Ryan Hamilton was not the class clown.
Although he appreciated comedy when he was growing up in Idaho, he thought he was going to be a television newsman or a public relations person.
He studied journalism in college in Rexburg, Idaho, and then switched to public relations when he transferred to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
But the inner clown came out shortly after graduation.
"It was in December 2001," Hamilton recalled during a telephone interview from his home in Salt Lake City. "I was just getting out of school and I hadn't found a job and I had some time on my hands.
"It was something I always wanted to do, but I just had not had the time."
He attended an open-mike night at a comedy club in Provo and has been cracking up fans ever since.
"The first time in front of the mike, it was not what I thought it would be," Hamilton said. "It was much more difficult. I was just in a rush to get through it the first time. I just threw out the lines."
Earlier this year he won a national Sierra Mist Next Great Comic contest. The top prize was performing as the host and opening act in the 23 Improv comedy clubs across the country.
The contest resulted in his being selected as one of the rising young comedians who will perform in the New Marquee show at The Comedy Festival.
The show will be at midnight Friday and 11 p.m. Saturday at the Flamingo's Second City Theater.
Hamilton's success as a comedian was not immediate.
After his initial appearance at a comedy club, he landed a job with a PR firm in Salt Lake City.
"It was a dream job," he said.
But he was laid off after a year.
"The dot.com industry went bust," he said.
Which was OK by him.
"I found out I wasn't happy there, anyway," Hamilton said. "Comedy was on my mind all the time."
During that year in PR he had been attending open-mike nights with some regularity in and around Salt Lake City -- but there weren't that many clubs.
So when he found himself without a job and with time on his hands once again, he moved to Seattle and pursued his comedy career.
"I started getting paid to work as a standup, but I also was a parking valet for quite a while," Hamilton said.
Eventually, he parked fewer cars and played more gigs, mostly at comedy clubs in the Midwest and Northwest.
Hamilton describes his act as clean, quirky and observational.
"Observations about my life," he said.
When his gig with the Improv clubs ends, he's confident he has a bright future.
"I'm going to keep pursuing this," Hamilton said. "I will be working a lot of the clubs I've already played again next year.
"Hopefully, I'll never have to go back to being a valet."
Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at [email protected].
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