Jeff Lawrence

Today I am interviewing Jeff Lawrence, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for over two years. To find out more about Jeff, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I had spent years rapped up as a depressed pothead, drug addict and drug dealer. I was always too paranoid to do stand up so I sang in a Rock band for many years. I also did some acting but could never remember my lines. I had the good fortune of touring internationally and dabbling in music comedy in the early 90's by accident. I was taking requests at a gig in Greece and someone yelled out "Bohemian Rhapsody"! It was just me and my acoustic guitar. So I put the guitar down and did an acapella trading off lines with the audience.....it was a riot. That is when I whet my appetite for making people laugh. When I got sober, 2 and a half years ago I decided to devote the rest of my life to stand up. I figure if everyone around me is laughing I'll probably be OK. That is why I produce shows as well, it gives me great satisfaction to see a crowd laugh all night long, not just at my set.

I wanted to talk about my life, and be open about my sexuality which I wasn't when I was in Rock and Roll. I wanted to make a difference and show people that we're all alike....even though we're not it makes for a decent act. I never really felt as a gay man I fit into gay culture. Hell, I'm a sports fanatic, an ex sportswriter, I despise Madonna, and Sunday it's J-E-T-S.... NOT E-G-G-S Benedict! And I know I'm not alone. Sometimes gay crowds don't care for me but there's always guys that will come up to me and say they totally relate. It was stand up comedy or politics for me. I went to NYU and had a work study job with this really cynical guy. We shared the same desk. We had a lot of laughs...I went into Rock and Roll, he went into comedy. His name was Dave Attell. I always thought I could do that too!

Do you have any tips or tricks for writing or performing you could share?

Well, having done stand up for a little over two years, i don't want to offer too much advice. It is a craft of experience. All the comics I know doing this for 5 to 10 years can generate more consistent laughs than most comics who are fairly new. It takes a long time to develop "A" material that is going to get a crowd going each night. But I am definitely more of an autobiographical comic and I think when comics really reveal themselves through their work and take risks I relate more. I write all the time, and have weekly writer's groups at my place downtown. I had trouble meeting people who want to write together, and couldn't afford the high price of comedy schools so I started my own group and it has been awesome! I think comics should write all the time and always be pushing themselves for bigger and better laughs.

I think it's really important to be out there in the clubs and know what other comics are doing. I can't tell you how many times I hear a comic do a joke that gets a laugh and I have to tell them that they are the 5th comic I've heard do the same joke. It is so important to be original. That's why I write about my life. No one else is going to talk about my 400 pound coke dealer in Bed Stuy named Pumpkin other than me! I also like to write really short setups, 2 or 3 lines max. I find many comics, especially new ones can get to their punches much sooner. It took me a long time, and of course I'm still a work in progress, to find the essence of every joke with an economy of words. And every time I look at my jokes on paper there are almost always words that can be cut. Someone once taught me "show...don't tell". So I go for a lot of act outs and facial expressions and try and cut words when possible.

On performing, I always try to remember it's not about me. The audience paid their money and a lot of it, and I just want to make them laugh. And that's the hard part...to not come across that I'm desperate for their laughs even though I am. When I bomb I only feel bad that I couldn't get through to that particular audience for whatever reason. It's not an ego thing, bombing is part of the business. ALL of my pro comic friends that have National TV credits tell me they bomb all the time. Bombing is essential to learning, and if you don't bomb, you're probably playing it safe!

I have a joke about the Catholic Church making people gay. Half the time it sucks the life out of the crowd and the other half of the time I get an applause break...go figure! But I've learn to save it and have fun with it, and that not every crowd is going to be fans of mine. An audience loves when you are having fun. That's the trick to performing, love it, do it a lot and build your fans one by one. If just one person approaches you after a show and says "you were great", the show was a success in my book. Get a number or e-mail addy and let em know where you will be.

What is the worst question you have ever been asked?

I finished a show in Midtown and this guy followed me out of the club and said to me on the street "you're not really gay are you"? I thought "dude I'm not that smart of a comic to fabricate an entire life story, turn it into a persona, memorize it, and convince an audience of my lies night in and night out.....am I?"

Kyle Fincham

Today I am interviewing Kyle Fincham, a comedian born in Long Beach, CA who has been doing comedy for over five years. To find out more about Kyle, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

While in high school I competed in Speech and Debate, specifically Humorous Interpretation. I think that was my initial gateway into comedy. I started doing stand-up while I was in college. I was studying theater at UCLA. Not long after starting school I found a small improv theater in Westwood and started taking classes and performing on their "College Team". Sometime after Christmas break there was a stand-up show on campus. A buddy told me his friend organized it and that we should check it out. I was inspired. There were four or five comics on the show. They were all Comedy Store regulars, and have since gone on to make numerous TV appearances. The idea of being on stage alone seemed like a lot more fun than depending on other people in improv. It was also more powerful, aggressive. I remember sitting there thinking that this was the most impressive form of performance I'd ever seen. Immediately after the show I was introduced to the student who'd organized, and also hosted, the show. I told him I wanted to do this, and asked where I could get on stage. He ran an open mic. So, just days later I was buying a coffee to cover my five minutes on stage.

What is the worst job you ever had and did it have any effect on your comedy?

I've had so many jobs. Its difficult to think of the worst. The best are easy to think of, but the worst is hard to pinpoint. There were bad parts to all of them. The last two years may have been psychologically the worst. I worked construction and maintenance with people who only spoke Spanish for the most part. Being surrounded by people who speak a different language for that many hours a day, week, year created a sense of solitude. I learned being alone in your head for that long is unhealthy. You can go from happy to sad to angry without one word being said to you. Having that much time to think caused me to dwell and fixate on many aspect of my life and personality. I hated being there so much I became obsessed with getting onstage to better my life. I was getting onstage almost every night until 2:00am, and I had to be at work at 9:00am. I wasn't getting much sleep. My band got wound tight and I developed a short fuse. It may not have been the worst job in terms of the actual work, but the situation may have been the worst on my brain.

Anyway, all those emotions and thoughts I dealt with during that time certainly transcended into my comedy. Sometimes it was good, and sometimes it was very bad. Sometimes the mix of emotions fed my comedy. I often got a lot of emotional truth in the things I was saying. It was bad when the anger and resentment bled into my act.

How do you deal with the fear of someone stealing your material?

I use to worry about someone stealing my material. No one has stolen any of my material, that I'm aware of. It makes me feel like I haven't written anything worth stealing yet. At the moment I don't worry about it. Frankly, the idea of having stuff stolen sounds good. It would force me to work harder on new stuff. I'm sure I'd be a little bummed, but it isn't worth crying about. The kick in the ass to make up for the lost time might help me. I also believe it is less about material and more about persona. Someone can steal my words, but they can't steal me.

Brandon Greenspan

Today I am interviewing Brandon Greenspan, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for four years. To find out more about Brandon, visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I'm not exactly sure why I started stand-up. I always had an interest in it, and had a few jokes in mind (bad ones). During the summer of 2005, I was taking an improv class at Second City. One night, a few of us went to a comedy club for an open mic night and they peer-pressured me to get on stage. I wasn't great, but didn't bomb either... However, I absolutely loved doing it and now continue to do so.

Do you save your best jokes for the beginning, middle or the end and why?

I guess if I had to choose, I save my best jokes for last. I actually like to switch up my material every week, but I usually only have a few jokes that I would consider closing with. I suppose that I do it because I like to leave people on a good note, but then again, if I don't do well, it doesn't matter how brilliant my closing may be.

Have you ever reached a low point in your comedy career and how did you deal?

If I had to pick any low point in my comedy career, I might say it is right now. I'm at the point where I am still doing bringer shows and barking when I feel that I am ready to be booked. Now by no means am I saying that I deserve a Comedy Central special (I don't), but I wish that I could actually be booked for a club without having to stand in the rain for 3 hours promoting it. I am getting through this by trying to figure out who my true friends and fans are. I need to figure out who is trying to get me to the next level and who is just going to keep me at this level just so they could make a quick buck (most producers of bringer and barker shows).

Ian Jensen

Today I am interviewing Ian Jensen, a comedian born in Washington State who has been doing comedy for seven years. To find out more about Ian, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I performed in plays during Jr high and High school. I was the comic relief character or the "dork". This was the only way teachers could help me relieve my bad behavior aside from the detentions office, which I appeared regularly - a detention favorite! College was different because there was alcohol and other sheltered students experiencing freedom for the first time. That's how fraternities are born. We started ours from scratch. Since it was in Hawaii it wasn't filled with the typical all white athlete/rapists but a lot of really cool guys that wanted to have fun. That helped me stay in college for 5 years taking lower level credits, not getting a degree, and really super cool police record. I wasn't interested in anything specific at college. I tried taking acting classes but acting seemed like a worthless degree and the professor was a pompous ass. What a surprise, a professor being a pompous ass.

