Too Soon?
October 4, 2007 · Print This Article
When it comes to stand up there is a fine line between edgy and asshole, and while some comics have mastered walking the tightrope, far more intend on going for shock value and find themselves booed off stage. Brian tries to define when pushing the limit goes too far and why the average open micer is not Lenny Bruce.
Other topics include an interview with a young up and comer (and I mean young) who is just days away from his first performance, the pro’s and con’s of eating until your stomach lining bursts, BTB’s British invasion, and an audience requested comedy spotlight who’s never been afraid to offend an audience. Good thing I’m not laying a big stanley steamer in here!
Email: brianmcomedy@gmail.com and give us a call on 206-203-4692
Another great show. I’m really glad my post on the website Chortle got more British listeners - if there are any Chortlers here, why not post on it’s thread below about how much you enjoy BTB and maybe get even more Brit interest?
http://forums.chortle.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=19351
Thanks for the cool podcast. I’m half way through it and loving it so far.
Also, thanks especially to the first sentence of your description, above. It, combined with something I said on my own first posting at BtB, was the spark behind the original material I just phoned in.
By the way, I understand you feeling uncomfortable once you realize you’ve got 14-year-olds listening. I hope you don’t also feel weird knowing you’ve got a preacherman in the audience. I love what you do and the way you do it. Keep it up.
At the risk of being a comment hog…
Finished the podcast. I LOVED the question on poop jokes at open mic’s. I’ve been struggling with the exact same thing. I’ve got some “uncouth” language in my material, but it’s all there for a reason. I don’t want laughs just because I made someone uncomfortable; I want laughs because I’m funny. But, then I worry about not getting any laughs at all, and suddenly stories about shitting in the sink start to look like a nice safe route for my first time.
I also really resonate with the talk of “coming out” as a comedian. Personally, I am worried about anyone in my congregation coming to see my stand up. My mom already knows I’m doing this–she’s a very cosmopolitan woman who lives 300 miles away, so no worries there. But if some of the more staid folks who come to hear me preach on Sundays were to wander in to an open mic that…wait…no, I guess that would never happen.
Still, I’m always a bit uncomfortable whenever I think of my “worlds colliding”, as George would say.
Brian,
It’s taken me a while but I’ve finally caught up on these shows when I’ve not been listening to the Not Iowa ones.
It was great to hear the Who’s on first routine again it really does stand the test of time. So, I’ve got a question for you on this. Double acts - Do you think there’s still a place for them in todays comedy and if so can they be as simple as a straight man and a dunny man or do both need to be able to deliver the punch lines.
Hey Brian
pmac from TAI here - needed more podcasts for my daily commute and since ur pretty funny sometimes I thought id check Behind the Bricks out. Really enjoyed this show so will be def tuning in again.
One thing i wanted to mention is that heaps of podcasters dont seem to flow well when they host but you seem to be a natural at keeping things moving along nicely etc. Ive thought that on all the diff shows ive heard you on. You sound like a figgin pro man!!!
Anyway - enough manlove
Keep up the good work man
Thank you for slumming it up on the BTB boards EB and pmac, glad you’re enjoying the shows so far.
EB - Great questions about comedy duos. There are a few bumping about, but definitely not what they used to be. We’ll chat about it on next week’s show.
pmac - Don’t feel weird about the man love. You’ve listened to me long enough to know that I am pro man love in all it’s forms.
Mac- Hey now, I’m almost 15. lol.
I loved the podcast, mainly because I am narcissic, and got to hear myself talk for like 10 minutes. Then again, it wasn’t so great as I found out that my voice somewhat cracked during the interview.
Gotta give major props to Leonardo, I enjoyed the joke.
For a clarification, I went to the Kims of Comedy tour.
Umm… I may add more thoughts later. I need to go work on my set. less than 48 hours until I peform. yikes.
Mike NR
TY Mike NR, and good luck.
Thanks to Brian for the feedback, made perfect sense. I love that you broke it down like that. Before I called I bounced it off my wife and she just looked blankly at me and said, “That’s mean, making fun of deaf people.”
Anyone else notice Dave is using the famous Bob Sagat “What?” line during the Top Ten List?
