| StageTimeMag.com | Vol. 2 No. 1 |
Comedy news, interviews, reviews and essays
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE FEATURES Festival Wrap Up: New York Underground Comedy Festival Hustle & Grow: STAGE TIME Celebrates 1st Anniversary Comic Resolutions 2007 Comic's Final Progress Report 2006 INTERVIEWS Brad Stine **NEW** Careers in Comedy: Ryan McCormick PR Manager COVER STORY Shang REVIEWS Angry Bob Comedy Jump Off Doug Powell Eric Schwartz James P. Connolly **NEW** Anatomy of a Joke "Racism Damnit!" Written and Performed by Shang |
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BRAD STINE - PAGE 2
What type of material did you do?
It was pretty much straight observational. I was in the same boat that every
comic who starts out and you’re trying to figure out: Who are you? What is
my voice? What do I want to do? You start looking in all the wrong direct-
ions. You’re looking for that something to give you that extra edge, because
no one is funnier than anybody else. Who’s to say that this laugh is more
valid than that laugh? It’s a totally subjective art. I just began to explore
any avenues from general observational humor like road signs and airplane
jokes, because it’s the world we’re in all the time, but I also was a big fan of
Monty Python and Steve Martin. I would look for intellectual, weird things to
thrown in.
The cool thing about comedy is that you can do whatever you want. As long
as they laugh, you’re doing your job. It’s really a cool art form in that you
can really experiment. I went on that road of trying to hone those things,
getting rid of the some of the dumb stuff that wasn’t working and toning it
down. I was learning to rely less on energy and more on the content of my
It was pretty much straight observational. I was in the same boat that every
comic who starts out and you’re trying to figure out: Who are you? What is
my voice? What do I want to do? You start looking in all the wrong direct-
ions. You’re looking for that something to give you that extra edge, because
no one is funnier than anybody else. Who’s to say that this laugh is more
valid than that laugh? It’s a totally subjective art. I just began to explore
any avenues from general observational humor like road signs and airplane
jokes, because it’s the world we’re in all the time, but I also was a big fan of
Monty Python and Steve Martin. I would look for intellectual, weird things to
thrown in.
The cool thing about comedy is that you can do whatever you want. As long
as they laugh, you’re doing your job. It’s really a cool art form in that you
can really experiment. I went on that road of trying to hone those things,
getting rid of the some of the dumb stuff that wasn’t working and toning it
down. I was learning to rely less on energy and more on the content of my
material – because I never cursed onstage, so I had to find other ways to compete with the other comics
who were using the F-word. I felt like sometimes the energy that I threw in my show, some of the the-
atrical elements made up for that. I had to find other ways to engage the audience. It took me a long
time to really figure out what was going to drive my comedy and put me in the next league where I felt
like I knew what I was doing and what I was selling.
As a headliner, how do you follow comics who are doing blue humor?
At that time, first off, I had no options. I’ve been in clubs where I’ve seen headliners tell people, “Drop
that bit, because I do a bit like that.” Most guys who are really dirty will not let people in front of them be
dirty, because they want to save all those curse words for themselves. It’s really weird like that.
I remember thinking to myself, as much as it’s difficult sometimes to follow if they go they go in that
direction, I always look at it as a challenge: “Can I compete with this guy, even though I’m going to be
curse-free?” To me, it was a challenge. I’m proud of this – I never went to a feature or an opener and
said, “I do a bit on airplanes…” I felt like, “I’m the headliner.” If I can’t follow them, then I shouldn’t be
headlining.
You have to reach a place, eventually as a headliner that you know what you’re doing. You’re so confident
that you can follow anybody. Before that, you’re faking it. Before you reach that place, you have to create
within yourself a sense that you can follow anyone, because that’s the unique difficulty of this art form.
It’s the only art form that I know that you have to rehearse in front of the audience. If you have the
wherewithal to become a professional stand up comic, you can handle the rejection, people hating you,
then whatever it comes your way, you just have to adapt. But in the end, that’s what makes you a really
good comic because suddenly nothing throws you. You’re prepared for every possible scenario.
I’ve been in everything from military guards where they’re shutting down the pool tables and guys in front
of you are really dirty to [playing] giant stadiums. And now I can say, you pretty much couldn’t throw me
into something I haven’t experienced or done. In the long run, it gave me the comic ability to reach this
place anyway.
One of the things I used to say towards the end of my show was, “Well, I’ve been up for 45 minutes and I
didn’t use one curse word. They said it couldn’t be done, but I do it every night because I believe
creativity is funnier than crude.” I actually started throwing the gauntlet down like to say to the audience,
"Did you know why they curse?” Because I would get frustrated, not because someone I cared that
someone cursed, but what frustrated me was when they curse in lieu of good writing, because sometimes
it’s a crutch. It’s a prop.
It becomes an easy way and maybe, I can’t condemn them because I started out using props – it
becomes an easy to get a laugh because you really don’t have anything to say yet. Does that mean that
if a guy curses, he’s automatically disqualified?
who were using the F-word. I felt like sometimes the energy that I threw in my show, some of the the-
atrical elements made up for that. I had to find other ways to engage the audience. It took me a long
time to really figure out what was going to drive my comedy and put me in the next league where I felt
like I knew what I was doing and what I was selling.
As a headliner, how do you follow comics who are doing blue humor?
At that time, first off, I had no options. I’ve been in clubs where I’ve seen headliners tell people, “Drop
that bit, because I do a bit like that.” Most guys who are really dirty will not let people in front of them be
dirty, because they want to save all those curse words for themselves. It’s really weird like that.
I remember thinking to myself, as much as it’s difficult sometimes to follow if they go they go in that
direction, I always look at it as a challenge: “Can I compete with this guy, even though I’m going to be
curse-free?” To me, it was a challenge. I’m proud of this – I never went to a feature or an opener and
said, “I do a bit on airplanes…” I felt like, “I’m the headliner.” If I can’t follow them, then I shouldn’t be
headlining.
You have to reach a place, eventually as a headliner that you know what you’re doing. You’re so confident
that you can follow anybody. Before that, you’re faking it. Before you reach that place, you have to create
within yourself a sense that you can follow anyone, because that’s the unique difficulty of this art form.
It’s the only art form that I know that you have to rehearse in front of the audience. If you have the
wherewithal to become a professional stand up comic, you can handle the rejection, people hating you,
then whatever it comes your way, you just have to adapt. But in the end, that’s what makes you a really
good comic because suddenly nothing throws you. You’re prepared for every possible scenario.
I’ve been in everything from military guards where they’re shutting down the pool tables and guys in front
of you are really dirty to [playing] giant stadiums. And now I can say, you pretty much couldn’t throw me
into something I haven’t experienced or done. In the long run, it gave me the comic ability to reach this
place anyway.
One of the things I used to say towards the end of my show was, “Well, I’ve been up for 45 minutes and I
didn’t use one curse word. They said it couldn’t be done, but I do it every night because I believe
creativity is funnier than crude.” I actually started throwing the gauntlet down like to say to the audience,
"Did you know why they curse?” Because I would get frustrated, not because someone I cared that
someone cursed, but what frustrated me was when they curse in lieu of good writing, because sometimes
it’s a crutch. It’s a prop.
It becomes an easy way and maybe, I can’t condemn them because I started out using props – it
becomes an easy to get a laugh because you really don’t have anything to say yet. Does that mean that
if a guy curses, he’s automatically disqualified?