I moved to Oregon and tried computer animation at University of Oregon, thinking that would be a sidestep into movies. The admissions office told me I had to stay out of school for a year to get residency. So I dropped out. After working at an all you can eat pizza buffet in Eugene for 9 months I got impatient and moved to Portland. I was able to find an animation house and started working on some projects as an "intern". The animation thing was a lot like comedy in New York - not getting paid for endless hours of work that doesn't amount to much. I got to work on a theater trailer that was in Regal cinema's. It was a film strip that you rode on like a train and candy would fly around so you would by popcorn and crap. It was actually less cheesy than the stuff I see now.

A little before I left Portland I was riding on a bus thinking about what I need to do with my life. The only thing I do regularly is think of funny things like jokes, characters, situational stuff. I tried doing a set at a middle eastern restaurant called Zorba's(?). It was fun and I did well. The producer there was pretty cool and the comics were nice. A few months later I moved to San Francisco to try and get closer to comedy. So in short, I couldn't figure out anything else to do with my life.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

I would say the first time I performed in San Francisco was my real first time. I went to a small coffee shop, really excited and friendly so I was doomed from the start. It was my turn to do a set. After saying some "jokes" I took my clothes off, stuck my underwear in my buttcrack and ran around like a monkey. I even went into the street to enhance the "edginess" of this genius idea I thought would SLAUGHTER in a coffee shop filled with 9 comics and a barista. When I came back I put my clothes on and since I was the last comic all the comedians started filing out of the room like brain dead drug addicts at an AA meeting. They didn't share my excitement. I was looking at them with this "desperately seeking approval" look on my face. Like they were going to all stand up and applaud like my mother. Then tell me what a good boy I am. One guy said, "oh yeah, funny" because he knew what the rest of my life was going to be like. It was sad, painful and awesome.

What is the meaning of life?

Shit I don't know. Don't kill yourself.

Phil Murphy

Today I am interviewing Phil Murphy, a comedian born in Danbury, CT who has been doing comedy for two and a half years. To find out more about Phil, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I moved to NYC in 2005 after college to be an actor even though I never had any acting experience. I think saying that you want to be an actor is pretty much code for "I don't know what I want to do." After a couple years of acting classes I was getting bored with it and i felt like I had to get out and do something related to performing as well as get comfortable being in front of people other than my fellow acting students. I figured comedy would be fun because I always made my friends laugh and appreciated comedy, so I took some improv classes and started going to comedy open mics but at first I was only doing it to complement my acting class. I knew nothing about stand up comedy or joke writing and never imagined myself being a comedian but I really started enjoying it more than the acting and improv and found myself getting pretty good at it so I ditched the acting and the improv and just focused solely on stand up. I think what I loved and will always love about stand up is that it is just you up there. No scene partners or fellow actors. I have yet to find something more rewarding than the feeling of being on a stage By Yourself making a room full of people laugh.

What do you think about the future of stand-up comedy?

I really like how stand up is starting to work its way out of the comedy clubs. For example, the Bonnaroo Music Festival which is a big jam band festival in Tennessee now has a comedy tent and the lineups seem to be growing. Not to mention all the other music festivals which are incorporating stand up into their lineups. I think that is great and I think the future of stand up comedy exists outside of the comedy clubs. Not that I dislike comedy clubs, but I feel like the most popular shows, esp. in NYC are in bars, cafes, bookstores, etc. Its awesome. Now if only we could find a way to get those types of shows to pay.

What is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is to not think too hard when trying to answer the question "What is the meaning of life?"

Ahmed Bharoocha

Today I am interviewing Ahmed Bharoocha, a comedian born in Santa Barbara, CA who has been doing comedy for about five years. To find out more about Ahmed, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I always watched stand up as a kid and thought it was the coolest profession. I love laughing and making other people laugh. The most impressive thing about stand up to me was that it was one guy, by himself with nothing besides a mic. No sets, no props (or at least the comics I liked) , no costumes, no one else to help, and yet he can make a room filled with people laugh for over an hour. Also I've always wanted people to like me and its hard not to like someone when they are making you laugh. The older I got the more I became interested in stand up, The writing, the performance, and how much work that actually goes into it. Now I almost see comics as funny philosophers, and I love looking at life and thinking about it in a different light.

Is there anything you won't make fun of?

I am usually pretty clean, but there is anything that I am absolutely against talking about on stage. I think pretty much everything can be funny as long as you approach it right. I'm not really a fan of saying things just to be dirty or offensive but if its necessary to the joke say what ever you want. If something happens in life then there is probably something funny about it, and there's probably a crowd that wants to laugh about it. But while I'm on stage I'd rather make people laugh than groan or cringe, so I tend to clean it up. Sometimes I think it distract from the joke as well. But other times the word fuck, or talking about abortion is just necessary to make your point on a certain joke, and in that case say it. I guess I just never say something for pure shock value. Another reason I like to be clean is because I listened to stand up at a young age and it would for some kid to listen to my stand up and think of me the way I thought of the comics I grew up admiring.

Who are your favorite comedians and why?

I have a very ling list of comics I look up to. I love any comic who is original and are themselves. I love Bill Cosby because he's just naturally funny it seems effortless with him. He just make me feel good, and his stories are perfect. Richard Prior because he could make anything funny, I love his voice, his act outs, the way he looked, his personalty, the fact that he would talk about dark personal things about himself. I think Richard Prior is stand up comedy to me. Bob Newheart because of his dry wit and his stammer. Newheart can make you laugh about the things that he doesn't say, like he does a lot of one side of a conversations and you never hear what the other person says and yet its sometimes what the other person is saying is the punchline. And his stammer is perfectly placed in every joke, he pauses at the right time and always lets your brain think of the joke. To me its like when in scary movies when they don't shot the monster its always scarier because your imagination can scare you much more than and cheezy costume. Chris Rock because he is not only funny but he makes brilliant points with every joke. And his transitions are seamless. Dave Chappelle because he's just funny, smart and a natural, I think like Prior he just is stand up comedy. Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg because of thier simple brilaince. The list goes on and on, David Cross, Todd Barry, Louis CK, Sienfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Demitri Martin, Zack Galifinakas, Dave Attell, Patton Oswalt, too many to name.

Adam Nagin

Today I am interviewing Adam Nagin, a comedian born in Queens, NY who has been doing comedy for about a year. To find out more about Adam, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started doing comedy for the the same reason you’ve decided to interview me this week, my brother. I am the other Nagin!

What do you love and hate about stand-up comedy?

LOVE: Post-show coitus. Expressing myself, especially when I don’t have anything particularly important to say. Maui Taco because it is the only fast food joint I’ve gone to 200 times and never had a meal. Comedy also has bestowed upon me a super-human social confidence that is invisible to the naked eye.

HATE: Hate is such a strong word, which is why I definitely think that its usage is appropriate here. I hate myself for not being better than I am, or able to do the kind of stuff that pleases other people. I’ve also discovered that the learning curve for comedy is steeper than the Bahrainian foothills. Coming up with good analogies is also rather difficult, but I won’t stop believin’. As a side note, gratuitous references piss me off in a major way, but do not rise to the level of hatred. Midgets anger me for the false pretense of hilarity that they inspire in other comedians generally. I hate hipsters, but this really has nothing to do with comedy. I hate the fire-breathing oriental woman who pretends to manage Maui Taco in an efficient and businesslike manner. It gets discouraging just doing mics all the time, and I hate that people don’t deem me worthy of real shows, but the other Nagin will one day rise again, but for the first time!

Is there anything you won't make fun of?

A comedian must carry himself with dignity and poise at all times. The ordinary rules of social interaction apply to comedians more than people think.

Matt Nagin

Today I am interviewing Matt Nagin, a comedian born in Queens, NY who has been doing comedy for four years. To find out more about Matt, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I took a number of fiction writing classes and was surprised to learn, upon reading some of my work to my classmates, that it often got laughs. This inspired me to get involved in an improvisational comedy group. We performed a show one afternoon that got a great response. That very same evening I decided to go to an open mike at The World Famous Sal's Comedy Hole. Not only did my routine not get a single laugh, it literally could have been recorded and sold as a meditation CD at Barnes and Nobles. Still, I was hooked, somehow, and, after that, never looked back.

Did performing stand-up change you and how?

Yes, stand-up changed me because it gave me an outlet to express various aspects of my personality that would otherwise have remained in a severe, life-threatening coma. For example, the first time I stepped onto stage I did a routine where my elbow went in for a job as a substitute teacher. Now, this routine, as hinted at above, was far from funny. The audience, frankly, had no idea that I was delivering a routine in Standard American English. But, by performing over time, I learned to take that unique vision and structure it in such a way as to seem at least moderately comprehensible. This, really, is what I still struggle with: finding my unique voice, but not at the expense of losing the audience. It's a delicate balancing act, and, really, I think, one that I have no doubt may take me another millennium or so to perfect.

