Background Image

...

I've Had Shows Where You Think, "is This Going Well? I Can't Tell," And Then You Say Goodnight And You Get This Ovation. They're Sorta Like A Theater Audience. I've Learned That Much; That They're Not Always Going To Be Doing Backflips - But I'll Never Figure It Out. Because Sometimes You Walk Up There, And They're So Excited, And Then Other Times, It's Just... But Sometimes An Audience Is Bad, And You Can Tell Them They're Bad, And That Sort Of Breaks The Ice A Bit.

-Todd Barry

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I've Had Shows Where

Todd Barry

...

I've Had Shows Where You Think, "is This Going Well? I Can't Tell," And Then You Say Goodnight And You Get This Ovation. They're Sorta Like A Theater Audience. I've Learned That Much; That They're Not Always Going To Be Doing Backflips - But I'll Never Figure It Out. Because Sometimes You Walk Up There, And They're So Excited, And Then Other Times, It's Just... But Sometimes An Audience Is Bad, And You Can Tell Them They're Bad, And That Sort Of Breaks The Ice A Bit.

Views: 68380

Topic

More From Todd Barry

Only Lately, Like Within The Last Few Years, Have I Had People Actually Do An Impression Of Me To Me, Which Weirds Me Out To Think Of What They Have Picked Up On, Without Ever Realizing It Myself

I Mean, I Guess I Started During The Comedy Boom, So It Was Literally Like, On Sunday You Could Decide You Wanted To Be A Comic, And On Monday, You Could Be On Stage

Comedy Clubs Are A Bit More Expensive. That's The Problem With Some Of These Places. But The Flipside Of That Is, If You Do Too Many Shows For Free Or $5, Then People Don't Understand Why You Can't Fly To Milwaukee And Do A Show For A $3 Cover. That Won't Even Pay For My Flight.

Buddha, Much Like Everyone Else Has Good And Bad Days.

Good And Bad Days

The Problem With A Lot Of Comedy Clubs Is Not That They Are A Comedy Club; It's Just The Cheesy Way They're Presenting Themselves. That's Why A Lot Of People Have A Problem With Them. If You're A Relatively Unknown Comedian, You Can Play At A Comedy Club, You Might Play To Hundreds Of People Every Night. But If You Try To Make A Concert Event Out Of It, And Try To Play A Rock Club Or Something, Where You Might Play To 10 People Or No People. And The Flipside Of That Is, That's Also A Great Thing, To Play To People Who Are Your Fans. Some People Are Too Hard On The Comedy Clubs.

I Want A Room That I Can Definitely Pack Out. I Don't Want To Sweat That Part, "am I Gonna Have Enough People?" So I Usually Pick Like A Hundred, A Relatively Small Room. Also, I'm Looser In A Small Room. I Don't Want To Record An Album In Front Of A Thousand People, Not That I Could Draw A Thousand, But I Just Want A Room That I Can Really Work Back To Front. That's Just A Very Comfortable Place For Me To Be Loose.

I Guess There Seems To Be Clubs Opening Up Again, Which Is Strange.

I Like Pens. My Writing Is So Amazing There's Never A Need To Erase

And The Goal Really Is To Make The Audience Laugh, To Bring Them Some Joy.

I Would Call It A Comedy Variety Show. We Have Some People Just Doing Straight Standup. We Usually Try To Have One Musical Act Of Sort. So Its Just People Being Funny In Different Ways, Not Just Sketch, Not Just Standup, Not Just Characters, All Of Those Things.

I Do Not Like Sports, Unless You Consider Treating All Humankind With Love And Respect A Sport.

Love And Respect

People In New York Love Having Roof Parties.

It's Cool To Go To A Place That Has Posters Up And It's One Night Only. It Feels More Special.

There Are Certain Things That Are Probably Too Mean. I Don't Particularly Like Fat Jokes. Those Kind Of Bother Me. But I Guess What I Was Trying To Say Is, If I Said I Would Never Laugh At This, You Could Probably Dig Around And Find A Situation Where I Did Laugh. I Try Not To Be A Hypocrite With That One. I Find When There's A Controversy About Someone Saying Something Offensive, I Usually Take The Angle Of, "well, I Don't Know If That Was Offensive; It Just Wasn't Funny." I Generally Don't Gasp, "oh My God!" I Think People Have Been Getting Raked Over The Coals Lately.

I Don't Feel I'm Even Worthy Of A Normal Amount Of Value.

I'd Rather Send Out A Mass Email Then Hang Posters All Over The Place

I Was Probably Just Trying To Be Dennis Miller, But Without The Vocabulary To Actually Be Dennis Miller. I Guess I Was Just Less Interesting Than I Am Now, If I Am Interesting At All

I Did End Up Doing Substitute Teaching, But There's Not A Lot Of Teaching Involved In That.

