Under the “About Me” section on Jeff Dye’s MySpace profile, the last sentence says, “Looks like class clown can be a career!”

Dye, a 2001 Kentwood High School graduate, recently made major strides in efforts to go from class clown to comedian by landing in the top five on season six of NBC’s reality competition television series “Last Comic Standing.”

Though Dye didn’t win – he made it to the final three during the season finale Aug. 7 – the appearance on the show has done a great deal for his career, and his family in Covington is thrilled.

There was a time, though, that his mother, Judy Dye, worried her youngest child’s inherent talent may get him in trouble rather than develop into a career.

“Each year it got more significant and the teachers were saying, ‘You’ve got to calm him down. He’s not going with the flow,’” Judy said. “He was just a cut-up and a ham, but his (Kentwood) drama teacher loved him.”

During a play once in high school, Judy said, Dye stole the show when he played a puppy but slide across the stage in his socks and dog costume.

“When you see him on stage, it’s not an act, that’s him,” Judy said. “It just comes to him. He writes all his own stuff.”

While Dye was attending Green River Community College, his mom said, some close friends told him that he shouldn’t go to college just because that’s what he thought he was supposed to do, but to find something he was passionate about and go for it.

So, he decided to try his hand at standup comedy, and he’s been plying his craft for about three years now.

“The first thought was, ‘Oh, no.’ You know how many people want to be stars and how few people actually make it,” Judy Dye said. “But we said, ‘Jeff, if that’s what you want to, then give it 100 percent and go for it.”

Dye, who couldn’t be reached for comment after his recent TV exploits, wasn’t trying to get onto “Last Comic Standing.” The show held open auditions internationally in some 20 countries. In addition, host Bill Bellamy traveled to eight cities, including Seattle, to handpick comics from local clubs.

“He was found,” Judy said. “He didn’t audition.”

Bellamy spotted Dye while he was doing a set at the Comedy Underground in Seattle and surprised him at the end. This was the first time producers chose comics this way, and Judy Dye said not much was mentioned about this selection process during the show’s airing from May 22 to Aug. 7.

Jeff had been planning to move Los Angeles at the start of this year because he thought, his mother explained, that would be the best way for him to grow his comedy career. His parents persuaded him to stick around a couple months longer, just long enough to be found by Bellamy at a club just 45 minutes from where he grew up.

Dye, 25, moved to LA in March, which has worked out well since the final episodes of “Last Comic Standing” were taped in Las Vegas, Nev.

Sometimes his mom worries a little bit about him now that he’s gotten a taste of fame, but, she thinks he’ll be able to handle it.

“We’re a really close family and we’re keeping in touch,” she said. “Jeff is just Jeff, and nothing has changed.”

Earlier this year, he was home for his older sister’s wedding, Judy said. The family was out at a restaurant and he was cracking jokes. The waitress called him a “funny guy,” and Judy said she started to ask if the server had seen “Last Comic Standing.” But he stopped her because he didn’t want to make a big deal about it, she related.

Still, even if he doesn’t want to brag, Dye has been able to make the leap from class clown to successful comic thanks in large part to his participation in Last Comic Standing.

“Ever since he’s been in the final five, he gets to go on the road show, and that’s solid booking for five months,” Judy Dye said. “He’s already gotten all kinds of contacts and exposure just doing what he’s done so far.”

Dye will be performing this weekend at Giggles Comedy Club in Seattle, then is scheduled to embark on the “Last Comic Standing Live” tour on Aug. 29 and will be on that tour through the end of next January, according to his MySpace profile at www.myspace.com/jditty.

Staff writer Kris Hill can be reached at (425) 432-1209 (extension 5054) and khill@reporternewspapers.com