'Deflocked' creator transitions from stage to page and delves into new kind of humor

Recently Jeff Corriveau quit writing television monologues and began drawing comics. His new career has forced him to be more subtle, he says. He had to learn to simplify the background. He still finds himself having to think as hard as he can about how a joke looks rather than the way it sounds.

The transition from stage to page has forced him to use all of his abilities. Yet he finds comics to be deeply satisfying. Through the process of learning to do comics, Corriveau came to realize how much "Peanuts" meant to him when he was growing up. He sees his comic strip as a homage to its creator, Charles Schulz.

Corriveau's strip, "Deflocked," replaces "Tina's Groove" in today's Deseret News.

"Deflocked" is a story of four outcasts who become like family when they are thrown together in a secret animal preserve for the displaced. Corriveau's characters consist of one sheep, two dogs and one little boy. Corriveau describes his characters as having a Seinfeld-esque outlook on the human condition.

He describes Mamet, the sheep, as being "armed with the lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance." Cobb, the tall dog, is "the moral anchor of the group." Rupert, the short dog, is Cobb's naive younger brother. The 8-year-old boy, Tucker, has been raised by the dogs since he was left on their doorstep as a newborn. Tucker is fascinated by Mamet's wild ways.

Corriveau spoke to the Deseret News recently, from his home near Hollywood. He described how he got to Hollywood.

As a youngster, living in western Massachusetts, Corriveau was very shy, he says. The rest of us might think comedians begin life as the class clowns. But Corriveau says he knows lots of comedians — and actors and script writers — who were quiet kids. He, himself, was content to sit and observe and escape notice.

Early on, Corriveau felt the tension between the modern world and the way he was being raised, with what he calls "Blue Law Yankee sensibilities." At some point he realized he had the ability to understand what people really meant when they spoke. He saw their underlying humanity.

Corriveau attended three different colleges and changed his major even more often. "I'm not a guy who can make up his mind," he says. Still, his various courses of study gave him a wide understanding. With theater, film, English and communications in his background, he found work on a few films on the East Coast after he graduated. Then he made his way West.