Shatner goes to the final frontier of funny

Those many years spent in Captain Kirk’s chair and setting his phaser on “stun” have given William Shatner plenty of funny stories if he ever wants to have a standup comedy career. And they’re a lot funnier than just a joke about a Romulan, a Klingon and a Vulcan walking into a bar.

But the longtime Star Trek guy and current star of the new CBS sitcom $#*t! My Dad Says considers himself a student of comedy in its many forms, “all of which can make you laugh either out loud or chuckle, or say silently within yourself, ‘That’s funny,’ and listen to what else is going on,” says the 70-year-old actor.

“I love great character comedy, the comedy that flows out of characters – that a character does something that is so in character, it’s funny,” Shatner explains. “I’m working on a movie right now about standup comics. I’ve done a fair amount of examination of what standup comics are and what their brains are doing. Standup is so intellectual, it requires such a talent, such an immediacy, such an ability to comment on events. Writing a succinct line is an art form that then is quoted at water coolers or wherever people meet nowadays the next day. ‘I heard this one-liner…’ – that’s an art form that I envy and admire.”

Shatner and Nimoy often crack each other up when they’re paired at Star Trek conventions and other events — Nimoy never lets his old friend live down the time he almost drowned Nimoy on the movie set of Star Trek IV. He collects funny stories from everywhere, and says he has a great anecdote about something hilarious that happened to him at the closing ceremonies of the recent 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

So, does he care to share? “Keeping that a secret,” Shatner says with a wry smile. “It’s fresh material. I’m changing my act!”