Humor is part of the equation Humor is part of the equation (May 01, 2002)

Who says engineers aren't funny?

Norm Goldblatt sees a direct correlation between his job in the high-tech industry and his hobby as a comic. "I think writing jokes is just like an engineering project. We agonize over every word," Goldblatt said.

Goldblatt, a regular at the Rose and Crown's open-mic comedy night, is an optical engineer at Abbott Diagnostics in Santa Clara. He's not the only techie moonlighting for laughs.

Jeff Applebaum studied electrical engineering, but would love to become a comedic actor and filmmaker. His ultimate dream? To make a movie with Jackie Chan.

"There's a sarcasm, a way of looking at the world," Applebaum said. "Engineers have a different thought process. They overanalyze, make observations. And a lot of the comedy today is observational."

Applebaum shares emcee duties with John Beck, a Stanford solar astronomer with a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

"I like getting the laughs," Beck said simply.

Dan Nainan, a former Intel employee, started doing stand-up because he thought it would help him with business presentations.

"I gave it a try because I was a little bit nervous doing demonstrations on stage, in front of 3,000 or 5,000 people. I thought if I can do stand-up, the presentations would be no problem at all."

Nainan became well known at Intel for impersonating founder Andy Grove - even mastering his Hungarian accent. Impressed by his humor, executives invited him to perform his act at a San Francisco convention, in front of 2,400 people.

"They were just rolling," Nainan recalled. "They thought I had been hired as a professional comedian."

E-mail reporter name at name@paweekly.com