Submitted Photo/Patrice Oneal

If you have a television, you’ve probably seen Patrice Oneal. He has had guest appearances on “The Office” and “Chappelle’s Show.”

He has been on several VH1 specials including “Web Junk 20,” a show he hosted for two seasons. He has even dropped in on Fox News’s “Hannity and Colmes” a few times.

But tonight he won’t be in front of a camera. He’ll be in front of a microphone doing what he loves.

Oneal will be doing five shows at the Improv Comedy Club in Kansas City this weekend, including two shows tonight at 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

For Oneal, getting back to stand-up comedy has been a way to better himself.

“I re-discovered stand-up, and I just decided I wanted to ride my own horse. I wanted to do something significant to my own soul,” Oneal says. “You know, hosting “Web Junk” didn’t make me relevant. I would just come on and be like ‘here’s a video of a Japanese guy getting kicked in the balls.’”

The comedian, who hails from the Boston area, is very much enjoying touring the country and doing stand-up. He is especially enjoying himself after he found that being in movies and television was tedious and often unrewarding.

“You see, ‘The Office’ was an opportunity for me to get my big toe in the door. All of those shows were. But you put in 12 to 15 hours of work a day, and you’re on (the show) for like two seconds. TV is a means to an end, and it’s horrifying if you’re not the star,” Oneal explains. “On the other hand, doing live comedy is a beautiful process. At the end of the night, I know I gave you a piece of me.”

During his act, Oneal talks mostly about three topics: religion, race and gender. He discusses how people generally relate and how cultures are different. And he lets the women in the audience know a little more about their male counterparts.

“I talk about men and inform women on how men feel,” he says. “No one cares about a man’s feelings. So I try to let women in the Oprah world and the Ellen DeGeneres world know that this is how we feel.”

His material is sometimes confrontational. Oneal, however, likes it that way. While he wants his audiences to have a great bond with him and be on the same wavelength, he also wants people to have an antagonistic experience. If that means a few people don’t laugh when the rest of the audience is in stitches, so be it.

“I like some people not to be laughing. I want what I’m saying to mean something to them, and I know it did if that person feels like ‘I’m not laughing because that is a topic that touches me and I don’t like it.’ Basically, anyone who thinks I’m not funny just hates me,” he laughs.

Discussing social aspects of life in an occasionally confrontational manner is a page out of the book of his idols. Oneal has only two people he considers influences in comedy: the late George Carlin and Richard Pryor. To Oneal, they were so much more than just comedians.

“I would love to go out with just half of the significance of Carlin or Pryor. They weren’t just funny guys, they were social commentators,” he says. “You know, Carlin, he gave more than enough. They both gave more than they really had to. They were the best, man, and now they’re both gone.”

They also approached comedy with passion and seriousness, something to which Oneal aspires.

“I love this game. I have nothing else. I’ve had 40 jobs in my life and never committed to one. I’m diabetic, but I still don’t eat the right food. You know, this is what I’m committed to,” Oneal says. “This is the job I have.”

After tonight, you can see Oneal at work three more times. There are two shows Saturday at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m., and one show at 7 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call the Improv Comedy Club at (816) 587-4500.