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

I'm actually one of the few comics who enjoys writing more than performing. Currently, I am very close to completing a novel that I have been writing, on and off, for close to eight years. This I don't tend to talk about with other comics because they often look at you when you tell them this as if you're some weird creature who's being housed, for a time, in The Bronx Zoo. Anyway, I'm having fun with it and, I think that, in the end, is most important.

Ben Rosenfeld

Today I am interviewing Ben Rosenfeld, a NYC-based comic (soon to be LA) who was born in Leningrad, Russia but considers Stamford, CT his hometown. Ben has been doing comedy for one year. To find out more about Ben, visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I think the better question is "Why didn't you start doing stand-up comedy sooner?" Not only have I always insisted on being the center of attention and making anyone within earshot laugh, but my best friend from college, Jay Schultz, is a stand up comedian and I've been his (useless) manager since 2003. (I think Jay has better stage presence than me, but he's currently focusing on other pursuits. You can see Jay's clip here.)

Anyway, last year, I was in Philadelphia every Monday to Thursday for my day job and Jay was in Atlantic City so I decided to be a halfway useful manager (for a change) and proceeded to investigate the comedy scene in Philly for Jay. After watching open mics for two weeks, I decided "I could write this shit". So I returned to the hotel and typed a page and a half of jokes while buzzed. I emailed my jokes to Jay who said, half jokingly, "this is funny enough, you should try it out", so I thought, "why not?"

I spent another week rewriting the jokes, showing it to other friends and trying my best to memorize it, and then I popped my stand up cherry. I was nervous as hell and don't remember being on stage (luckily I taped it, so when I get my HBO special in ten to twelve years, I'll be able to document how far I've come).

Between the adrenaline rush and having everyone's attention on me, I was instantly hooked. (It helped that I got some pity laughs from the audience.)

The great part about being a comic instead of a manager is it's much easier to hound yourself to write new material and get on stage then to get someone else to do it.

When was the last time you bombed and how did you deal?

I thought I bombed at an 8:30 comedy show a few Friday's ago. I was the first comic up after the host for a small crowd and didn't think I was getting any laughs. I obsessed over what I could've done better / different to the point where it interfered with my 10:30 performance. Usually, I'm able to let it go quickly but I kept trying to figure out what happened while grabbing a few drinks at the bar after the show. Of course, when I watched the video tape the next day, it wasn't that bad.

A funny thing happens when you tape all your sets, you realize your subjective experience while in the moment on stage isn't an accurate representation of how well or poorly you did for that show. I mean, if you do really well or really terrible you know, but the 80% of sets that fall between those two extremes can get misinterpreted while in the moment.

To give a more general answer, when I don't do as well as I would've liked, I tell myself that "it's never as good as you think, and it's never as bad as you think". Then I remind myself that I shouldn't judge the set until I see it on tape. Of course, I'll still try to analyze if there was something specific that went wrong. My next step is to try to block it out of my head and focus on my next set -- like a relief pitcher in baseball who doesn't worry about his last blown save. When all that doesn't work I go and distract myself with booze. I try to avoid the "booze because I did poorly" route whenever possible, as I much prefer to "booze cause I killed"...

What is your writing process like?

I'm still figuring out my writing process. Originally I'd just write and rewrite my jokes during work hours (I have a post coming shortly on "how to succeed in corporate America without really trying"), send them to my friends for feedback, rewrite them and then try them out on stage.

Next my writing evolved to carrying around a moleskin and writing whenever I was on a subway, then typing up the half joke, and editing and re-editing it.

I still write down ideas and half punchlines in the moleskin but now I'll work them out into a joke aloud at home (I have a mic and amp) by trying different variations five or ten times and seeing what I laugh at. Then I type it up into my computer. (I use Google Docs so that I can access my jokes from anywhere.) This is the amateur version of writing "on stage." I can't wait for my neighbors to ask me about why I talk to myself through a microphone...

There's a second writing technique I've been using since January: I upload and critique each and every one of my performances on my blog. I literally write out what I did wrong/right at a specific time in the set, or how it could be better. This is really helping me tighten my jokes and take out unnecessary words / phrases. I'm just starting to realize how rewriting and tightening material is just as important, if not more important, then writing new material.

Marianne Schaberg

Today I am interviewing Marianne Schaberg, a comedian born in Providence, RI who has been doing comedy for six months. To find out more about Marianne, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I was a comedy junkie growing up. I would listen to Bill Cosby records ( LP style) and watched Billy Crystal (VHS style) every day. At age five, I began begging my mom to let me stay up for SNL. She never caved in but my father (my hero, my clone) would sometimes let me watch.

Once I was an adult and growing beautifully into my father's illustrious facial features, I moved to NYC and started working but I didn't have the gumption (yes, gumption) to try stand-up although I had always wanted to. Last summer, I quit my job and thought to myself, "now or never."

I started going to open mics and I got hooked after I experienced how it feels to "kill" on stage. I find "killing" is best described by the infamous words of Marg Helgenberger on the pilot episode of "CSI" - "You feel like King Kong on cocaine." She actually said that... about CSI detective and lab work. On the other hand, bombing pretty much sucks but Marg hasn't provided a metaphor for that feeling just yet, except she did give herself a rape kit once so it might feel something on par to that disaster.

Can you tell me one weird thing about yourself?

My toes. They are super weird. Not because they are ugly or hideous (I rock a peddy). But because they are SUPER dexterous, agile and rambunctious. I'm fairly certain they can play the piano even though they've never studied it. They're just weird geniuses, prodigies really. Look for them at Carnegie Hall next fall.

How do you deal with rejection?

I cry. Then I drink. Then I induce myself into a 3-day coma on the couch. Nah, I'm like so much tougher than that. I cry a teeny bit, but only on the inside, and then get back on the old horse or Sarah Jessica Parker, whichever is closer.

Ken Cornell

Today I am interviewing Ken Cornell, a comedian born in Denver, CO who has been doing comedy for twenty years.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I knew I was going to do comedy after seeing Steve Martin on Saturday Night Live in 1978. I was in 8th grade and used to perform "King Tut" in my math class when the teacher stepped out for a smoke. I realized years later that I was being funny as a way for me to gain approval. I was an insecure kid, pimply faced and unwashed hair. But when I made people laugh I assumed they accepted me despite my looks. Years later I broke this down even further-I was seeking approval from my father. My dad was a tough laugh. If I made him laugh, I must be hysterical. Stand-up seemed like the best way for me to express myself. I couldn't sing or dance or act but I knew what was funny. And I have always felt like I've been invisible: walking through stores having to beg for help in my adult years, teen angst in high school. So stand-up was the way I was going to express myself. I would consider myself a scholar of comedy and became a student of what was funny by watching guys I thought were funny:Seinfeld (I saw his first Tonight Show), Richard Lewis (watching him made me realize stand-up didn't have to be set-up-punchline). The first record album I ever bought was Bill Cosby's Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby. So I started doing stand-up as a way to receive approval. I have since become addicted to the performance part and do it now as a way to exercise my chops, like a jazz musician does when he is asked to sit in. The adrenalin rush was great for the first 15 years or so and I still get some butterflies from time to time (essential for a good set; if you don't care if you suck, you will!) but sadly the rush isn't the same as it was when I was starting. That was a definite reason I kept on doing stand-up even if I stunk up the club. And now I consider myself more of a writer than performer and like to go to open mics as a way to reaffirm my ability to put pauses where they need to go and see if the word cocksucker will get me arrested like it did to Lenny Bruce.

What is your writing process like?

I performed my first set of comedy in 1988. I didn't develop my writing process until a few years later. A credit counselor suggested I write down all my expenses, no matter how small. I started carrying a notebook with me everywhere I went. This naturally led me to start writing everything down:inventions, song lyrics (I was trying to be a rock star too!), puns, books I should read, funny combinations of words, aggravations, inspirations. Writing became a habit. It was and is not uncommon for me to be talking to somebody and I will write something down completely unrelated to what we are talking about.

I can truly say with a straight face I write every day. I may not sit at the computer every day, but I will write something down every single day. I always have a pen and a piece of paper on my person. I put notes into my phone. I don't talk into a recorder because I find it cumbersome and, quite frankly, a little self-important. Recorders are essential for recording your performances (audio more so than video in my opinion-its easier to track the laughs) but I can express myself on paper better than any other method.

