From local boy to 'Bachelor Man'

Published in the Beacon News 07/27/03

  About half the newsroom — reporters and editors alike — received one.

  "Local boy does good" read the subject line that popped onto our e-mail screens earlier this week.

  The one I got had a more succinct title: "Local hero."

  So, I was intrigued.

  OK, so I was also a bit annoyed, having spent the last few months writing dozens of stories about real hometown heroes — Fox Valley's men and women serving in Iraq.

  Still, when I had finished reading the e-mail from Rodney Lee Conover about the new movie he co-wrote, helped to produce and stars in, I had to admire the self-promoter in this hometown boy.

  And after talking to Conover on the phone from his digs in L.A., it's hard not to take a liking to the guy, never mind his exaggerated sense of self-importance.

  That's because Conover is funny. Very funny. But then, that's how he made his living the past 12 years — doing stand-up comedy, on television and in clubs all across the country.

  In fact, he's so darn funny, as he puts it, "if I were a good-looking guy, I'd probably rule the world."

  That's because funny and good-looking in Hollywood is a blockbuster combination. Look at Jim Carrey, for crying out loud.

  Actually, it was David Hines and Jeff Hause, the writers of Carrey's movie, Once Bitten, who saw Conover's comedy routine and decided his Bachelor Man characters would make the basis for a great feature film.

  Nothing happens quickly in Hollywood, no matter how much self-promotion is involved. Bachelor Man took 10 years for the three of them to make — another two to get it into theaters.

  But the result, says Conover, will hopefully bring the megabucks and better party invites his way, although he's not really sure he's ready for either.

  "You know you're rich in Hollywood," he says, "when you pay someone else to party for you."

  Bachelor Man, as it turns out, is the proverbial party boy looking for the perfect girl, who happens to move in next door. "But she's an even bigger player than he is," says Conover, "and it drives him insane."

  This romantic comedy must be good. It has taken home the top award in every independent film festival it has entered, including most recently in Palm Beach.

  And the movie, which will be shown opening night at Chicago's Indiefest at 9 p.m. Friday at Village Water Tower Theater, will be released nationwide sometime in September.

  Local boy does good, indeed.

  But come on, local hero?

  It's all part of the act, Conover insists — the moxie required to get anywhere in Hollywood, a town he describes as little more than "an upholstered men's room."

  "People don't quite know what to make of me," he says of his personality. "They think I'm putting on a show, but that's just the way I am."

  In fact, when Conover, a 1977 graduate of West Aurora High and proud son of Kay and Richard, announced plans to move to L.A. a few years out of high school, his mom told him, "I hope you find someone out there who will pay you to be a smart aleck."

  He found more than one. One of Conover's favorite stories is when the executive at New Line Cinema leaned over to him at a party and whispered, "Hey, you do that stupid thing really well."

  There's no doubt he's done lots of things well. His bio on the Internet shows he's not only a successful stand-up comic, he's got a half-dozen films (unfortunately, all forgettable) to his credit and has written or produced plenty of radio and TV shows, including the not-so-forgettable but still-awful When Good Pets Go Bad.

   Comic. Writer. Producer. Actor. He's all of the above in Bachelor Man. Unfortunately, "I'm not good-looking enough to play the lead," he says of the role that went to David Deluise, son of comedian Dom.

  OK, so he's not leading-man handsome, but even in L.A., being funny can get the chicks — especially if it's combined with Tinsel Town success.

  Problem is, Conover doesn't really want the L.A. girls. As a 44-year-old bachelor, he's looking more for what the industry calls "the Rodney Girls" — the au-naturale women who rely on wit and talent to get ahead instead of their cosmetic surgeons.

  That's why he wouldn't mind hooking up with a Midwestern gal — which might just be the real motive behind his quest for a little hometown exposure.

  "I'd like to find someone who loves me for who I am, not because I'm rich and famous," he says. "That means I have six weeks to find the perfect girl."

  He's referring, of course, to his confidence Bachelor Man is destined to be a box-office success. "It's a laugh a minute," he says of the movie.

  It's a statement that may not make him the most humble local boy. But it sure does make him proud.

07/27/03