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How
long have you been doing comedy?
I've been
performing, or at least attempting, stand-up and various other
forms of comedy since college. |
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What
was your first time like? |
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I
was scared and confused...
we're
talking about comedy
I know. There
was a contest on campus my freshman year at U.S.C. I found out
about it that afternoon from a girl handing out flyers, and for
some reason I really felt like I had to try it. I spent the evening
trying to write material and I came up with one joke. For the
other 4 minutes and 45 seconds I just mumbled a few half-formed
premises with no real direction.
Even though
it wasn't what anyone could categorize as a "good" set,
the one joke got a bit of a laugh and I already learned my first
lesson: in order to get laughs, you need to actually write punchlines.
I didn't try
again until the next year when the same contest came around, and
this time I found out about it a week in advance. I spent most
of that week writing and even trying the material out on my friends
in my apartment, and about half of it actually worked. |
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Have
you always done comedy with the guitar? |
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No.
For the first couple of years of going to open mics I did plain
old standup. At the open mics in L.A. at that time you could wait
4 to 5 hours for your 5-minute set, so there was a lot of time
to kill and I started bringing my guitar with me to pass the time.
I would screw around playing songs with the other comics in the
parking lot and they eventually suggested I try some guitar stuff
on stage. Since I'd played music most of my life it seemed like
a natural combination, and it definitely helped me distinguish
myself.
There were
also a lot of open mics at cafes and such where there were poets,
musicians and performance artists along with standups, and I liked
taking my guitar to those places because the audience would actually
listen to a musician more than a comedian. You know young artsy
kids, they think they're above people trying to be funny. |
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What's
the farthest you've ever traveled for a show? |
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Afghanistan |
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Who
are your comedy influences? |
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Bob
Newhart, Johnny Carson, Jack Benny, The Simpsons...
This is always
a tough one because I never consciously try to emulate anyone,
though I'm sure bits of other people have worked their way into
my style. I think the best influences are people whose art gets
into your head and changes your outlook on the world, the people
that inspire you; not because you want to perform the way they
do but because they make you want to dig down and bring out something
pure and real and amazing.
The first
comedians I remember liking were Steve Martin and Bill Cosby.
I also really liked The Honeymooners when I was a kid. It would
always be on around 10 or 10:30 at night and in the summer when
there was no school and I could stay up later I would watch The
Honeymooners and Johnny Carson's monologue.
As for Jack
Benny, he's from my hometown of Waukegan, Illinois, and I'd always
heard about him growing up. We even have a middle school named
in his honor. I knew that he was a huge t.v. and radio star in
his day and since he came from the same place as I did I knew
it was possible to succeed in show business even though it was
pretty obvious Lake County wasn't the nexus of the entertainment
industry.
Now that I've
actually seen some of his shows I think he's hilarious. It's amazing
how shows like his or the Dick Van Dyke show hold up and can still
be funny so many years later. It's something to shoot for. |
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Do
your parents lie awake at night cursing the day you decided to
become a comedian? |
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Not
as far as I know. My dad was really supportive of me and my sisters
pursuing artistic and creative fields. Even though he was a public
schoolteacher and local politician, his biggest love was acting
and theater. He studied method acting with Bobby Lewis in New
York while getting his masters at Montclair College in New Jersey
and he performed in community theater when he could. When I was
in Chicago and performing at the Improv he would always come to
see shows and bring a group of friends.
My mom doesn't
seem to mind either. She lives in Texas and I think as long as
I can land enough road gigs in the area so I can stop in and visit,
it's a fine career. But for parents and relatives in general the
best thing to do is to get a t.v. credit or two. Something tangible
they can tell their friends about to validate the career in their
eyes. It doesn't matter if it's as a low-paid extra on Conan,
as long as the family can say, "oh yeah, he's been on t.v."
they'll give you some leeway.
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What
did you study in school? |
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I
got a degree in creative writing at the University of Southern
California in beautiful downtown Los Angeles. The head of the
department was author T.C. Boyle, who was amazing, and the rest
of the faculty there was really great too. I concentrated on short
fiction and my senior project was a collection of short stories.
I also studied a little jazz bass, philosophy and screenwriting.
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What
is your ultimate goal? |
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Believe
it or not, this is a frequently asked question. I get
it from interviewers, friends, people who give me rides to the
airport, strangers who sit next to me on planes.
The 'ultimate'
as in 'above all other' goal is to be able to put out good work
throughout my life.
As that relates
to comedy it can take different forms. I hope to work more in
television and film, I'd like to produce some of the scripts that
I've written, And I would love to be involved in a high-quality
sit-com. I realize that sit-coms are supposed to be beneath true
artists, but I think a great sitcom is an amazing piece of work.
So I don't want to be on one just to be on one, there are enough
bad ones out there, but if there were a great one I could be a
part of, I wouldn't care if I played the janitor and was only
on twice a season.
And I still
love performing live. I enjoy traveling throughout the country
and world and meeting different people, and being on stage is
a great feeling so I hope that that can be part of my career throughout
my life as well.
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