When I do find myself with a block of time, I take all my notes and transfer them to my laptop. At this time I do comedy triage: I will weed out stuff that is illegible or just really doesn't have a chance. I invariably come up with an embellishment that helps flesh out the original idea. I've read in some comedy books (Judy Carter) about having notecards with topics on them and then putting them on a bulletin board then laminating them all till they fit neatly into your file folder next to your comedy bed. It might work for some. Not for me. Its too organized. I make a folder for whatever month I'm currently in and stick it all in there. If I have a show coming up, I look to see if there is new stuff that needs embellishing. I mine older folders too to see if anything works better than the first time I wrote it down. Comedy is no different than other forms of writing: writing is re-writing. The most enjoyable part of the process for me is the re-writing, punching up. The economy of words comedy demands is its own reward. I have never had what would be considered a writer's block. I have a catalog of material that I an always go to and work on that usually helps spur me on.

What is your favorite thing to do besides comedy?

I guess I have never really thought about it but comedy is my favorite thing to do. its my passion and everything else that I like to do revolves around it. I like to write songs and play my guitar which became an offshoot of the comedy writing. I like to sing karaoke because its a way to perform when I'm jonesing for an open mic but can't find one. I actually owned a karaoke business that I started as a way to get more mic time. I recently reconnected with my kids and now really enjoy hanging out with them and all of us making each other laugh. I recently took a trip to Seattle where I took my second oldest son to an open mic. He had always wanted to try stand-up, had a three minute set and am proud to say, got him onstage. He killed and is now going to the Seattle regular open mics as well as doing small sets at regular comedy shows. I like to research stuff on the internet which usually leads to a bit. And I am a huge football fan, pro and college. During the season I watch a lot of football.

Becky Donohue

Today I am interviewing Becky Donohue, a comedian born in Queens, NY who has been doing comedy for over twelve years. To find out more about Becky, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I believe I started because I was always the funny kid in school. I think I was a lazy, smart kid. In fact, I know I was. I was one of those kids that could've done well in school, but never really tried. The teachers never really pushed because I was doing just fine and I think a lot of them, like all of us, were just trying to survive. I was bored a lot of the time. So, I often entertained myself and others in school by being a wack-a-loon. That's a made up word, but it fits, nonetheless. I think the humor that you enjoy as a kid may evolve slightly, but much like food, you always love what you love. What I love is smart and ridiculous humor all wrapped into one. I LOVE a good belly laugh.

How do you deal with rejection?

I'm not sure I deal with rejection. It just happens and I move on. You do develop a much thicker skin as a comedian. That doesn't mean things don't get to me, they do, but they definitely get to me less than the guy who's taken that very safe, corporate career path and then loses his job. When you're a comedian you go, "bad economy?! it's always been a bad economy for me." In terms of getting rejected in the comedy business, I always think of the audience as king. If the audience likes you then you are doing the most important thing correctly. If the industry doesn't take to you, but the audience always does, don't worry - the industry comes around. Another really important thing that I do personally to deal with rejection, is that I have a really solid support network of GOOD comedian friends (who I respect) that are always on speed dial. I call them when I feel like I have an awful set or if something ridiculous happens at an audition. They always pick me up and they do it genuinely. They feel that I'm really good and they get equally angry when a moron wrongs me. I also keep a list of people I'd like to kill next to my bed that I look at each night. Right next to the list are bullets. I spend evenings hand-carving their names into each bullet. Okay, I'm kidding about the bullets and the lists. Just keep good, positive people around you and you'll be able to weather any rejection that comedy will bring your way - and it will bring it your way. Also, try to have a life outside of comedy. That always helps.

Do you have a favorite topic in your comedy?

I like anything that's visceral and really visual. I like bits that are detailed. I would say that I tell story-bits. I'm more of a storytelling comic than anything else. So, when I have a 7 min set, it's weird for me now because I can't get into anything and I maybe get 2-3 bits out. I have a bit right now where I talk about "losing my virginity in a landscaping van behind a Duane Reade". My friend, Marc, a very funny comic saw it last night and he was like, "oh, my god, that was so detailed. I loved it." That's what I like. That and bits that really bring out a visceral emotion from me. I have a bit about "rats" that does that. I have a bit about "a one-legged baby" that does that and I used to do this bit about "insurance fraud", oddly enough, that really brought out the crazy in me. I love those. And I think audiences love them too. If something can be ridiculous and a bit smart at the same time, that's what I love.

Angry Bob

Today I am interviewing Angry Bob, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for over seven years. To find out more about Angry Bob, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

can’t fuck cute 20 year olds being an angry 500 lb nobody.....still a challenge being an angry 500 lb sort-of-somebody; but it helps!

What is your secret to getting on CNN?

talent?

What are your plans for the future?

the human race is a vast mistake that needs to be ended.....when the blessed asteroid arrives, the universe will be brought back to equilibrium and my work will be done.

Josh Carter

Today I am interviewing Josh Carter, a comedian born in Brooklyn, NY who has been doing comedy for over a year. To find out more about Josh, please follow him on Twitter.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started doing stand up because I decided that I want to do comedy professionally; it was always something that I thought about. Stand Up is the best "trainer you can have to not only gain stage presence (no matter your level) but also to network with other comics, whether you're performing at Maui Taco or Caroline's. It's also a good to see where you stand amongst other professionals; this way you can see what it takes to be an "A Player" in this industry.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

My first time performing (stand-up) was a great experience. I was on a boat full of college kids on a study abroad. I had just done a great character comedy routine in the boat's talent show and was approached by a comedian who was also on the trip to open for him. It was the first time I thought of straight up doing stand up. I got some material prepared and just went at it. I was very nervous, despite having 7 prior years of experience with other forms of comedy because I feel that stand up is a lot more personal. On stage, you're pouring out a little bit of yourself, in a way trying to get the audience to know who you are personally; whereas if I'm playing a character, I'm doing the opposite. I guess it went as well as it could have, I've heard such horrible stories about people's first time. I got a good amount of laughs, and a few people said they liked me better than the guy I was opening for, although I just thought they were trying to flatter me (he was really good!). An older man who was on the ship came up to me after and said "You really have something, but you're going to need to work really hard on it. Keep doing it." or something along those lines. Ever since then, I haven't looked back. I've gone on in New York, Austin, Texas A&M University (College Station, TX), Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

What is the worst job you ever had and did it have any effect on your comedy?

The worst job I ever had? I'm not sure if you mean comedy wise or all-jobs wise. I wouldn't call this my worst job, but the summer after my freshman year of college, I worked at a pretty big insurance company. It was something very different for me, but not too challenging - although it did pay well. After that summer, I knew I didn't want to work in a cubicle on a quiet floor, even for 60-100 something thousand per year. There was this one guy who worked there who had led a very exciting life. He was a model throughout his 20s and 30s, and told me all these crazy times he had and things he's seen. When I heard that, I just felt like entertainment is the life for me. I knew I had to work harder at my comedy, so I can make my money off of what I enjoy to do most, and that's making people laugh.

Branden McCowin

Today I am interviewing Branden McCowin, a comedian born in York, PA who has been doing comedy for two years. To find out more about Branden, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

Started just as fun because i like making people laugh. I honestly think anyone in my family could have been a comedian from my Dad, Mom or any of my brothers or sisters. We all are naturally funny. I think I'm just the only one who figured out that you could actually make money off it lol.. But the feeling of making a room full of people laugh is the best high you could have. trust me I had a few.. Plus this one pays you instead of paying it. Win-win.

Did you find anything surprising about stand-up comedy since you started?

I'm not funny as a comedian! Well me trying to be a comedian. It boggled me that when I tried to "write jokes" they sucked! Like when I first started doing comedy I'd just get up and talk. But when I decided to take it serious i tried to "become" this stand up comic. and wrote and tried to talk like I thought I should as a comedian. It took me forever to realize to be myself, and get back to being comfortable to being myself. How dumb does it sound trying to "learn" to be yourself?

What was your first time performing comedy like?

First started comedy while in the Air force stationed in Spokane, Washington. Went out with a friend Harry Riley who was interested in going to an Open mic. Harry was a naturally funny guy but the thought of him doing stand up was funny enough to pay the price of admission/ I went for support but ended up going up as well. I had no set written and no jokes prepared, i just went up there and said a lot of funny things I noticed that night and made jokes about the air force. After that forgot all about comedy until moving to Atlanta and being suggested by a girlfriend to give it a try. I didn't bomb but just didn't take it that serious. It wasn't until a chance meeting with a fellow comedian Karlous Miller a year later, who seen me that first night remembered me and encouraged me to take it more serious. I always knew I was funny just never thought of being comedian as "tangible goal". I had always been funny since making kids spit out there milk through their nose in 2nd grade, or sending kids home asking for new school clothes the first day of school. But after meeting Karlous Hima and others really showed me the ropes. I started hanging out with the "Atlanta Crew" going to clubs in Atlanta almost nightly in 2008, and then in February 2009 moved to NYC to further pursue this jedi-like training in the art of stand up comedy.

