Finding his 'bliss' brings DeCarlo home

Mark DeCarlo was on a roll.

"Print this, please!" he implored. "I'll give <I>a million dollars </I>to anyone who can demonstrate any talent that the Kardashians have. <I>Any marketable talent.

</I>"Back in the day, to get on TV, you had to have a talent that people wanted to watch.

"You're a singer! You're a dancer! You're a reporter! You spun plates on 'Bozo's Circus'! You did something more exceptionally than the bulk of people in the world."

DeCarlo blames the public for accepting TV's equivalent of junk food.

"So, what I'm doing on my segment is finding the people who have talent and have a reason to be celebrated. And that's the key word, <I>celebrated!"</I>

Oops. This should have been mentioned earlier: DeCarlo has a new job. He interviews Chicago-area people for ABC 7's new talk-and-entertainment program "Windy City Live." It airs locally at 9 a.m. weekdays, the time slot formerly occupied by TV talk queen Oprah Winfrey.

(By the way, the "Windy City Live" debut dusted its competition last Thursday, posting a 4.6 rating and a 16 share, beating WGN's "Regis & Kelly" and NBC's "Today" among Chicago-area audiences.)

The Chicago-born DeCarlo, who spent his high school years in Downers Grove and graduated from Benet Academy in Lisle, has been known primarily for his work as a TV host (remember his controversial game show "Studs"?), a stand-up comic and a voice-over performer (he played Hugh Neutron in "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius").

Yet, underneath that gruff and glib exterior beats the heart of a Chicago journalist.

Really.

He demonstrates a genuine curiosity about people. He loves that his new job is to find worthy Chicagoans to put in the ABC limelight.

DeCarlo said his own life was changed by a class at Benet Academy, taught by Tim White.

"I read Joseph Campbell's books when I was in high school," DeCarlo said. "Campbell says, 'follow your bliss.' It (performing) is the one thing in life that I love doing.

"I had a job at Sportmart in high school, and I quit after an hour, because I was stocking fish line. I couldn't handle it. Everyone has his own talents. The trick to life is finding out what you're programmed to do and go do it.

"Because if you're doing that, it's not work. If you're doing the wrong work, your life is miserable and nothing else can fix it."

DeCarlo, 48, is single and has been living in Los Angeles for 20 years.

So, what do Chicago people have that people from L.A. don't?

"Integrity," he said. "There's a camaraderie. There's a loyalty. It's 3 o'clock in the morning and you're in jail, and you need someone to bail you out and come and get you.

"You call one of your Chicago friends. He screams at you on the phone. He comes to get you. You take him to breakfast," DeCarlo said.<I>

"</I>You call an L.A. friend. What do you get? '<I>Oh, wow! I can't. I got an audition tomorrow! I gotta get some sleep. Let me get back to you.'

</I>"Chicago's real. You can't survive in a city this cold if you have no substance, you know?"

DeCarlo estimated that 90 percent of his friends in L.A. are people who came from the Midwest. He said Midwesterners tend to find each other.

Still, L.A. has its benefits.

"I love the weather," he admitted. "I have managed to collect quality people around me. But it's a city and a culture that celebrates the veneer.

"I know women in their 20s who are getting Botoxed. Everyone looks the same. You can't tell if the women hate your guts, or if they love you."

For now, DeCarlo is content to interview the realer people of the Chicago area.

"My goal in this particular lifetime is to find my bliss and enjoy my life," he said. "So far, that's working out."

Dann Gire and Jamie Sotonoff are always looking for suburban people in showbiz. If you know of someone, send a note to dgire@dailyherald.com and jsotonoff@dailyherald.com.

Windy City Live

Watch it: Mark DeCarlo, 48, is part of the staff at “Windy City Live,” a new morning program on ABC7 in Chicago, broadcast at 9 a.m. weekdays. DeCarlo was launched to national prominence by the Fox TV game show “Studs,” which he hosted from 1991 to 1993.

Local ties: DeCarlo may be a born-and-bred Chicagoan, but he also lived in Downers Grove and attended Benet Academy in Lisle, a school that has produced luminaries such as Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo “Juno” Cody.