You Come There And Hang Out And Have A Drink Before The Show And Eat, So It's Not That Brutal. It's Only $6.

I Love Chicken. I Would Eat Chicken Fingers On Thanksgiving If It Were Socially Acceptable.

Chicken Nuggets

I Once Sat Next To Jim From Wild Kingdom On A Flight From Atlanta. I Find Mentioning That Opens A Lot Of Doors.

I Don't Know Any Astronauts. There Are A Lot Of People Who Say They Want To Be Comedians.

I Have A Podiatrist Appointment At 2.

If You See Me At A Restaurant, Blow Me A Kiss, Wave, Blow Me Another Kiss, Then Walk Five Steps Backward.

I Haven't Done A Lot In London. I Think Comedy Over There Is How It Was Over Here Years Ago. There's Tons Of It, And They're Better Paid.

I Don't Ban Bloggers From My Shows. I Have A Separate Line: Vip Seating For Bloggers.

I'm Particularly Proud Of My Reluctance To Share My Dreams With Anyone.

I Had Temping Jobs Also. I Liked The Flexibility. There Was No Asking For Time Off; You Just Didn't Work.

I Think People Have This "it Can't Hurt To Ask" Mentality, Which Is True On Some Level. I Get Comics Like, "hey, Will You Look At These Videos Of Me On Myspace?" I Was Like, "well, Who's Gonna Benefit From That? What If I Don't Like You?" No, I'm Gonna Write To A Stranger And Say, "hi. You Like Me, And I Don't Like You. And Now I Feel Bad When I Didn't Need To Feel Bad, Because You Put Me On The Spot." Or Like, "can I Open For You?" Well, I've Never Seen You Work, So No. I Certainly Made Awkward Mistakes When I Was Starting Out, And They're Just Trying To Have A Career.

I Don't Really Know Much About Pirates, Or Pirate Culture. I'd Be A Contrarian Pirate.

I Wasn't As Nervous As I Thought I Would Be When I Started

I Used To Write Things Out Beforehand. But Sometimes It Backfires

I Loved Australia. I Was Very Successful There

My Sister Sometimes Does A Todd Barry Tribute Act.

I Like Cilantro, But You Don't Have To.

Sometimes They're All Collectively Thinking, "wow, We're Kinda A Shitty Audience," And Then If You Point It Out, It's Kinda Like, "hey, I Know What's Going On. We Know What's Going On Up Here. Or What's Not Going On. And I'm Letting You Know That I Know. And Now We Can Fix This."

Anyone Who Bombs Is My Friend.

I Mean, I've Always Had Scattered Interests, But I Never Went On Stage To Get An Agent Or Anything Like That

I've Had Shows Where You Think, "is This Going Well? I Can't Tell," And Then You Say Goodnight And You Get This Ovation. They're Sorta Like A Theater Audience. I've Learned That Much; That They're Not Always Going To Be Doing Backflips - But I'll Never Figure It Out. Because Sometimes You Walk Up There, And They're So Excited, And Then Other Times, It's Just... But Sometimes An Audience Is Bad, And You Can Tell Them They're Bad, And That Sort Of Breaks The Ice A Bit.

There Seems To Be More Comedy For Comedy's Sake

I Am The The Type To Have A Personal Experience With A Celebrity, But I'm Too Classy To Bring That Up.

Personal Experiences

I Liked The Koala, Wallaby, And I Chilled With A Kangaroo A Bit. There Was A Wombat That I Quite Enjoyed Also

I Want To Release Another Cd This Year, Finish Writing A Screenplay, And Make Another Short Film

It Was Actually 3 Years Between Albums. That Seems Like A Long Time To Me

People Don't Understand That That's Really What It Is. They're Looking For A Magic Phone Number Or Something. And To A Certain Extent, I Understand That, Because Comedy Is Treated So Much As A Stepping Stone By A Lot Of People.

I Mean, I've Had Bartenders And Waiters And Waitresses Make A Comment About A Joke Of Mine, Like Pointing Out Some Sort Of Logic Error Or Something That I've Never Even Thought About, And They're Right.

There's People That Are Just In Awe Of What You Do, And Then There Are People Who Just Think It's Garbage. And I Think There Are People Who Are Just Uncomfortable Seeing Someone Have Fun With Their Job

I Must Have Done Everything I Had. You Go Through Years Where You Go Through Everything You've Ever Written

Through The Years

I Will Not Be Misquoted!

If I'm At A Party And Someone Puts On A Blues Brothers Tape, I Tend To Go Nuts.

Trending Author

Patrick Rothfuss

Callan McAuliffe

Category