No disrespect, Mike(nr)! At almost 15 I would never have tried stand up before a big crowd; I wouldn’t have known how to even begin preparing for a task like that.
I hope your debut is a fun one!
I was wondering how essential do you think improv experience is to developing into a more well rounded standup? The crowd at one of the open mics is different every week but they somehow yell out the same shit (strippers!, midgets!, husker football players!). There are 2 improvs with all of the open mikers in the middle of the show and it is extremely lame and I dont even participate in it half the time but I feel that I may be missing out on a skill that could be valuable in standup.
After doing stand-up for 3 years, I joined an improv troupe for the extra stage time and the belief it would help make me more free-flowing and inventive in my own act. I don’t think it made one bit of difference. The improv group I joined just did the same games each week and offered little in the way of real spontaneity. The only good thing to come from it was riffing with the crowd, but then an audience for improv are a lot more sympathetic and receptive than if you try doing the same thing in a stand-up act.
Good call Rick. I believe improv and crowd work/dealing with hecklers are completely different things, and as someone who has done both, neither helped the other, at least not in my case.
I think the fundamental difference with improv is that you’re still in a fourth wall mode, generally. Most improv I’ve seen takes a few audience suggestions then turns right back to the sketch on stage… it’s more akin to acting, where you listen and react to your scene partners.
That being said… I think if you’re a surreal/absurd comic, improv helps develop the part of your brain that deals in the absurd. Turns off your self-censor. One (probably not very apt) example would be Kristen Schaal, whose routines often have a good balance of character work and traditional stand-up.
Since Next week is sitcoms where Comedians work thweir routines in you think of Bill cosby which has been done. Then you have Redd Foxx who did Sanford and Son this guy was one of the best black comics ever.People need to hear Redd on stage he’s a hilarious.
I am scared of doing crowd work. At least until i can come up with a good response, then I just hope only one person will heckle, instead of an entire crowd.
hey brian I wanna ring in and leave a voice mail but calls to america from over here in britannia ain’t cheap at all and im hard up as it is!! (im a college student) I got a joke for your original joke contest could i send you an audio recording or something???? btw nice to hear an interview with someone who’s not even started preforming comedy yet be good if u can get some more cus they were v good and kept me intrested while i was meant to be working
btw if u wana see Ricky Gervais stand up just go you tube, theres aload there. haha ive been meaning to say that for weeks!!
Thanks Johnny B. Glad you’re enjoying the show. You can absolutely email me an mp3 with your joke submission. Look forward to hearing it.
Hey Brian, I was wondering what hecklers. I know you have talked about them a lot but do you keep material ready to say if a heckler says sometime to you while your on stage or do you just come up with it right there and its always new?
So this has nothing to do with the show - but I thought I’d be safe venting/seeking advice here. Against many of the folks around here’s advice - I signed up for a comedy workshop in Chicago. It was a “beginner” workshop - and while I’m no veteran by any means (just over a year on stage), I am a bit farther ahead than those in the workshop with me. And the entire reason I took the beginner workshop was to meet people here in Chicago (I just moved here in the summer)… that and to make some networking connections in the comedy scene here.
So yeah - I didn’t have a bad time, persay - and I really was looking forward to some objective constructive criticism. On the last week of class, everyone got up and did “5 minutes” - which, in most cases were folks just getting on a stage for the first time with 10 other people they’d been hanging out with for 4 weeks. Nearly every last one of em got raked over the coals and was told what they were doing wrong (and for good reason - talking about shit, and piss and cadaver fucking, f-words and mammograms the first time is never really smart)… all these things against the “good practices of a n00b that was communicated in the workshop. A few folks really did good work, it was cool to see.
In every single case, though - the comments they got, while harsh, were really constructive. Not just “don’t do that you fucking idiot” but “hey, listen, don’t start with something like that - you’ll alienate your audience” - try this instead.
So I get to the the part that glazes me. And yeah, it’s my own damn fault for going - but I did my 5 minutes… 80% new material I wrote just for class, the other was my opener and my closer I had been doing for about 3 months. And I felt pretty good about my “set” as it were.
