Myq Kaplan

Today I am interviewing Myq Kaplan, a comedian born in Livingston, NJ who has been doing comedy for six and a half years. To find out more about Myq, please visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started doing stand-up comedy because I wanted to be a singer-songwriter. Because my parents were both music teachers, I started playing the violin when I was 4 years old, which I wasn't really passionate about, but helped me teach myself guitar in high school, which I loved. I started writing songs, some funny, some not intended to be, and starting in college I began to look for places to perform my music, like on campus, at coffeehouses, open mics, bars, etc. One of the places that let me on stage was the Comedy Studio, an awesome club in the Boston area right near Harvard. The owner, Rick Jenkins, told me I could have seven minutes, and I figured I could play a couple of funny songs. I ended up going on right after Jonathan Katz, who also did some music, so it initially seemed pretty intimidating, but it went well. I believe Louis CK and Andy Blitz were also on that show, which seems ridiculous to me at this point that that was my first time on stage, sharing the bill with such talent. (I'm not sure how famous Louis was at the time, but Jonathan Katz definitely was known for his cartoon already.) But the club and the audiences there were and are just so great, and Rick had me back to do some songs every couple months or so. Eventually, I decided I wanted to do more than just play music, so I started writing some jokes and working them into my sets, and eventually decided to try and not need to use the guitar at all. I don't know exactly why my goal shifted from wanting to do music to wanting to do comedy, but I found out about a bunch of other comedy venues, open mics, and such, and the experiences were all so positive (or at least, I was so optimistic) that I just kept going. So, I guess I started doing stand-up because I couldn't find enough music venues to get my music career off the ground.

What is your secret to winning March Madness?

Since the judging was done mainly by audience reaction, I guess the secret was to make the audience like me enough to make the most noise. Or at least the people closest to the decibel reader on the stage. So, lots of jokes that people up front could relate to, like "Don't you hate it when a comedian talks to you when you're sitting up front at a comedy show? Am I right, people up front at this comedy show?" They love that.

I guess that doesn't seem like much of a secret--to make the audience like me? And in actuality, that's only part of it, because I'm certainly not just out to please audiences. I mean, I want to please audiences, but I want to do so by just being myself, telling the jokes and stories that I want to, and having people respond to that. So I guess the rest of the secret is to work hard, take every opportunity that exists to improve and learn, and just do as much comedy as possible. Which doesn't seem like much of a secret either.

Sincerely though, I've found that my style has served me well in a lot of contests or short-set environments. It's pretty fast-paced, so I can often get more punchlines in than some other acts. So, more punchlines, that's the secret! But obviously quality is certainly desirable alongside, or probably above quantity. So more punchlines, but also quality punchlines, or maybe just quality... And of course I would certainly never recommend that anyone alter their style for a contest like this, or for any comedic endeavor, so the secret is to be yourself. Which is also the secret to life. Maybe.

Honestly, contests can be so arbitrary that it's really impossible to analyze successfully. Going into this, there were 64 comedians and so many of them are talented, hard-working, funny people, and anything could have happened. So I guess my secret was to just do what I do, have a good time, and hope for the best. (But shh, don't tell anyone. It's a secret.)

What are your plans for the future?

My plans for the future are to continue to write and perform stand-up comedy, or any other opportunities that come along. I'm doing what I want to do, and I basically want to just keep doing it and more.Sorry if that's too short and vague. But that's me, I'm short and vague. I just want to be happy, and I'm not super particular about how I achieve it. If someone wants me to write for their TV show, I'd do that. If I don't have to wake up in the morning for a job and just go out at night to perform at colleges or any venues where people appreciate the comedy I'm doing, I'll do that. (Which is approximately what's happening now.)
So that's the future.

Unless you meant the more specific future, like what am I doing tomorrow or next week... In which case, I'll be performing later this month in Atlanta, next month at the AltCom Festival in Boston, and I'm also recording a CD at Comix in NYC on May 18. And I'll probably be doing other things also, which can likely be found on my website if I put them there. I'll also be writing in my blog. And being appreciative of folks for reading all of this, coming out to shows, and/or being good people. (Ideally all three.)