Jenna Jones

Today I am interviewing Jenna Jones, a comedian born in Seoul, South Korea who has been doing comedy for less than a year. To find out more about Jenna, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

My family got sick of my jokes so I thought I would try them out on tipsy strangers in a dark room who are looking to get their money's worth of laughter (because that isn’t intimidating at all). After graduating from college, I was hired at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a Production Assistant. A few months later, inspired by all the funny people I work with, I decided that I would give stand-up a shot. And guess what? I discovered that making people laugh is an incredibly fulfilling challenge.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

When I finally signed up for my first show, I was forced to actually sit down and prepare. I mean REALLY prepare. I became a total comedy nerd, constantly writing and rewriting jokes. My first performance taught me two things:

1. I MUST be myself. If I can't be myself, I won't be funny.

2. There is no winging it when it comes to performing stand-up for the first time. I'm relieved I spent a couple of months preparing; otherwise, I would have bombed, tanked, failed! I've done a show since then for which I wasn't nearly as prepared, and I blew it, big time.

My second on-stage experience felt completely different than my first. I performed at Comix in New York City in a show run by the Executive Producer at The Daily Show. The opportunity arose maybe an hour before I stepped on stage, but I managed to stumble through five very long minutes. I was terrified (mostly because I forgot to wear deodorant that day) and felt a little inadequate because all of the other comedians had been telling jokes for years. As crazy as it may seem, those feelings motivated me to continue writing and performing (and of course to never ever forget my Secret: strong enough for a man, made for one nervous blonde on stage).

How do you feel about freedom of speech and political correctness and stand-up comedy?

Comedians will always push boundaries and wouldn’t be able to do so if we didn’t have freedom of speech. When I tell jokes, I like to point out life’s awkward truths, poke fun at my flaws (I’m only human!) and hopefully make the audience feel like they are part of a comfortable and relaxed conversation. I’m not trying to shock the audience and push the limits of what might be considered funny—that’s just not me. So although I appreciate the first amendment and am grateful for its protections, I’ll leave the fight against PC to the George Carlins and Bill Mahers of the world...

Al Wagner

Today I am interviewing Al Wagner, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for six years. To find out more about Al, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I'd always wanted to do stand-up ever since hearing George Carlin as a teenager, but domestic discord eventually drove me to it. I'd always appreciated the intelligence and social commentary aspect of what Carlin did, but I ended up being more Ray Romano than George.

I couldn't win a debate at home, so I'd tweak the issue of the day into a suitable format for an audience and get validation from the laughter of strangers. In some ways it was the cliche of the comedian who uses the stage for therapy, but I had enough respect for and knowledge of the form to turn the rant into setups and punch-lines.

I did have a problem starting out in that I could tell a story offstage, but my respect for the form and determination to write clever comedy like my heroes George and Steven Wright and Woody Allen didn't match my normal personae or the outrage voiced in my material. I was too focused on articulating the writing and so I was completely unnatural in my first year or two.

Eventually I became more comfortable onstage and began to understand the importance of matching tone and subject matter. I also recognized that it was more important to write the way I speak than to speak the way I write, because that's the only way to be authentic if you're not playing a character.

This helped me finally experience some success as a comedian.

Can you tell me one weird thing about yourself?

One weird thing? That's like asking someone to pick one thing, just one, to take on a desert island. I guess the biggest thing I can admit to in writing is that I'm very competitive, but also very lazy, so I'm usually very unhappy.

I've learned that effort is almost never rewarded. For example, never try to win a race where the finish line is a glass door. I won by a nose, which then required four stitches.

And then there was the time I tried to lift a 115lb barbell over my head, using perfect weight-lifting technique, except I was wearing cowboy boots on a cement sidewalk.

I can still hear that metallic "clink" sound as I hit the ground, failing to get the barbell behind me, and in shock I popped right back up and asked for a band-aid to stop the bleeding that eventually required twenty-stitches and years of counseling for my friends, who were also in shock because they'd never seen a live human skull with the skin peeled off. Now I don't try so hard.

I'm also fairly cynical and don't trust people, but I still want them to like me.

I especially don't trust people trying to help me, because when I was eight my mother nearly drowned me while trying to save me from drowning in a six-foot pool of water, even though I could swim and could have bounced off the floor of the pool without help for an hour.

She said it was an accident and I believed her, because as a kid I didn't know anything about life insurance.

More recently a comic tried to help me. I was at a show and placed my laptop to record video in the back so it wouldn't be noticed by anyone, and while I was onstage I suddenly see the laptop rise up and float toward me. The comic later explained that he was helping me because the laptop was so far away that he was afraid I wouldn't get a good view of myself being distracted by my floating laptop.

Fortunately he hadn't had that sense of empowerment beaten out of him as a child, so I got to see a wobbly vision of my horrified face as I bombed instead of a distant view of my normal set.

How do you deal with rejection?

I've had extensive training in this area, and I've learned to blame myself and try to change who I am to meet others expectations.

Then I lose respect for myself for not being me, reject myself, and wish I was more like those people who don't care what others think. My goal now is to reject a few people just to see how it feels.

Mike Cannon

Today I am interviewing Mike Cannon, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for two and a half years. To find out more about Mike, please visit his website. (Photo by Mandy Stewart Hambly)

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I grew up in a family that was really big into musical theater. My father was an actor, my mother sang, my older sister went to college for music and is currently an actress, and my younger sister is a singer/song writer/actress and so forth. My parents used to make me sing Aladdin's "A Whole New World" with my older sister every time company would come over. I basically grew up in gay camp. Naturally, this made me play sports growing up. I played Basketball in particular all the way through my first two years of college. An injury, and the realization that at 20 years old my body was rapidly decomposing into a middle aged Leper's, made me re-evaluate what I wanted to do with the rest of college and my life. After weeks of drinking, I came to the conclusion that a lot of the reason I enjoyed sports and particularly Basketball was for the crowd reaction. When you're playing at the park or a packed gym and you bust someone's ass, there's always a ton of people yelling and/or talking shit about it. It's one of the best feelings in the world. When I got hurt, I tried to find another outlet where I could experience a loud primal response to something I did or created. I figured all of my black teammates thought I was a real hoot in the showers, so why not try to be funny full time.

Do you have a favorite topic in your comedy and what makes it your favorite?

In terms of humor, I'm probably one of the most immature people on the planet. My jokes have the versatility of Terry Shiavo. I basically tackle all the real thinkers, like sex - both straight and gay as well as consenting or normal, drinking/drugs, basic disabilities and of course poop. You write what you know I guess, and I have my shit doctorate.

What is your writing process like?

My writing process is pretty scatter brained. It's a mixture of check points with some fixed terminology as well. I have a severe case of ADD or rapid boredom, however you wanna look at it, so I can't sit down and write. I usually text a few things to myself during the day - mostly premises or even punches that I think would work well with a tag I had previously written. I basically obsess about it in my mind for a few hours, days, weeks, whatever and then go on stage to see if I have anything. It's weird. I actually started out writing long dialogue but everything came out sounding way too scripted. I definitely don't think what I do is necessarily correct or the best way, but it works for me (so far.) I guess I'm not a good enough actor to make something seem fresh even though I've said it and rehearsed it 500 times before. I think having to improv and riff in moderation is a good exercise and keeps your interest as well as the audiences. In my experiences, many carefully written jokes will not hit as hard as something spontaneous and honest, so I try to keep that in mind each set I do. And when all else fails, I cross my eyes, breathe heavily out of my nose and say I'm retarded.

Max Cohen

Today I am interviewing Max Cohen, a comedian born in West Palm Beach, FL who has been doing comedy for less than a year. To find out more about Max, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

As a nebbishy kind of guy, it wasn’t hard for me to really love Woody Allen’s work. Seeing a character like that succeed gave me a few ideas as to what I could do. I’ve been on the stage in one form or another since an early age. The audience’s focus, as well as the joy I felt in telling a good story, has always attracted me to performing. I’ve also always loved the power of just one person’s words to completely enthrall a group. Plus, I used to watch Comedy Central back when showing comedy specials was more than just a Friday night programming bloc, so I went into college quoting comedians as my friends were quoting philosophers. It’s been in my mind for a long time to try telling my own jokes. As I did more stage shows, though, I realized how much I love the pressure of having to deliver a great performance, and that there was no greater challenge than to not only deliver, but write my own performance. As I’ve gained some experience, it’s actually been very reassuring for me. I feel like most of my life is out of control and I’m very unsure about it, but I know I can (usually) control a few minutes of my day and make people laugh.

Is there anything you wish you knew when you started doing stand-up comedy?

