Meetup group, who have been coming to shows with me for almost 2 years marveled at Dunlop’s creative ability to elicit a laugh by being silly and performing one liners. Of the original kings of silliness, (Baum, Langston and Dunlop), I think I am going to miss Vic the most. Because not only was I never able to NOT laugh at his jokes and his plastic buggy eyes, but I will never forget his kindness and his bear hug.

We’re going to miss your clean comedy, your huge heart and your great big buggy eyes Vic. Thank you for making me laugh.

Enjoy Vic’s Clean Comedy Show. It IS Suitable for Work and Family!

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