I got off stage and was really surprised that not one constructive things was said. I was told I was not fat enough to tell fat jokes (I will be the first to admit I tell too many and am working hard to write non-fat jokes), that I am just an average white girl with nothing memorable about me and that I am “mentally further ahead than I probably should be”. And that was followed by “But don’t take that the wrong way.”
WTF?
I *KNOW* I shouldn’t care what one or two people’s thoughts of me are. But the booker for the club was there, watching (more for his own entertainment than seeking new performers, for sure), and I felt so insulted. NOT because of what was said - but because even after I paid $$$ and hauled my ass to the city, and never was late, and followed the rules with my set, I was raked over the coals with NOT ONE OUNCE OF CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.
I shouldn’t care, right? I should just blow it off. Not everyone needs to like me, right? But I’m telling you it was a kick in the stomach. I don’t think I’m great - I don’t even think I’m that good - but cripes, I work really hard to write the shit I do. And I get laughs - some good crowd laughs. I don’t kill every time - but I work my ass off for the laughs I get.
I am asked to open - I didn’t seek it out. I was asked. I was asked to do showcases -I didn’t seek it out. I just went up, performed and was asked. That has to stand for something.
So why can’t I brush it off? It has to be more than these 2 pillars of Chicago comedy telling me I pretty much suck - right?
And I have a gig this weekend, and I don’t want to suck - and now I’m all insecure and fucked up about this whole thing. And if I do suck? After a year - maybe these are the first people to tell me and maybe I wasn’t ready to hear it.
Because I love comedy. I do. I want to do comedy and be comedy and if comedy were a man I’d fuck it. Or even a woman. I don’t care.
Maybe I’m the only insecure crazy person out here - but I had to vent.
Thanks *sigh*
I don’t know if this’ll help or not… But I find that taking a bash to my ego’s head usually helps in the long run, even though it can really mess with my “game” the next one or two times I go up. This is true whether someone hates my sermon, tells me I was unbelievable in a play, or crushes me in a chess game. (Yeah, I play tournament chess, too.)
Anyway, when I get knocked off my perch, I remind myself of how and why I got where I am in the first place. One crappy night doesn’t undo that. And in the mean time, maybe there’s something I was doing different this time, that I need to figure out and then watch out for.
I recently heard someone (Seinfeld? Someone on BtB?) say, “Never believe your own press, whether it’s good or bad.” Good advice, I think. The trick, I guess, is balancing that non-chalance toward others’ opinions with a willingness to learn from criticism. So take nothing you hear from others to heart, but at the same time be willing to at least consider all feedback intellectually.
Hrm. Still, that’s tough.
I hope I’m not out of line, but there was a tone in your post that I picked up (and it may only be me) that because you were a bit more seasoned and not making the noobie mistakes everyone else was making, that you were expecting a certain degree of praise or validation. I totally understand what you were saying about the lack of constructive criticism and I think you’re absolutely right, but at the same time I envision the other students in your class having similar venting sessions, and quite frankly it’s a place I’ve been many times before.
When I moved to NY I was performing on new talent nights with people who had never been on a stage in their lives and I had about 2 years experience. When a booker/audience member would criticize me my first thought was always, “What are you talking about? Did you see these other train wrecks who performed?”
Anyway, I hope that wasn’t totally offensive, like I said, just something I was picking up from your post. Overall Mac is right. As comic’s we crave acceptance from everyone., and eve when we crush a room we’ll always remember the old lady in the front row who didn’t crack a smile.
Mac - thanks. Really. And um, is there anything you don’t do
Brian - not out of line at all. I guess there was some of that. But more so, I was upset because after paying money I got nothing constructive. It really just left me feeling like shit and out a few hundred bucks. I guess maybe my expectations were off.
That’s a great point that I didn’t even consider Amelia. None of those instances that I described earlier involved me paying to get unnecessarily criticized.
Well if the criticism is necessary then I do need to hear it. I just - it was a total blow to my ego, for sure, to not get ONE constructive thing from a “beginner” workshop. Thanks for your considerate replies
Hey, for those interested, the latest This American Life features a hilarious story about some NYC comedians trying to do stand-up at kids summer camps. http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=341