A priest, a rabbi and Dave Coulier walk into a club.

And they all have a good time.

No awkward moments, no red faces.

Now that is Coulier's kind of place. The comedian who played Joey on the TVshow "Full House" swears it's possible to bring good, clean comedy to the masses.

Or, rather, he doesn't swear.

Ever. At least not on stage.

He's created the CleanGuys of Comedy Tour, and one of its first stops is in Bismarck.

"We're just firing this up," Coulier said Tuesday from his home in the Los Angeles area. "We're promoting it as anyone can come and listen to this and walk away laughing. We've played some dates to test it out, and the response has been overwhelming."

Coulier and comedians Ryan Hamilton and Heath Hyche will perform two shows March 1 at the Belle Mehus Auditorium downtown.

He said this tour - not the 192 episodes of "Full House" or the four years hosting "America's Funniest People" on ABC - might be the pinnacle of his career.

"(They) were both top-20 shows that certainly brought me into the spotlight in front of America," Coulier said. "But Iwas a hired gun for those shows. I want to leave my mark in the comedy world. I wanted to create something that was really my concept from start to finish. This is so different from anything anybody else is doing. It's more exciting to me than everything else put together."

Coulier, 48, has been involved in some form of family-friendly programming for 30 years. His PG approach comes from his comedic upbringing, he said. When he was coming up the standup ranks, his goal was to get on Carson.

"If you wanted to get on 'The Tonight Show,' you had to do it clean," Coulier said. "I came up in the ranks with Leno, Seinfeld, Dennis Miller, Louis Anderson, Jim Carrey, Paul Reiser - this incredible group of comedians. They all worked clean.

"I think it's easier to be dirty on stage," he said. "But I also don't think it's hard to be clean because I don't come from being this really racy, blue comic who has to strip all that out to do this clean show."

In that respect, he's the polar opposite of his "Full House" co-star, Bob Saget. The two worked together from 1987 to 1995, and Coulier was even an usher in Saget's wedding. But while Coulier is known for his clean routine, Saget surprised a lot of "Full House"fans with his raunchy standup sets.

"I met Bob when I was a teenager working a club in Detroit," Coulier said. "He was doing The Comedy Store tour. He gave me his number and said when I moved out to L.A. to look him up. Iended up sleeping on his couch for a month. We've been friends a long, long time. But we're also yin and yang, two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to our choice of material."

Coulier has stuck to the high road, and said it's paid off. Years of positive reviews and a desire to leave his mark in the industry finally triggered the idea for the CleanGuys.

"People come up to me after a show and say either 'Thank you so much for doing a clean show,' or they say 'How come there aren't any shows on TV like 'Full House' anymore that I can sit down and watch with my kids?'" he said. "After hearing that a zillion times, it didn't take a genius to figure out that people appreciate good, clean humor and just weren't finding much of it out there."

So Coulier began looking for more ways to bring it to them. He started the CleanGuys.tv Web site in 2006, a compendium of filth-free comedy from around the Internet. The tour is an offshoot of that.

Coulier discovered Hamilton at a show in Missouri, and Hyche came recommended from the manager the two share.

"We're all very different from each other,"Coulier said. "My act is controlled weirdness. (I do) voices, stories, music, Iplay my harmonica. Heath Hyche is extremely visual. He does crazy routines to music and props. He's out-of-his-mind funny. Ryan Hamilton is very animated. He tells people he looks like Jerry and Elaine's illegitimate son."

Coulier, an avid hockey player, said he's not a prude. He's been known to spout some colorful language in the locker room.

"But there's a time and a place for it,"he said.

For him, that place isn't on stage. If there's any foul language in a bit?

Cut … it … out.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@bismarcktribune.com.)