I wish I had been more committed to the idea that you write down everything that comes to mind. Most of it will be horrible, but there will almost always be a creative nugget worth mining. Even just a few months into this, I can already think back to some times when I knew I should have written down how I was feeling about such and such an event. Having watched and listened to a lot of comedy before I started, though, I was already mostly aware of the pitfalls a novice needs to avoid. Plus, I read Judy Carter’s “Comedy Bible,” before I got on stage, so I overall felt pretty prepared for how things were going to go.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

My first time was actually quite pleasant. I went with two roommates to The Creek and The Cave in Queens. The mic wasn’t until 8, and I went straight after work, 5:30. I had some delicious jalapeno poppers. Most of the time, there was this gnawing nervous anticipation, no longer about the quality of my material, but just about getting on stage and starting my set. When I got called up I actually brought the pages of notes that I had and the scratch piece of paper with the set order. I managed to get a few chuckles out of that set and some nice handshakes afterward. I figured a few chuckles for a first time was a good enough omen, and kept on going.

Big Ben's Interview

Link of the week: "I signed up for MySpace because I thought it would magically make me as popular as Dane Cook." Ben Rosenfeld interviewed me on his blog - read all about it! Thanks, Ben.

Pat Lamb

Today I am interviewing Pat Lamb, a comedian born in Jersey City, NJ who has been doing comedy for six years. To find out more about Pat, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

People have always loved the way I expressed myself ,the way I said things,the expressions I used, I have been a student of language and how people express themselves all my life. That's why my act contains non- punchline stuff, like the NY expression for whore - WHO-AHHH. People are familiar with it through media. When I use it in my show I hear people in the audience laughing and repeating it ( even people not familiar with it). Language offers a lot of comedic possibilities and I love exploring it. I'm an artist and cartoonist - all great art is about exploration and despises ingratiation. Woody Allen says take chances, Who needs convention? When you can DATE children.

What do you do when you forget your next joke?

I DO THE NEXT THING I REMEMBER. I write an outline of things I want to say in my set, so there's always something to reach for. You'll never see me say "What else was there?" BAD Habit - just go on to the next thing. Don't dawdle, everything should have a direction, otherwise, (you need a comedic GPS) the message to the audience is that you don't know what you're doing.

What is your recipe for a great joke?

Just keep writing and it will come to you. Its something a lot of people feel, identify with or just find really silly. I wouldn't call it a recipe, though. I really hate what I call mechanical jokes, the formulaic stuff - I'm not interested. Scatological is easy and a waste of time, if you want to get work you got to be able to work clean. I like it clever, witty with a FLOW. A set-up that's believable (an actual or near actual experience) versus the unreal: cop pulls me over, "Have you been drinking? Your eyes look blurry." I said "No, have you been eating donuts? Your eyes looked glazed." I have heard guys say this, its funny, a whole act of this stuff turns me off, doesn't tell me about the person. Besides, if this was actually said to the cop, the comic's beating would have been posted to youtube.

Nate Roberts

Today I am interviewing Nate Roberts, a comedian born in Ilion, NY who has been doing comedy for one year. To find out more about Nate, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I was always I writer, and while I was engaged to my ex-fiance, who didn't support me in anything, I tried my hand at stand up comedy. Well after a few "that isn't really funnies" I gave it up, until we broke up. It was then I that I took a comedy writing class, and moved to NYC to start living the dream. I don't really know why I started I was always obsessed with it, as a kid. My dad used to let me stay up late and watch an Evening at the Impov, and when I was 12 I got my hands on Denis Leary's - No Cure For Cancer, which I memorized. That and Bill Cosby's - Himself were probably the 2 most influential comedy albums for me growing up.

Do you have any tips or tricks for writing or performing that you could share?

For performance anxiety, at least at the beginning, I would flip a quarter around between my fingers before being called up and put it in my pocket as I walked to the stage. A little distraction can help ease you mind. While performing, the greatest thing I've learned so far is slow down. There's no rush. The slowing you go I feel the more engaged the audience is on every word the more invested they are in what you're saying, and it just makes the funny jokes funnier.

What does stand-up comedy mean to you?

What does stand-up comedy mean to me? Shit, Slava, that's deep. I was always the class clown growing up, and I guess humor is how I dealt with the crap going on in my life I didn't want to deal with... And I guess that really hasn't changed.

Phil Jason

Today I am interviewing Phil Jason, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for less than a year. To find out more about Phil, please visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I see comedy as a way to heal the world. When people are laughing, they are more accepting and lighter and far more open to the experience of love, which is the foundation of joy and peace. It is the recognition of truth that heals us and as a stand-up comedian, I have the ability to reach out to people through laughter and show them truths that they would be too scared or angry to see otherwise. But making people laugh is really only the beginning . Ultimately, it is my goal to teach them how to see the humor in the world on their own.

I also think it is fascinating that a human being can do something like stand-up comedy. It's such a strange phenomena that people will come to sit and watch someone else stand there and say things that they find funny. I had to find out for myself what it was like to do that.

What is your recipe for a great joke?

A great joke has a penetrating clarity that touches something deep within the recipient, changing how they see the world. If this clarity can be presented in terms of the simple aspects of the ordinary world that people are most familiar with or by making connections between things that people would not normally see as related, the joke will invoke a rush of joy in the audience that accompanies a wonderful elevation in their awareness. That's what makes every great joke more or less a little miracle.

What would you have done differently if you started doing comedy today?

Well, like I said, I've only been doing comedy for less than a year, so its almost like I did start doing comedy today, but I can say that having seen what it's like to do this, I would have started years ago when the idea of doing stand-up comedy first entered my head. Back then, I allowed myself to make excuses for why I couldn't do it which I now see were all nonsense. All my fears and apprehensions were manufactured by my mind out of material presented to it by my own self-doubt. It all seemed so real and convincing, but it turned out to be false. Doing stand-up is nothing like I thought it would be, though, interestingly enough, years ago, before I had ever performed for an audience, I had a dream in which I was on stage at a large theater that was full of people and I was making them laugh and the way it felt in that dream turns out to be exactly what it feels like in real life. Beyond all that self-doubt and fear, there was clearly a part of me that did know better.

Jen Kwok

Today I am interviewing Jen Kwok, a comedian born in Panorama City, CA who has been doing comedy for ?? years. To find out more about Jen, please visit her website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started doing stand-up because I had always wanted to do it, and I knew I'd totally regret it if I didn't give it a shot. That said, it was a really looong process for me to become a comedian.

Growing up, my main activities were reading, writing, playing piano and watching comedy on TV. In spite of all that, I somehow ended up triple-majoring in business and becoming an auditor. After a little soul searching, I realized that this was definitely not the life for me. So...I quit accounting, got a job in non-profit performing arts, and enrolled in improv classes at UCB.

After a year of improv, I finally bit the bullet and tried stand-up. I killed the first time, did alright the second time, and blanked out during my third time up. This PETRIFIED me from going onstage again for almost a year. I decided to picked up the ukulele as a creative challenge - and because I really missed playing music. After a few weeks, I started incorporating the ukulele with comedy, and I've been doing it that way ever since.

What is your writing process like?

Horrifying and constant. I've never really thought about my process before, but it's basically this:

1. Write down absolutely everything that occurs to me as funny. I carry around a notebook that I write it in NONSTOP. I will literally stop conversations or stop walking in the middle of the street to write something down. Needless to say, this takes up the majority of my day and it makes me look like a freak to the general public.

2. Mess around on the ukulele, keyboard and/or glockenspiel.

3. Try to connect funny thoughts with music (Step 1 + Step 2). This is the hardest part because the first two steps are just about collecting. The challenge of the third step is editing without being too brutal.

What is your favorite thing to do besides comedy?

The Three Cs: cooking, crafts, and playing "Carcasonne"!

Cooking: I really love to make anything that cooks for hours and hours, so a lot of oven casseroles, soups, stews, and slow cooked stuff. My favorite recipe is a fried macaroni that my mom invented, which uses actual packages of soy sauce and ketchup for seasoning. Most people are grossed out by the ingredients, but it tastes awesome - you'd never guess it's an all-condiment affair.

Crafts: I've been sewing since I was a kid and even won a couple blue ribbons in the county fair back in the day! Right now, I'm making adorable mini felt stuffed animals. They're so cute it's disgusting.

Carcassone: This is the greatest game ever! It was made by the guy who created "Settlers of Cataan". Basically, you build a French village with castles, roads, etc. and you mobilize people (robbers, knights, farmers, monks, etc.) to win points. I sound like such a nerd already, but the game is really fun and easy to understand - give it a chance!

Tim Vargulish

Today I am interviewing Tim Vargulish, a comedian born in Latrobe, PA who has been doing comedy for over three years. To find out more about Tim, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

When I was in college I joined an improv group called "I Pulled My Quad". One of the members in that group was also a stand-up comic and we would hang out after shows a lot and kid around. He always told me that he thought I was really funny and encouraged me to do stand-up, I've always liked to joke around and I've been a weird shy awkward kid and the idea of getting up on stage and telling jokes just kind of appealed to me. So I did this comedy contest at Catch a Rising Star in Lincoln, RI and just kind of got hooked and have been doing it ever since.

What is your plan for fame and fortune?

