Joe Zimmerman

Today I am interviewing Joe Zimmerman, a comedian born in Columbus, OH who has been doing comedy for exactly four years. To find out more about Joe, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

Throughout high school and college my friends thought of me as the funny friend more and more, to the point that strangers were coming up to me and saying things like, "I heard you're hilarious. Say something funny." Thinking back on it, I'm not sure what I was doing or saying that gave me that reputation, but whatever it was definitely doesn't correlate naturally with stand-up. For one thing, a very minuscule percentage of the crowds I work represent the same demographic as my college friends. Making different people laugh, from all walks of life, is much harder than making your college friends laugh. Anyway, I didn't know this at the time. I basically graduated college knowing that I didn't want to do a 9-5. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in something that required constant creativity and writing. So I googled "comedy" and that sent me to some booking agencies, and then I emailed some booking agents with questions, which of course, wasn't very helpful. I eventually learned from Google that you're supposed to start out at open mics, so I found an open mic in Charlotte, NC, and told some friends I was going to try it out. So three weeks before I did my first open mic, people were calling me a stand up comedian. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't tell a soul I did stand-up comedy until at least two years in.

What is your favorite city to perform in?

As far as where the good comedy scene is in my region, definitely Atlanta. There are shows every night of the week, and not just open mics - strong showcases with good crowds, and three full time clubs (I've been told it's on par with Boston, though I haven't been to Boston to compare myself). My favorite individual place is the Diana Wortham Theatre, in Asheville, NC where the Laugh Your Asheville Off festival is held.

What is the one thing you want people to know about you?

I guess I want people to know that I write all of my own material. I'm always amazed when someone comes up after a show and says, "So, do you write all your own stuff?" To me that's like asking the author of a novel if he wrote his novel. I don't get it, and I can't imagine enjoying doing the same material over and over again, knowing that someone else had written it. The best part of comedy, is creating it yourself, from your own unique point of view.