Without a live audience, satire can get lost. I have a podcast called Can I Go Home Now with my friend Jamie Wolf and we’re now shifting to more of an interview format, which we think of more as long-form crowd work, but we used to do a lot of satirical rants. Without a live audience it sometimes can be hard to clarify [the intent]. When I’m in front of a live audience, I can figure out where the line is and where to stop. I think it’s when they stop laughing and/or I can just feel that with other people in a room. I think sometimes on a podcast it can be a little harder.
Do people ever talk at you too much? I’ve heard other comics say that even though they’re not a crowd-work comic, people who are coming to comedy for the first time through TikTok mistakenly think, “They want me to talk back.”
I don’t have a great frame of reference ’cause the social media comedy takeover happened very early into my career. But what I will say is, especially in my first year of touring, I felt that there were a lot of people there supporting something they just came across. And I think they didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know what to expect. And I think there were a lot of people just showing up for various reasons, whether it was like, they thought it was very much a drunk, wild, anything-goes experience. Certain people I saw dressed up in really nice outfits, and I’m like, “You’re going to a comedy club where there’s a drink minimum and you’re gonna have to eat fake nachos. You shouldn’t be dressed so nicely.” But people are chatty sometimes and I try to have a clear moment of when I shift from like, “We’re having fun” to like, “Hey, this is disruptive.” Sometimes I have to kick people out, but I really try not to.
Who are some other comics that you consider your peers?
I would say Jamie Wolf. KC Shornima, who’s a really funny SNL weekend update writer. John Kennedy, who used to be on my podcast. Sureni Weerasekera, who just did Netflix’s Introducing…. Some people I would say that are around my class whose comedy I really respect are Maddie Wiener and Emil Wakim. I was mentored by Ashley Gavin, who is also big on the internet, and I love the comedy of Geoffrey Asmus and Jordan Jensen.
Do you notice a difference between cities while touring? Have you started to figure out what to expect from different crowds based on where they are? Or it’s all kind of similar?
It’s a mix of those two things. Because of TikTok and the internet, everyone who’s young is so similar it’s kind of frightening. I went to play the University of Arkansas, and based on my elitist New York Jewish upbringing, I pictured the kids in Arkansas to be wrapped in Confederate flags holding AR-15s, riding warthogs or you know, whatever. And they just look like Gen Z kids from anywhere. Everywhere I go, the young people dress the same, come off the same, have very similar political beliefs. But then when I’m in comedy clubs, especially five-show weekends where there’s thousands of seats available, my shows don’t sell out till pretty close to the showtime, and [local] people who are older will come. Plano, Texas, for example: It’d be a bunch of young people who found me on the internet and are left-leaning as well as, like, eight 64-year-old Republicans sitting in the back having a straight-up bad time.
You also do comedy writing. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
I’m developing two film projects right now that are very, very early stages, and then I’ve also worked on some TV stuff. I pitched a TV show unsuccessfully last fall, and I look forward to future unsuccessful TV show pitches as well. I think there’s so many ways to get a show, but knowing that standup is my primary thing, I think it’ll be unlikely to really see a TV show or movie get made in an immediate term. I think it’ll be years of hopefully raising my profile and developing the skills, making the relationships, and hopefully creating something that’s really good.
Is that what you wanna work toward? Do you wanna go the Saturday Night Live route at some point?
Well, I’ve always said I’m sort of a vessel for other people’s money. In that regard, I’m sort of optimizing for the best thing that comes my way. But no, I think in a perfect world my career could look like something like John Mulaney’s career, which is to say involvement as an actor in TV while still always doing standup and touring. Mulaney is very much primarily still a stand-up, but touring’s just personally very challenging, traveling as much as I do. So I think in the full course of time I would have different outlets. My view is everything that you say really should be funny and you shouldn’t be making points to make points. But I have points I wanna make. I just think I’d rather make them in TV or film rather than be onstage and be like, “Now let’s get real for a second.” I just don’t wanna be that guy ever. I’m not looking to be staffed in a writers room right now, but if the SNL cast decides they want another mediocre white guy who’s decent looking, I’ll give you my phone number and you can have them reach out to me.
