WAUKEGAN – Four local stand-up comedians will perform Oct. 3 at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan. One is the son of former mayor and alderman of Waukegan, Haig Paravonian.

Rob Paravonian, headliner for Genesee's upcoming "Awakenings Comedy – Putting the Spotlight on Local Artists," is living in New York but he was born and raised in Waukegan.

Like his father, Rob Paravonian knows the area well.

“I’m very excited to be performing in my hometown.” Paravonian said, “Especially because I’ll be able to do some jokes about Waukegan and the area that I couldn’t do anywhere else.”

Paravonian said his father passed his love for the stage down to him. Haig Paravonian dreamed of making it big in Hollywood when he was younger and was active in community theater while Rob Paravonian was growing up.

“It’s just kind of cool when you’re a real little kid seeing adults basically playing dressing up and goofing around,” Rob Paravonian said. “Usually, adults are so serious.”

The comedian Paravonian said his father’s political aspirations "definitely didn’t get passed down, partially because it always seemed like a pain in the butt," Rob Paravonian joked.

Paravonian said his act is half music – not all songs – but "hopefully all funny." He started integrating music into his comedy act not long after performing his first comedy show while attending the University of Southern California.

Open mic nights often have long waits for only five minutes of stage time, Paravonian said, so he would pass the time by playing goofy songs he had written on his guitar. That's when another comedian suggested he try out one of his songs on the audience.

“It was natural to put it in my acts because I did it so much in my daily life,” Paravonian said.

Paravonian’s first introduction to music was in grammar school when he began learning to play the cello. Paravonian also plays the guitar and bass.

In a YouTube video uploaded in 2006, with over 12 million views, Paravonian rants about Johann Pachelbel’s "Canon in D," a popular song for brides to walk down the aisle.

Paravonian spends more than five minutes talking about how much he hated playing "Canon in D," because the cellos repeat the same eight quarter notes the entire song. Parts of this skit are performed a-la Johnny Cash style, with Paravonian alternating between talking to the audience and singing.

In 1998, Paravonian recorded his first album of original music titled "American Cheese." He released another three albums and he said he’s currently writing a musical about a kid kicked out of a boy band who joins a smaller, no-name boy band to restart his career.

“It’s a fun, sort of light satire about pop music, or at least that’s what I intend it to be,” Paravonian said.

One of Paravonian’s favorite songs to perform is called ‘Pushing band candy,’ in which he raps about how he had to sell candy for fundraisers in school. The video has almost 300,000 views on YouTube.

Paravonian has toured in all 50 states, performed in Canada, Scotland, the Netherlands and for troops in Afghanistan. He’s also opened for Lilly Tomlin at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and several shows for George Carlin on his final tour.

Tickets for the Genesee show are $20, plus tax. The show will also feature comedians Sean Flannery, Ariana Freeman and Kelsie Huff.

Flannery, a competitor in the 2004 HBO Comedy Fest regional finals, tells drunken tales and makes fun of family, friends and himself during his acts.

Life as a millennial is Freeman’s focus while on stage. Huff, the night’s host, teaches an all-female stand-up comedy class called Feminine Comique. She also created an eight-year running show called "the kates" performing at the Book Cellar and Laugh Factory Chicago.