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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 7
New York used to be intimidating to me because I was always knocking on
the door. Now every time I come here, it’s because I’m doing a TV show or
doing an interview with someone because I don’t care anymore. I know who
I am and I know what I’m doing. I got my people now. And when Hollywood
catches up, I’ll have a sitcom. There are a lot of family-friendly movies
being made now and they’re calling me to do. It’s happening because I’m
doing what I want. My passion is what I want to talk about. Find your passion
and you can’t fail because it’s what you were created to do.
When you started doing Christian comedy, there wasn’t a big market for it
at the time –
There were comics that were Christians prior to me. I don’t mean to imply
that I was only one doing it; but usually when you’re going to use that term,
Christian comedy, you had to go to church and understand. It’s kind of like
a cultural joke. If you tell me a Jewish joke, unless you’re Jewish, you don’t
really get the depth of it...I worked and trained in nightclubs. I wanted to be
hip. I remember saying to God, “You want me to go work with Christians.
I’ll do that. But I don’t want to dumb it down.”
The ground I was breaking was because I was in their church. I had to spoon
feed them, “I’m a Christian. Don’t worry. I’m one of you.” But I am going to
be sarcastic. If you show up late in this church, I’m going to make fun of you
just like I did in comedy clubs. If you go to the bathroom, I’m going to
make fun of you because Christians go to the bathroom too.
We’re hiding behind the fact that we are flawed people and we go to church
because we’re messed up and we’re looking for help. Why don’t we be
honest about that? So I had to be careful. You can be sincerely right about
something, but if you try to push them too soon, they’re going to resist.
So I just had to take my time.
The irony is, the first album I did Put a Helmet On Me was done at Thomas
Road Baptist Church. Jerry Falwell was sitting in the front row. You don’t get
much more conservative…you can’t tell it’s in a church and it’s a great album.
The next two albums were done in theaters. I want it to be neutral. I don’t
want people thinking this it’s a Christian show, but that I happen to have a
Christian world view. And so does most Americans.
the door. Now every time I come here, it’s because I’m doing a TV show or
doing an interview with someone because I don’t care anymore. I know who
I am and I know what I’m doing. I got my people now. And when Hollywood
catches up, I’ll have a sitcom. There are a lot of family-friendly movies
being made now and they’re calling me to do. It’s happening because I’m
doing what I want. My passion is what I want to talk about. Find your passion
and you can’t fail because it’s what you were created to do.
When you started doing Christian comedy, there wasn’t a big market for it
at the time –
There were comics that were Christians prior to me. I don’t mean to imply
that I was only one doing it; but usually when you’re going to use that term,
Christian comedy, you had to go to church and understand. It’s kind of like
a cultural joke. If you tell me a Jewish joke, unless you’re Jewish, you don’t
really get the depth of it...I worked and trained in nightclubs. I wanted to be
hip. I remember saying to God, “You want me to go work with Christians.
I’ll do that. But I don’t want to dumb it down.”
The ground I was breaking was because I was in their church. I had to spoon
feed them, “I’m a Christian. Don’t worry. I’m one of you.” But I am going to
be sarcastic. If you show up late in this church, I’m going to make fun of you
just like I did in comedy clubs. If you go to the bathroom, I’m going to
make fun of you because Christians go to the bathroom too.
We’re hiding behind the fact that we are flawed people and we go to church
because we’re messed up and we’re looking for help. Why don’t we be
honest about that? So I had to be careful. You can be sincerely right about
something, but if you try to push them too soon, they’re going to resist.
So I just had to take my time.
The irony is, the first album I did Put a Helmet On Me was done at Thomas
Road Baptist Church. Jerry Falwell was sitting in the front row. You don’t get
much more conservative…you can’t tell it’s in a church and it’s a great album.
The next two albums were done in theaters. I want it to be neutral. I don’t
want people thinking this it’s a Christian show, but that I happen to have a
Christian world view. And so does most Americans.
| The Risks of Being Discovered Too Soon "I had to learn how to headline when basically I wasn’t ready to headline. Most comics get to start out as an opener. They get to see every head- liner in the country and then they get to feature. You get to learn and grow and ask questions. I didn’t have that. I had no one to mentor me. I had to figure out on my own. The comics who get it too early haven’t built a foundation. They don’t know what they’re doing. It’s always better to be discovered too late than too early. If you get discovered too late, at least you’ve got the goods. It’s like, “Where you’ve been all my life?” If you get it too early, you might have a great set, do The Tonight Show and blow them away but if you only got 45 minutes of material, that’s going to get burned up real fast. By the time I started getting known a little bit, I’ve got three albums already and now touring on my fourth. I can do four hours of material because I kept writing." - Brad Stine |
So I’m just speaking for this giant group of people that never had a comic.
Why did you move to Nashville?
I felt like, at the time, I was supposed to do the Christian stuff and that’s where all the top record labels
for Christendom and country. It’s Middle America; it’s very conservative, it’s the type of people who would
like what I do. My agent is there. Warner Bros is there. It’s like Christian Hollywood.
We live in time where there’s bigotry of ideology. How do you handle the pressure of being a
conservative Christian comic?
When I wrote this book, Live From Middle America: Rants From a Red State Comedian, the whole point is: it’s
a conservative comedy book. Again, Bill Maher writes books. Lewis Black writes books. I just write for my
people. No big deal. It’s not mean-spirited. It’s not an Ann Coulter thing. I don’t attack. I tease.
Publishers Weekly reviewed it and the first line read, “Brad Stine believes that sex should be between a
man and a woman, committed to each other for the rest of their lives.” Like, can you believe that? What
kind of a backward Neanderthal man would think that man should be committed to his wife until she died?
That’s what America has become.
Why did you move to Nashville?
I felt like, at the time, I was supposed to do the Christian stuff and that’s where all the top record labels
for Christendom and country. It’s Middle America; it’s very conservative, it’s the type of people who would
like what I do. My agent is there. Warner Bros is there. It’s like Christian Hollywood.
We live in time where there’s bigotry of ideology. How do you handle the pressure of being a
conservative Christian comic?
When I wrote this book, Live From Middle America: Rants From a Red State Comedian, the whole point is: it’s
a conservative comedy book. Again, Bill Maher writes books. Lewis Black writes books. I just write for my
people. No big deal. It’s not mean-spirited. It’s not an Ann Coulter thing. I don’t attack. I tease.
Publishers Weekly reviewed it and the first line read, “Brad Stine believes that sex should be between a
man and a woman, committed to each other for the rest of their lives.” Like, can you believe that? What
kind of a backward Neanderthal man would think that man should be committed to his wife until she died?
That’s what America has become.