Since I was eleven, being a standup comic is all I ever wanted to be. I actually thought it was a noble profession. I remember being a kid and watching Rickles and Hackett on the tube, reading the My Favorite Jokes column at the back of Parade magazine every Sunday, listening to Carlin, Pryor, Cheech and Chong records with my little brother, going to Woody Allen movies, and staying up late on Saturdays to see the first season of SNL.
To me being a comic meant to be autonomous, angry, truthful, and funny. It meant being alive and present in the moment. It meant having the freedom to figure out and then be who I am in the purest way and to do it shamelessly in front of people, impose it on them and try to blow some minds in the process. It meant avoiding the soul death of the day job. Being a comic entitled me to live like a fucking gypsy until something clicked, and if it didn't, who knows? I've been fortunate enough to have a few dispersed clicks throughout what I guess has been a show biz career of relative obscurity but with a real freedom from the bondage of mediocrity.
I have a hard time describing what I do or what I am up there on stage. I've been called: neurotic, a story teller, heady, cerebral, angry, brilliant, bad, a problem, a cultural critic, a satirist, fucking funny, an important voice, etc.
Recently a young woman who had just seen me came out on to the street, came up to me, excited, and said, "You were really great. You're like Woody Allen." Of course, I found a way to make that a negative and said, "Really? I think I'm a little angrier than Woody Allen." In response she said, "You're like an Iggy Pop Woody Allen."
I liked that. I think if that helps you understand what I do, it's a reasonable description of where I'm at lately.
So, that being said, I am first and foremost a standup comic. I have appeared on TV, in film, on the staff, in print, on the radio, but all I ever wanted to be, and what I am now, is a stand up comic. I've appeared on just about every show that allows standup comics.
