He’s Serious About Comedy, Running : Marathon: Former UCI track standout Sean Evans is aiming for 1996 U.S. Olympic team and a career in show business.

IRVINE — As a high school sophomore, Sean Evans used to stare at the school record board and think: “OK, what do I have to do to get there?”

The mission, in Evans’ mind, was to break the most famous school record at San Diego’s Patrick Henry High: Thom Hunt’s 8-minute 42.5-second mark in the two-mile, still the seventh-fastest high school two miles in U.S. history.

Nearly 15 years later, Evans, a former track and cross-country standout at UC Irvine, is asking himself the same question. Now, though, it has less to do with track than laughs.

Evans, 30, is a professional comedian. Or at least he’s trying to be. He performs occasionally at area comedy clubs. He has sold jokes to Jay Leno. But his aspirations are much higher.

“I look at someone like Leno,” Evans says, “And I say, ‘What do I have to do to be at that level?’ ”

Although Evans never reached his goal of breaking Hunt’s two-mile record--he ran 9:00 to place fifth at the State meet as a senior--he learned a thing or two about the importance of hard work and making the most of your opportunities.

“The difference is, running is so cut and dried,” Evans said. “Comedy’s so delicate. In running, you either work hard or you don’t improve. Everybody agrees to meet on this day at this time and--boom--you race. In comedy, it’s a lot of right-place-at-the-right-time kind of thing.”

Evans isn’t the only former Irvine athlete to try his humor on the world. Tom Martin, a former Anteater steeplechase standout, and Jim Hope, a former rower, both are gaining in popularity on the local comedy club circuit.

But Evans hasn’t given up on athletics, either. After a successful college career--he won the State 10,000-meter final while at Grossmont College in 1982, and was voted team captain and most valuable during his senior year at Irvine--Evans took a couple years off. Now he’s starting to train seriously again.

“I told myself years ago when I’m no longer improving, I’d walk away from it,” Evans said. “It’s been over two years now since I’ve raced, and I’m feeling hungrier now. Plus, it’s a good time to train for ’96.”

Although Evans is miles from marathon form--he’s averaging only five miles a day--he says he’s aiming for a spot on the 1996 U.S. Olympic marathon team.

The marathon in America, Evans says, is in a lull. He figures, with a smart and steady training plan, his chances to make the team are as good as almost anyone’s.

“I’d like to run in the ’96 trials, just to say I did it. But I also want to do some damage,” Evans said. “Every year you ask yourself that question--’How good can I be?’ I look at it like you should at least capitalize on your talent. You don’t want to look back and say, ‘I wonder if . . . ‘

“But there’s no room for the uncommitted. I don’t want to be a guy who’s going to go out and run a 2:20 marathon. A 2:14? Yes. But why go out and run 70 miles a week if you’re just going to run 2:20?”

His expectations for a career in comedy are a bit more modest. Evans only started writing and performing 1 1/2 years ago. He knows it takes time. Still, he says, he can’t help but want to be a success now.

“It’s like when you were first starting to run in high school,” Evans said. “It’s all new and exciting. You’re improving every day. And even though you know you’re going to get better and better, you wonder: ‘How can I get to that point today ?’ ”

Writing for Leno certainly can’t hurt. Though the way Evans first contacted Leno might have.

“I got his fax number from somebody and sent him some jokes,” Evans says. “A couple hours later I get this call: ‘Is Sean there?’ I said yes, and he goes, ‘Jay Leno here.’

“I’m going, yeah, right, who’s (joking with) me. But he goes--in his Jay Leno voice--’I got the jokes you sent me.’ Then I knew it was him. I was nervous. I’m like, ‘So, uh, what did you think?’ He goes, ‘Well, you know, they’re all right, but . . . who are you?’

“Turns out I sent the jokes to his home fax. He was like, ‘Uh, could you just call my agent next time?’ Anyway, he told me he couldn’t use them because he has no way of knowing if I stole them or heard them on TV or if they were used in Florida last night or what. But he was super nice about it.”

After signing a waiver, Evans eventually received a contract from NBC. He says he has sold “about eight” jokes to Leno.

Besides the thrill of hearing Leno give life to his material--”I have videos of him telling each joke,” he says--Evans receives $50 per.

Fifty bucks? From such a well-paid comedian?

Says Evans: “It’s not like I can call him up and say, ‘You know, Jay, I’ve been thinking about this and I want 70.’

“Anyway, it’s not the money that matters. It’s that every time I fax him something he sees ‘Sean Evans’ on it.”

And although the jokes that Evans has written for Leno are written specifically for Leno’s style, Evans’ own performances are usually based on quirky observations.

“You know those bumper stickers you always see that say, ‘Live Better, Work Union’ ?” Evans says. “Why is it you never see those on nice cars?”

Evans says he hopes some day to become one of the staff writers for “The Tonight Show.” If not that, maybe a role in a sitcom. Anything, Evans says, to make a living in show business.

“Either way, I know the important thing is to be myself--and be persistent,” Evans said. “It’s like with running. Stick with it (and) sooner or later you’re going to break through.”