Dan Fogler, star of'Take Me Home Tonight'revisits old high school stomping grounds, theater

Dan Fogler, star of the new movie"Take Me Home Tonight,"sits in the top row of his high school theater, staring at the stage that spawned his successful acting career.

"Thank God for this beautiful theater,"says the 34-year-old comedian while perched atop the 380-seatRichard PerryTheatre at Poly Prep Country Day School inDyker Heights,Brooklyn.

"I wasn't the best student, and if it wasn't for this stage and the times when I was able to shine and show people that I was worthy of being here in some way, high school would have been much more lonely."

But shine Fogler did. After winning a Tony at the age of 27 for"The 25th AnnualPutnam CountySpelling Bee,"the Brooklyn-born funnyman jumped to the big screen in"Good Luck Chuck"and"Balls of Fury."His next film,"Mars Needs Moms,"opens Friday.

His newfound fame, however, hasn't distorted Fogler's fond high school memories.

"I graduated in 1994, and those were the grunge years,"he says."I was intoPearl JamandNirvana. I wouldn't say I was ahead of my time, but I was shaving pretty early and had all different kinds of facial hair. That was pretty cool, but it upset the guys who hadn't gone through puberty yet."

The bullies didn't like the new mature look, either.

"Once I went through puberty, I became the bullies' bully,"says Fogler, who now lives inBrooklyn Heights."I would see the guys who used to pick on me pick on the smaller guys and I would break up the fight. I tried to put the bullies in their place, but that has its own drawbacks because then they go and get their bully friends."

Fogler's teenage experiences influenced his portrayal ofBarry Nathan,Topher Grace's best friend in"Take Me Home Tonight."

"The dynamics in the movie were very similar to what I dealt with in high school,"he says."The whole thing felt like I was in 10th grade again with all the insecurities."

Of course, Fogler never swapped spit withAngie Everhartin high school as he does in the movie.

According to Fogler,"When I was younger, she was this hot supermodel who dated Stallone and all these action stars. She was an icon, and I'm suddenly making out with her in a bathroom. That was pretty awesome."

Unlike in the movie where Fogler's character attends a raging house party, there were very few keggers for the self-proclaimed theater nerd in high school.

"You heard about stuff like that, but I was never invited,"he says."I think jocks were having all those parties. Theater people would have our own house parties but nothing as intense as the movies. Less kegs and more wine coolers."

Not that he minds. He turned out just fine, thank you very much.

"This is where I honed my cajones,"says Fogler."In this theater, I found out that the only way I was going to survive was to keep on acting. Otherwise, I was going to be making little sculptures on the side of the road for people. So I went full throttle into acting, which saved me from a life of roadside sculpting."

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