Tim Allen: The Philosopher Comic

Following a decade of mostly film work, comedian Tim Allen returns to his roots in stand-up next week.

The performance, which Allen promises will be full of new material, is set for Thursday, March 3 at 8 p.m. at Palm Desert's .

Allen is much more than his Hollywood persona.

In this second part of an exclusive interview, he expounds on his charitable ventures and discusses what quantum physics has to do with reality TV.

PalmDesert.Patch.com - Besides the Tim Allen that we all know, TV and movie star, author and stand-up comic, there’s also Tim Allen, race car driver and classical pianist - all remarkable accomplishments. What goals do you still have to achieve?

Tim Allen - Being of service more. I struggle with that. I have a lot of great charitable notions that I haven’t finished. Charity, first begins at home, but it’s hands on. It’s easy to say, ‘Well, just do this.’ And I find my government does that all the time. But to follow through and finish it. You want to put a water pump in Kenya and do it the right way? Go do it. It takes a long time. You want to support a kids program at the YMCA? Don’t tell other people to do it. Go do it. 

You can give money to it, that’s one thing, but if you’re telling people how to live their lives and telling people what to do - it’s remarkably easy to tell people what to do - I watch that all the time with the federal government saying, "This is what we should do." I just wanna scream at them, "Well, go do it!"

Patch.com -  What charities have you taken on that you are seeing through to the end?

Allen - You know if I tell you, it just feeds my ego, so I just do it. I don’t use my real name. When I get involved, especially at the level I am right now, it's usually following the money trail, organizing the building and the completion of the project. But I stay out of it so it doesn’t become a 'Tim Allen' deal, which can disrupt that process.

It isn’t as much as I want, but its more than I thought I could do. That’s the next challenge, I’d like to get more involved in my charities. But with the caveat - I can’t take credit for it.

Patch.com - Can you say, as a matter of suggestion to others, what charities really need help?

Allen - Well, it’s all personal. But charity starts at home … in your own neighborhood. Certainly in my neighborhood there’s things that need to be done. I happen to love contracting and building. I am that guy, the 'tool man.' I'm very helpful when people need stuff built hands-on.

I like to follow it through. So, what is it you need? Especially churches, schools in remote places where kids are suffering, simple stuff, electricity and water … food. I can help make the physical plant work effectively because I know how to do that. And I’m getting better at getting equipment there. But following through, making sure the equipment gets where its supposed to and the equipment is used like it’s supposed … It’s never easy. The more remote you get the more chances there are that people are just going to take the stuff.

What I find is if I can manage the project to the end, you can get a lot more accomplished because you can monitor the actual inventory. It’s not been easy. It’s not been fun. But it’s been fulfilling.

One challenge we have seen is theft of the donated equipment. And especially in remote locations, you’re going  to find bullies everywhere. And anytime there’s a bully, they just take what they want. If you put a solar panel up ... There was a project many years ago, that a lot of us got involved in, simple solar pumps for remote locations and what would happen is, you would put it in, bullies would surround it, build their facility around it, and they’d charge for the water ... and now,  you’ve actually caused a  problem. You didn’t help anybody, you caused a problem. Now, there’s conflict in that area. And so, it's this weird paradox.

Helping sometimes isn’t always helping. You learn that a hand up is not a hand out. But for some people it becomes enabling. You gave them help and they ask when’s the next help coming? Instead of using that to help themselves. It’s a very different perspective and I’ve been around helping for quite awhile because I love being able to share the bounty that I’ve been given. But sometimes it’s almost like a parent, it’s almost like, I think, that whoever built this whole thing, you know, the Creator … just giving us stuff doesn’t really help.

And inserting ourselves into a problem can disrupt the natural evolution of a situation. It’s like in quantum physics, or spin dynamics, that whole business of the observer effecting the movement of the particles being observed. You have the experiment,  the cause and effect, and you’re accelerating the particles up to near light speed …Well, there’s a third thing going on here – you. You’re observing this experiment. And more importantly, if it weren’t for you this experiment wouldn’t be happening.

So the experiment is kind of a result of three things. Natural science, but you’re making it do something so it kind of accommodates you the observer. If you weren’t there none of that (expletive) would be going on. It doesn’t mean that particles don’t disintegrate into other particles which is a misnomer – packets of energy they’re called - but that doesn’t mean that the science is wrong. The observer is a part of that experiment. 

It’s like, there’s no such thing as reality TV because there’s always a camera man there.

The same thing in charity, once you’ve inserted yourself in that situation, you can’t disinsert yourself. You’ve got to follow it through to a logical conclusion and sometimes it works. It takes vision. But just to pile money onto a problem, it creates more of a problem.

Patch.com - What projects are next for you? Do you have any films coming out?

Allen - I’m a superstitious guy, so I can’t really say. You caught me in a very strange week, a very good week, there’s some really exciting stuff happening. And it’s just happened within the last three days. The way things work in my life, I prefer to talk about stuff when its done rather than what I’m gonna do.

Patch.com - At this point in your career, being successful, you certainly don't need to work. Why go back to doing stand-up?

Allen - As my daughter says, I’m kind of a control freak. So the one thing, out of all of my life, that moment up on stage is a sweet spot, that moment, I own it. And I’m responsible for your entertainment, which I’m okay with. I’m responsible for that time up there, so I dress well – that’s from my old church days.

But it’s totally up to me. I don’t have to have a director, there’s not a studio behind me, there’s not a time limit, there’s not a … it’s freedom beyond belief!

And I absolutely adore the connection with the audience.  And I’ve been out eighteen months doing small clubs and doing concerts for the last year. And I don’t like travel that much anymore cause I got a new baby and I don’t … and there’s many things that I didn’t want to be doing at this age none of which involve being up there. I just love it!

Patch.com - So, you're upcoming performance at the McCallum Theatre is mostly new material?

Allen - I’m not doing oldies. I skirt them. I talk a little bit about my old act and it’s in there and it’s still me. It’s mostly new material.

Patch.com  - With so many life lessons behind you, what words of inspiration would you give to young people hoping for success in their lives?

Allen - Early on, I had a very bad stretch and what I did when I was in the worst stretch of my life, I would read books about people who were successful the way that I wanted to be successful.

If you’re lucky enough to find the biographies of the people you like, it sounds like a simple rule, you’ll find that many things are dissimilar but there are many things in there that you can do. Simple things that you can do that successful people have done when they faced adversity. Sometimes you’ll go, I can’t do that I don’t live in Hong Kong, but there are things that they did personally, spiritually or mentally that you can emulate.

Mostly, it gets down to simple rules. Focus is a very strong part of the human character, if you focus and follow through, and its these little things. Little things add up to huge things. It’s a matter of finding people who are successful and emulating them. Go to the library, get biographies, they’re tremendous! You’ll find that extraordinary people did very ordinary things to get where they are.

Patch.com - Thank you for the words of wisdom. 

Allen - You bet!