I guess I don't really have a very specific plan as of right now. My goal is to just continuously grow and improve as a performer. I'm trying to work on my act and do as much writing and performing as possible. So right now my plan is get to be the best performer as I can get and hope that people take notice or perfect my art as much as possible to make them take notice.

What do you do when you forget your next joke on stage?

If I ever forget a joke I just go on to a joke that I do know. I always have go-to jokes that I can rely on if I forget a joke. Also I believe honesty is very funny and if you forget a joke and it's pretty obvious you do it always helps to kind of point it out before the audience does. Poking fun at yourself usually seems to get a laugh.

Todd Rocheford

Today I am interviewing Todd Rocheford, a comedian born in Champaign, IL who has been doing comedy for less than a year. To find out more about Todd, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I had too, seriously. I just felt like a moth drawn to a big white light. Like most comics I'm an attention whore so being on a stage talking about me me me seemed like a dream come true. Stand up lets you express comic stories and ideas in ways other comic art forms such as sketch and improv can't, when you get a laugh it's yours, no one Else can take the credit for it. And I'm all about getting credit for things ha ha ha. I got frustrated with preforming with crappy improvisers who made me do all the work so they could get laughs, i love improv too, but i HATE bad improvisers. I love being able to talk about how i see the world, and tell the humorous stories of being Todd Rocheford. The Independence of being your own writer, director and performer is amazing.

How do you stay creative?

I keep a notepad with me on all times and even write down the most half thought out idea because you never know what might come from that thought later on. I try to not censor myself and give every joke i right a shot. Not taking things to seriously helps also. I let myself think up really really fucked up things that would make any non comic vomit.

What is your writing process like?

I go around new york being a huge asshole then get on stage and tell people about it. ha ha. I try to tell true stories from my life my writing process is usually thinking of the crazy things that i have done and putting a comic spin on them. I don't write things down word for word i try to keep things loose so i can change it up on the fly and don't have to worry about getting the exact words right.

How about one joke?

Since there are cover bands, I often wonder what about a cover comedian? This is my impression of what a cover comedian would sound like "Hi, my name is Carlos Mencia."

Dave Robison

Today I am interviewing Dave Robison, a comedian born in Columbus, MS who has been doing comedy for over four years. To find out more about Dave, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started performing when I was 10 years old as a ventriloquist and continued until I was married. About 4 years ago, my wife got tired of me saying "I used to do comedy", whenever I watched other comedians perform; so she told me I oughtta see if I "still had it".

Did you find anything surprising about stand-up comedy since you started?

Since I've been performing now, the only surprising thing I have found is the degree to which fellow comedians are willing to help you out. Some comedians are willing to give you every bit of advice they have in their arsenal, while others play everything close to their chest, and almost discourage you from even talking with them so that you won't become competition. But as I say this, that's not really surprising...some people are just willing to help more than others.

What was your first time performing comedy like?

Well as a kid, it was great. All the adults thought I was great, the kids sort of envied me, and for the most part, I was "hooked" knowing that applause and laughter was what I craved in life.

As a returning performer, all grown up, old, and trying to prove something to myself...I had a little self doubt and found out that not everything I thought was funny in my head was funny to an adult audience. While most "bits" worked, I was surprised by some that did not and wasn't really prepared for the outcome. You can bet I self-analyzed the hell out of my writing after that.

How about a joke?

Just recently celebrated my 25th wedding anniversary. I've been married 25 years, which means I've had sex... 24 times.

I've been married so long I can't even really come on to women anymore. I don't even think about cheating. You know? A sleazy one night stand of hot sweaty monkey love. Hooking up with a woman that would satisfy my every carnal perverted whim. ..NOPE I NEVER THINK ABOUT IT!

Mintz

Today I am interviewing Mintz, a comedian born in Paramus, NJ who has been doing comedy for almost three years. To find out more about Mintz, please visit his website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I was always an oddball character in school, and a class clown. In high school, I would make these videos with a webcam (and this was like 10 years before youtube and vlogging), and then I would e-mail them to like, 2 people in my grade, as an inside joke. I’d be like, selling action figures of people we knew. Unbeknownst to me, they would send these videos to their friends, and then they’d send them to all of their friends. The next day at school, some cool kid or some really hot popular girl (who never in my life would I ever talk to) would come up to me and be like, “Hey, I saw your video. That was hilarious.”. I did the same thing with these comedic rap songs I made. I also remember someone talking at lunch one time, about a kid he knew who went to an open mic in New York, and did standup. And I just remember thinking, ‘Hmmm...That sounds interesting. I’d like to do that.” And then high school ended. My grades were terrible, I got rejected from every college I applied to. I ended up at community college. And I knew if I got all As, I’d be able to transfer to a regular college. The only problem was, the days of joking around in class were over, because now I was taking classes seriously. But there was this mass communications class, which involved a lot of performing in front of the class, and I kind of used that as an opportunity to start messing around again. We were given an assignment to do a presentation on an exotic animal. And I forget what I got, but I just remember that my presentation got a lot of laughs. It just felt right. Like, “Hey, the rest of this class blows, but I actually enjoyed that part.” And I was sort of shy around all these new people, so after you show that side of yourself in class, people want to talk to you outside of class. That was probably a defining moment in why I started to do this. I remember the day of that presentation, I was called two things. The teacher wrote on my review, “Good presentation...but you were like a Carnival Barker”, and then one of my friends saw me outside (I was wearing a suit for the presentation) and he said, “You look like a Game Show host.” I think to a certain extent, I still exude both of those qualities. But anyway, to wrap this up, I then transferred to a college in New York City, one of the kids in my dorm was doing stand-up, and I had another one of those moments, like, “I’d like to actually do that...”. And so then I just started doing it like a month or two later.

What was your first year doing stand-up comedy like?

Well I did it in New York for about a month. Then for the next 6 months, I was doing it in Philadelphia, where I’d transferred to another college. It’s harder to get stage-time when your starting out it Philadelphia. There’s only two clubs in Philadelphia, each has only one mic per week. One time I lied and said I was another comic on a lottery list, just to get stage time. I ended up getting heckled off the stage by the owner of the club during my set, “Liar! You’re not him!”. Quite dumb of me to think they wouldn’t notice, especially considering I sort of stuck out, because for the first 6 months, I was doing this character called “The Swami”, or Swami Mintz. I would go on stage with a pink “Turbi-Twist”, which is like one of those shower turbans they sell at Bed Bad and Beyond, or the As-Seen-On-TV stand at the mall, and Oakley sunglasses. And then I’d shoot off these one-liners in this weird voice. But I wanted every one liner to follow this theme of, “The Swami is a guy who likes to ruin stuff.” So every one liner would be the swami telling his escapades of destruction. Like one was, ‘I like to open up cans of tuna....and hide them inside of perfume stores...” . Now you might be wondering, “I don’t get it...why would a Swami be a prankster?” I don’t have an answer. I just really liked Andy Kaufman as a kid, so I wanted to do something weird like him. It was a very basic structure, and after 3 minutes... very redundant. But it would get a pretty good response...sometimes. Then I came back to New York, because it’s obviously a much more fertile land for comedy. I still occasionally whipped out The Swami, but I also started doing stand-up just as myself. The Swami was too limiting. And then one day I just got rid of The Swami. Though I will say, when Mike Myers was making the rounds at the Magnet Theater in 2007, developing his “Love Guru” character for his next movie, I had this fantasy that he’d see The Swami do a set, and then write him in as The Love Guru’s arch nemesis . I’d like to think that could have saved that movie.

How do you feel about freedom of speech and political correctness and stand-up comedy?

I really don’t even consider it an option. To me, it’s just always been a given; There is nothing you can’t say. Now whether or not saying that will get a laugh, that’s really the issue I think. Of course depending on how far your edgy joke might cross the line, you should definitely be mindful of the room you perform it in. It might offend or insult the entire audience, which in turn wouldn’t get any laughs. But I don’t really do anything edgy or racy like that, so this is all just theory, or what I’ve observed from other comics. The closest I’ve ever come to practically considering something like that, would probably be during my time spent in Philadelphia. The Laugh House is an urban crowd. There’s hardly any white people in the audience at their mic (the mic gets real audience). I did this one joke, “Halloween is really popular for some reason in Philadelphia, even more popular than anywhere else. I think that’s because it’s the only night of the year white people get to actually scare black people”. And it got laughs, and no one was offended. But really, if this was a panel, I would have fielded this question to the next person down. All in all, my 3 years in comedy have been the best 3 years of my life. This road has been a rough one, and the road ahead is even rougher, but I couldn’t imagine not doing this.

