When Garrett Morris performed as one of the “Not Ready For Prime Time Players” on “Saturday Night Live”, the audience rarely noticed the range of his acting abilities.

“People who only saw me in ‘Saturday Night Live’ don’t realize I came to New York in 1958 and had a whole career,” He said. “They call me a comedian, but I never, ever claimed to be a comedian.”

Now, however, Morris has the opportunity to exhibit his comedic as well as his dramatic acting talents as Midge, the building maintenance superintendent, in Herb Gardner’s play “I’m Not Rappaport,” playing at the Briar Street Theatre (3133 North Halsted) through March.

“I’m Not Rappaport” focuses on the problems facing the elderly, particulary two octogenarians, Midge and Nat (played by Shelly Berman), and at the same time provides comic relief to the audience.

“I have never been unaware of how other people are treated,” Morris said. “It’s not a new subject to me.

“We don’t have a very comprehensive attitude toward older people. We don’t appreciate age the way we should.

“I’m trying to make sure the character has a certain amount of pride,” Morris said. “When you see him, you see a man who was proud of retaining a certain kind of mental and physical agility.”

Morris said the older people he appreciates are “the ones who are spry, who are walking around, talking, who are not slobbering every other time they open their mouth,” he said. “I am trying to assail the notion that because you’re 80, you must be decrepit, you must be bent over, you must not have an ounce of engery.”

Morris said he did not know the play was going to appear in Chicago and as a result he had one day’s notice before the audition. When he went to the audition, he did a cold reading (an audition that has no preparation) but still managed to receive the part.

If Morris has the time to prepare for a role, he said that he uses his own viewpoint. “It never occurs to me to relate to anybody else when I do anything on the stage. I simply do the role from my own original viewpoint,” Morris said. “If I am going to do a play, then I won’t go see someone else do it because I won’t relate to his portrayal.”

Morris was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was raised by his grandfather, who was a Baptist minister. After he earned a music degree at Dillard University in New Orleans, he decided to leave New Orleans and travel to New York. His grandmother, however, became upset and said, “I curse you. You will never succeed in anything you do.”

He went to New York anyway. “I was figuring, ‘Hey, I knocked out New Orleans, New York has to be next.’ I was still saying, ‘New York, I’m here!’ and there was a thud of silence.”

Morris said he brought his B.A. degree, a suitcase, “a pair of BVDs,” and $2 to New York. He spent the money on food and spent the nights on top of a housing project.

A black police officer warned him against staying there, but Morris persisted until a white police officer arrested him.

While he was in jail, Morris said, “I spent the whole weekend crying because I figured my grandmother’s curse would come true.”

Eventually, he held such jobs as an elevator operator and a door-to-door Fuller Brush salesman. One of the earliest singing opportunities he had was singing back-up for Harry Belafonte.

One medium of Morris’ occupation that the curse has not affected is his employment in television series. While on “Saturday Night Live,” he was remembered as Latin-American baseball player Chico “Baseball has been berry berry good to me” Escuela. “Basically, Brian Doyle Murray and I worked on that skit together,” Morris said.

Morris continued how Chico was not based upon a baseball player. “Pele, the soccer player, was the basic inspiration. I admired him a lot and was influenced by him while we were creating the character.”

He also appeared in the television series “Diff’rent Strokes,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and most recently on “Hunter.”

To keep himself excited and enthusiastic about his work, Morris devotes some of his time to exercises. “Personally, I try to keep myself attuned through certain day-to-day exercises that help me to have a certain self-esteem that allows me to enjoy my work,” Morris said. “I enjoy my work anyway, so I’m doing something I like to do.”