The Katz Meow | Love and Un-Marriage with Jay Mohr

By Bobbie Katz
www.vegasinsiderdaily.com

Jay Mohr certainly has bragging right when it comes to his career both on the big and small screen. But these days the comedian, while known to the world as a real “standup” guy, is pretty much all talk.

Jay Mohr

That’s because, as of January 2, 2013, he became the host of his own daily midday sports radio talk show, Jay Mohr Sports, on the Fox Sports Network. He had been a frequent contributor to The Jim Rome Show and then essentially replaced Rome when Rome moved his show from the network to CBS Sports Radio. In addition, Mohr hosts his own podcast, Mohr Stories, often taped in his garage, on his own network, Fake Mustache Studios, and he also appears in the movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which will be released this Friday, March 15.  Add to that the fact that he will performing at the South Point March 15-17, and it’s easy to see why he puts his money where his mouth is.

“While I’m on stage, I have a green light to say what I want to say and to be as funny as I can be,” Mohr says. “But offstage I have trouble ‘turning it off.’  I just keeps going and going and going and funny things just keep spurting out of my mouth. I wish I could talk half as much. I have felt that about myself my whole life. It’s why I used to get kicked out of classes and it wasn’t funny after a while

“As far as my stage act goes, I’m 42 and I’ve been doing standup since I was 16,” he continues. “I love performing in Las Vegas because everyone is from a different place. You have to find common ground and that is that everyone wants to laugh. I basically tell stories about things that have happened to me – my act is unique to me. I also do impressions of people like Christopher Walken, Al Pacino, Norm MacDonald and others. Every impression I do depicts some personal experience I had with that star. There is also a lot of ad-lib in my show depending on what the audience gives me. I have as much fun as they do.”

While jaw-flapping is a successful way of life for Mohr, conversely, one of the things he enjoys about his real life is the quiet moments with his wife, actress Nikki Cox, who was a regular on the former Las Vegas series and whom he married in 2006. In 2008, Mohr filed legal papers requesting a legal name change to Jay Ferguson Cox Mohr, adding the surname of his wife.  On May 5, 2011, Cox and Mohr, the father of a son from a previous marriage to former model Nicole Chamberlain, welcomed a son, Meredith Daniel Mohr.

“I didn’t know I could be happy being so still,” Mohr says about his relationship with Cox. “She bakes muffins and makes French Vanilla coffee and it smells like a home. Before her, it was all about where we were going, who we were going to see there and what we were putting on our bodies. A few years ago, Nikki and I went on vacation in Hawaii and sat in different lounge chairs reading different books. I used to think that people that did that didn’t get along. But we can enjoy being still together.”

Mohr, who guest-starred on The Ghost Whisperer before his own sitcom Gary Unmarried, about  a divorced dad, came along, from 2008-2010, met Cox on the set of Las Vegas when he guest-starred in that series. Ironically, he played a guy who wanted to marry Cox’s character. He reveals that the first time they shot a scene together, he knew that there was something there.

“It was like when you see a deer in the woods and you freeze or walk quietly because you don’t want to do anything to scare it away,” Mohr notes. “You can feel your heart in your chest. You’re aware of every sound you make, and every movement you make because you know at any moment the deer can turn and run into the woods.”

Mohr says that the way that marriage has changed him most is that he has developed a lot more patience. The same thing goes for being a father – not only does he feel that he has become a better person overall but he has learned to be patient and not shout when he gets frustrated or angry. He says that he has discovered how much fun it is to go to the beach with nothing but his older son and find their own world with just some sticks, leaves and shells.

“As a father, it’s your job to love without expecting anything back,” he claims. “And it’s hard. Where Nikki is concerned, all I can say is that you don’t know what kind of love you have in your heart until someone gives it to you. You were going to do XY and Z and then someone comes along and takes something you thought was your ideal and sets it on its ear.”

So what is the difference between Jay Married and Gary Unmarried, and real life and TV?.

“My dog just ran off with my son’s Spiderman underpants,” he informs me before getting off the phone.

You never know from what source Mohr will be gleaning his material. Spandex, perhaps?

This article appears by courtesy of Vegas Insider Daily.com.