John Caparulo shows off his “Wild” side

John Caparulo’s jokes need censoring, even when his own mother is in the audience.

“I never… John Caparulo’s jokes need censoring, even when his own mother is in the audience.

“I never really thought of myself as a dirty comic, but then I watch myself, and I’m always talking about my balls and stuff,” he said in a recent interview. He also mock-congratulates himself in his recent film, “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show,” for talking about oral sex in front of a Cleveland audience that included his mom.

He’ll chuckle at his own jokes, and he keeps it casual in jeans and white T-shirts. Once a little-known comic from the stage of “The Funny Bone” in Pittsburgh, Caparulo returns to the ‘Burgh with a full-length film to promote.

The “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show” poster outside of his four-star hotel room Downtown sits on an easel as a subtle reminder that sometimes ordinary guys from East Liverpool, Ohio, really do “make it.”

Starting in this small town known as “the pottery capital of the world,” Caparulo went from an awkward teen with pipe dreams to a stand-up comedian with a national following.

Initially, he wasn’t quite sure if he’d be considered funny outside the neighborhoods populated by his friends and family members. Just in case it didn’t work out, Caparulo followed his parents’ instructions and went to college. “Even though I’m not using the degree, I’m still paying for it,” he joked about his five years at Kent State University. Caparulo adds that he needed the college experience as a transitional period, even though he had another plan in the back of his mind.

After drifting through a cloud of blue-collar jobs that eventually took him to a job as doorman for The Comedy Store in L.A, Caparulo started making connections and performing for a minute here and there when spots opened.

In 2005, he got cast as one of four up-and-coming comics in Vince Vaughn’s documentary following their bus tour throughout the Midwest. Caparulo hasn’t forgotten his undesirable, minimum-wage jobs, from Subway to mowing lawns, and these experiences provide a wealth of comedic material for him.

While his stand-up humor is slightly crude and F-word-infested, off the stage, Caparulo is almost bashful. He admitted that he cringes every time he watches his own acts, thinking how much better he’s gotten even in the past week.

Doing the same acts over and over is boring to him, and he also realized for the first time from watching himself that his voice is anything but normal. A little high-pitched and bordering on obnoxious, it just fits.

During Caparulo’s recent return to Pittsburgh, he acknowledged the city as where his career all began, gave advice to aspiring comics. He also told Pitt students what it was like living on a bus for 30 days and 30 nights with some of the funniest guys in the country, according to Vince Vaughn’s expert opinion.

For a month, he explains, the guys slept on bunk beds and followed bus curfews, sometimes getting irritated with the situation and each other.

“I was the grouchiest out of all of us about the living situation,” he said. “I kind of took it for granted