Kara Buller

Today I am interviewing Kara Buller, a comedian born in Ithaca, NY who has been doing comedy for over six years. To find out more about Kara, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started doing stand up because I had been doing bad improv. I don’t want to disparage myself too much—some of what I did was really fun and good—but there were definitely moments were I was just staring into the floodlights, wondering when I would have my next idea. That makes your scene partners uneasy. I would just get really stuck in my head. So in 2003 I stopped doing improv and sketch and—I should also say that the Jerry Seinfeld documentary, which came out in 2002, played no small role in my starting stand-up. There’s this song that plays over the ending credits. “A fork a spoon, a something something, dog in the moon.” It’s just so fucking simple and sweet. I was listening to that and something really hit me. Make it simple, make it sweet. Make it good. With stand up, I could do that. I could craft a joke in the privacy of my home, play with the wording like a craftsman—make it simple but good—and then give it to the people. In improv I couldn’t do that. You're not given time to craft your words. It's not for the slow kids--or the perfectionists.

As far as childhood, I peed my pants and stammered a lot. This did not portend a lucrative comedy career.

Are you marketing and promoting yourself and how?

I have a blog and I facebook a lot. I talk loudly on the L train… I send friends lots of text messages. That’s promotion. I also spend whole days googling “comedy booking agent” “comedy gigs new york” and “female money beauty power.” Can’t say anything has come from it. I did go on one of those pay-to-play auditions this week, but all I did was name drop and make an ass of myself. Wait. That’s the heart of marketing and promoting.

What is your writing process like?

I have a number of games I play. One is called “24 hours.” I make a list of all the things that have happened to me or that I did in the past 24 hours. (There's also a version called "72 hours" and "Since the Last Time I Played this Game.") Next to the activity or incident I write my feelings. “Fear, anxiety that I would f*ck up the convo with my dad and that I would not give good convo.” “Fear that highlights would be very bad and my boyfriend would dump me.” I take the emotion, enlarge it and entertain various comedic scenarios. I really have to be careful that I actually write punchlines though. Sometimes I think incredulity around absurdity is enough. It’s not—not for me anyways. It can’t just be me on stage yelling “this is absurd of me to think this! Don’t you think!” I hate watching other performers do that and I get the feeling the audience hates it too. We need to drive the 1988 Cadillac Cimmaron of a joke premise all the way into the joke garage.

Another game is just called “Fear.” I make a list of all the things that I am truly afraid of.

Okay, it’s not really a game. It’s a heading. But for me it’s been a great joke generator.

Another game: New York Times. Every story or headline gets a joke. It’s a good game for generating weekly material, but not a good game for generating a set for Letterman. It will hone your skills though and leave you more informed about crime in Mexico.

The sad truth of it is that my best material has arrived almost wholly formed, untried for, in the midst of life. I see something, it provokes me and then there, whaddya know, is the joke. The B material comes out of the joke games. That’s fine. B material has its place as well.

I write with a Uniball Vision – micro (.5) pen, in black. There is magic in these pens. I try to always carry my comedy notebook with me. I also punch ideas into my phone. I totally agree with the person who said ALWAYS write it down. In bed at night I have ideas and I’m like this is soooo good how could I ever forget! Then the next morning, it’s like nothing ever happened. I just go on with my life—and that joke is gone forever, like it never even happened. I would probably be famous by now if I kept a pen in my bed.

I have a secret hidden genius in Chicago who I turn to when I’m stuck. I like talking with fellow comedians about my material. I have no problem taking a line that they might give me.

I do not have a set writing time each day or week. I’m in grad school right now and that is eating up a good amount of time. I am trying to get my own show with my friend Asie, and then I will have to write each week. Gotta keep it fresh for the bartender. It really is about pleasing others and not yourself. I don’t think I’m even kidding.

Mo Diggs

Today I am interviewing Mo Diggs, a comedian born in Edison, NJ who has been doing comedy for three and a half years. To find out more about Mo, please visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I was sleeping with hookers and strippers, thinking, "What job can I have where this lifestyle is common to the point of cliche?"

Also, I saw Aziz Ansari and Eugene Mirman do this bit on M.I.A. I thought Aziz Ansari was an Arab-American like me, which was refreshing because there was no such thing as a cool Arab-American. Then I found out he was Indian and tried to look up Arab Americans as funny as Aziz and I couldn't find any. In fact, I thought I was better than the Arab-American comics I saw so I figured I would give it a go.
But yeah Aziz really did great things for Habib-Americans (anyone in America who would get called a "terrorist," whether they are Southeast Asian or Persian; Arab or Turkish). It was also great seeing Kumail Nanjiani on Colbert Report playing Colbert's secret prisoner. A decade ago they would've given that role to Fisher Stevens with chocolate pudding on his face.

How do you write a joke?

An idea comes to me and I work on it on Monday, my writing day. Then I try it onstage, and if it doesn't work I whine and ask my girlfriend why the joke didn't work over and over again, even when we're having a romantic interlude.

How do you make sure you don't forget your material on stage?

Depends on the situation. Usually I try to link joke titles with images and try to link those images according to the order they are in. For example if the set list is MAYONNAISE/SATANISM/PARROT/IPOD, I imagine mayonnaise being spread on a sacrifice for a Satanic ritual; then a Satanic parrot; then a parrot with an iPod (skateboard optional).

If I just stop by to watch the show and the producer puts me up at the last minute, however, I write the joke titles on my hand.

Can you share one joke?

Imagine KISS painted abstract art on their faces? "I was the Fire Breathing Demon; now I am the Haunting Specter of Unrealized Potential."

Chewy

Today I am interviewing Chewy, a comedian born in Brooklyn, NY who has been doing comedy for over a year. To find out more about Chewy, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started stand-up comedy on a new talent showcase at Comix. I continued with it because it is just awesome to see someone come in who is bummed and then his face lightening up when you go on stage and say jokes. I just like making people happy.

What is the worst job you ever had and did it have any effect on your comedy?

Hmm.. I honestly don't think I ever had a job that I hated. Each job made me work with people and that's what I love to do.

What is your plan for fame and fortune?

My plans for fame and fortune is to just do what I love. If I can just make a living making people laugh then I would find myself successful in comedy.

Cory Kahaney

Today I am interviewing Cory Kahaney, a comedian born in New York, NY who has been doing comedy for seventeen years. To find out more about Cory, please visit her website.

Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

Because I couldn't dance.

What was your first year doing stand-up comedy like?

It was great because I was a beginner and I could make mistakes, knowing there was time to improve. I don't know if I thought it was great back then, but I knew it was exciting and new.

How do you feel about freedom of speech and political correctness and stand-up comedy?

I stand by our right to free speech - but I also know words are powerful. We are not pundits, or teachers, we are joke tellers, entertainers, nothing more, so as long as it's funny...

Evon Campbell

Today I am interviewing Evon Campbell, a comedian born in Kingston, Jamaica who has been doing comedy for three years. To find out more about Evon, please visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

Well, when I was a kid I always imagined myself performing in front of an audience, I just didn’t really know in what capacity I’d do it. During college I took up playing electric guitar, I did that for about six years but nothing really came of it as far as performing in bands or out in public. Plus, those long tricky guitar solos were really tough to master.

After a while I started hanging around movie and music video sets doing extra work. It was great being on set; the people, the cameras, the free food. I decided I should take some acting classes. Ultimately instead of acting classes I chose to take improv classes thinking would be more fun, and it was! Performing in front of people felt natural and exciting to me. When the classes were over I wanted to continue doing comedy in some way. Ever since I was little I would always love making my friends laugh so stand up comedy seemed like an option that would fit me well. I began watching a lot of stand up videos online and hanging around open mics trying to write material. I did that for about three months before I went on stage for the first time...

Did you find anything surprising about stand-up comedy since you started?

Sure, I’m surprised by how little I’ve changed off stage since I started. I’ve always been kind of a quiet type of person, so when I started doing stand up I thought it would make me much more loud and blabby. But even as I’ve become louder, more confident and better on stage I’m still pretty much the same person off stage as I was before I started.

Another thing that surprised me after I started was how fragmented stand up comedy is. There are so many different types of shows and scenes out there. You’ve got mainstream shows, urban shows, alternative, Latino, Italian-American, hipster, anti-hipster, shows based on weight, height, etc. Just about anything you want, its there...in New York at least. Support live comedy!

What was your first time performing comedy like?

My first time was at the Comedy Cellar open mic. I wrote 5 minutes of killer material that I was sure would destroy the room. Usually when a comic goes on stage to perform for the first time, they’ll announce it to everyone for some added support, but I decided to just go up without saying anything to really get the raw feel of my jokes. In fact I was so confident that about two minutes before I went up I decided to open with an Axl Rose impression just for the hell of it. Well, I didn’t do good at all, each joke painfully bombed in complete silence. I went home feeling defeated but eventually decided to give it one more try. The difference was I was going to write jokes based on how I really thought and felt about stuff rather than what I thought a stand-up comedian should sound like. Took me about 3 months to write a new 5 minute set and work up the courage to go back, then I went back to the Cellar open mic again and did great. I’ve been doing it regularly ever since.