Diane Grunes - One Funny Gal
Former Senior Class Clown Has Evolved Into a Life of Entertainment.
Feb 27, 2009
Born in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, family and friends enjoyed Diane Grunes' comical antics, but grade school teachers often looked askance when she attempted to conduct impromptu vaudeville shows in class.
Why Diane Grunes Enjoys Comedy
Often a person uses comedy as a mechanism to attract attention. Grunes admits that when bored, she feels the need to entertain herself. It doesn’t matter what others are thinking, as long as she is enjoying herself.
In early public performances, she appeared with a troupe, then discovered she was more comfortable working solo. “Portraying characters is the best, because it’s a chance to act as another person,” she points out.
Stand-Up Comedy Routine
As she matured, Grunes found that audiences enjoyed her most when she played herself. Developing this idea, she performed skits portraying the stages of her life. A bit showing her as a baby in a high chair involves eating with her hands and the pros and cons of mixing food.
Grunes claims that even today, that inner child is still predominant. “There is a big part of her in me,” she says. Ideas come from everywhere. Observing common human interactions provide opportunities to find inspiration for characters or gather ideas for skits. Some of her favorites are:
- Cooking Demo Lady: Wearing a cocktail dress and satin gloves, Grunes demonstrates how to prepare appetizers with hot dogs, crescent dough and cheese from a can. At one point she slings the dough over her shoulder.
- Martha the Cleaning Lady: City parades often include Grunes as Martha, dressed in boots, a babushka, broken glasses and speaking with a Southern twang. Accompanying her is a Kirby vacuum cleaner complete with front light, which plugs into outlets along the parade route. As “Martha” vacuums the sidewalks she converses easily with all ages.
Other favorite characters are:
- Sue Newman – Color Consultant
- Grandma Jo – her Jewish Grandmother
- Marge – Craft Demonstrator
Exercise Break
Grunes likes to take her audience by surprise. In the middle of a stand-up skit, she will suggest an exercise break and proceed to give detailed instructions for “buttock clenches.” She’ll ask attendees to hold the position while she counts to five and to then release, all the while showing them how with a vivid demonstration.
What’s In It for Diane Grunes?
Grunes simply enjoys making people laugh and loves knowing that they think she is slightly odd, especially when she is portraying a character.
One incident illustrates this perfectly. After her stint as Martha in a New Year’s Eve parade, she met a friend at an upscale café along the parade route. Instead of taking the vacuum to her car, she brought it into the restaurant and soon her zany side took over. Finding an outlet, she began vacuuming among the dinner guests. Luckily, most were in a celebratory mood.
But the manager told her she had to leave or he would call the police. Grunes didn’t break character, so it took her friend to convince him that all was not as it seemed.
The coastal California town of Santa Cruz is fortunate to have Grunes as an active community volunteer. She can be seen doing her “schtick” at public and private events for organizations such as WomenCARE Cancer Advocacy group.
She continues to develop her craft by performing, writing and attending improv classes provided by Santa Cruz FunInstitute.
Related article by June Smith Shakespeare Santa Cruz Festival
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