Brightest Young Things

Okay, a Steven Wright interview on paper is not the same as actually listening to a Steven Wright interview.  His voice is so amazing that you just want him to sit at the breakfast table on a Saturday morning with him while you spread jam and butter on toast and he reads aloud from the Sports section. We asked local comedian/Bentzen Ball Alum/powerlifter Rory Scovel to talk to the veteren groundbreaking stand-up and cameo specialist earlier this week.

BYT: Hi Steven!
SW: Yes, what show is this for?

BYT: Well, it's for a group in DC, they're called Brightest Young Things. They do a website and promote different shows and I think they had an interview set up with you, but they thought it would be better if a comic interviewed a comic, so they wanted me to do it.
SW: Oh, you're a stand-up?

BYT: I am. But, I don't know specifically what they're going to use it for. They just gave me the phone number and told me to think of questions.
SW: How long have you been doing it?

BYT: About six years.
SW: Oh cool. That's good.

BYT: Yeah, I'm glad that I could tell you that because you may find these question to be not very journalistic, I guess. If that's the word.
SW: No problem, whatever happens, happens.

BYT: Nice, I guess you're on a tour right now, I was looking into that, how's that going so far?
SW: So far, so good. We did two cities so far down in Florida, and we're doing another show tonight.

BYT: Oh OK. In thinking about that, when you first started doing stand-up comedy did you  envision this as the direction you would go? Like, 'Well, one day I would like to be doing theaters, and writing, or acting in different projects, or did it kind of just lead to this point the more you did it?
SW: I mainly wanted to just do it and see if I could go on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and I didn't really think of what was in the long run. I just wanted to be a comedian, and it went on from there and I performed around.

BYT: Just trying to see if the more you stuck it out and you did the Johnny Carson thing, then you would just see where it would go?
SW: Yeah, but when I went on the air, everything changed. My career and my life changed.

BYT: Was it at that point that maybe people started to tap you for things outside of stand up comedy, like writing for television or film?
SW: It was after I went on there a bunch of times that I got some acting jobs. I never wrote for television or anything, but I wrote a couple of short films with a friend of mine. Everything happened for me after the Tonight Show. I made an album a few years later, and then did HBO specials and things like that.

BYT: Now it seems as though the comedians that I'm around or that I see seem to have this focus or bullet points on things they want to accomplish within a certain number of years. But, it seems like there is more longevity to your career if its just sort of a natural thing that you don't look for I guess.
SW: You think that people who start now have more of a schedule?

BYT: I feel like they do. I feel like they look at what the people who come before them did, and they sort of think, "Well, if so-and-so did the Tonight Show in this many years, I have to do it in so many years or I haven't succeeded, or I'm not good at it." But, I find that those people tend to drop off pretty quickly. So it's good to know that the people that that started with years ago didn't look to specifically achieve this one goal and it was more like, "Oh I want to do it to obtain this and then after that, it just happens."
SW: Yeah, my goal was to get on the air and then see if I could get an acting job in a movie, which I did.

BYT: Do you find that from the start of your career to now that the joke writing has become easier, or has the process changed overall?
SW: It's kind of still the same. It's just noticing stuff. Sometimes you see a joke, or you twist something into a joke. The process is kind of the ame or than I used to think of them much more in the beginning.

BYT: After accomplishing what you have accomplished, do you feel as though there is a certain expectation from the crowd, that when you go into your writing, do you feel like there is certain things you have to touch on or present in a certain way because people know you now?
SW: No, I just hopefully think of stuff that is funny, but I don't have a plan to touch on certain subjects. I just make jokes up that are funny, they're not really fitting into categories. Although, I wanted to make a joke about apps on the phone there, and that's rare for me to make up a specific joke about a specific subject. Usually I don't.

BYT: Right, because it also becomes sort of topical and has a shelf life in a way. It seems like your stuff doesn't really have that, it seems like you could tell your jokes 30, 40 years from now and it still would be relevant as opposed to a very specific thing I guess.
SW: Yeah, that's true.

BYT: Because of that, do you find that you're ever at a point that you are doing a joke that you just no longer enjoy telling it, but it still gets a great reaction? Do you feel like if you don't enjoy it, then you drop it, or do you keep stuff because it still does well and it's a good joke?
SW: I keep them because they still work. I have no problem with that.

BYT: I also asked some other comics if they go to ask you a question, what would they ask you, and a lot of them wondered if, early in career, because of your pace and your voice, if you found a crowd a crowd wanted something that was maybe higher energy, did you find it tough to sort of build that confidence to just keep pushing with what you had? You know, not really having a plan B anyways, but was there a certain amount of time where you really had to build confidence to just keep pushing with what you had, or did it just kind of work right off when you started.
SW: Right from the beginning, from the very first appearance, they would laugh at some of the stuff, and they wouldn't laugh at other stuff. So, my demeanor or my energy wasn't a factor. It was depending on what I was saying. So, some of it worked, and some of it didn't, but it wasn't how I was presenting it. I didn't have a problem like that. The audience doesn't really care; they only care if it's funny or not.

BYT: Was there ever a time when anyone asked you, maybe a book or an industry, had an sort of negative criticism towards your style?
SW: No, no. I started in Boston, and a lot comedians started there and we just did what came naturally. No one ever tried to change me. I'm lucky that there was no one around to even do that. That's why I'm lucky that I have this persona and this character that just kind of is just an extension of me and the audience likes it, so I am happy they do.

BYT:  Yeah, I think my appeal, or my attraction to it is just the honesty of it. It seems to be more engaging because it gives off that honesty so people are more invested I think.
SW: Oh, thank you.

BYT: You just mentioned Boston; when you were just starting up in the comedy community, was everybody pretty supportive of each other, or was there sort of a competitive edge because of the boom, you know, kind of this realization of what you could with stand-up comedy.
SW: I always found it supportive, it was always a positive thing with the people that I knew at the time. We were all innocent, no one knew what they were doing, and we were learning as we did it.

BYT: Was there anyone specific that you looked up to? As far as getting started, someone that you watched and you thought, "I would like to try this because I like what that person's doing or how they're doing it"?
SW: I wouldn't try how they were doing it, but there were comedians that I really like. Like Donovan, like Mike McDonald, John Gave (???), Steve Sweeney, just really people. I admired what they were doing.

BYT: Is that Mike McDonald from Canada?
SW: No, one in Massachusetts.

BYT: Has the level of nervousness you get before you go on stage changed over time?
SW: Uhh, yeah. There's still an anxiousness about it because it's not a normal thing to do, to go out and talk in front of that many people and try to make them laugh. So, there's a little bit of a tension there. I think it's normal to have that. I mean, sometimes it's barely there at all, but other times it's there, especially if I haven't done a show for a while.

BYT: Just kind of wondering about the pace, or the memory of going from one joke to the next kind of thing?
SW: Just a little bit, not that much. I mean I have been doing it so long, I'm pretty comfortable up there, but it can go wrong so easy. You know, it's very delicate, as you know, because you do it. I mean, even if you stumble on one word in a joke, the joke won't go nearly as well.

BYT: How about heckling? I try to picture somebody heckling you, and I can't imagine how it would go. I'm sure it's happened at some point, I feel like it happens to everybody. I can't imagine you doing a show tonight or tomorrow and someone heckles, but if they did, is that something you handle, and maybe somewhat sort of enjoy getting to handle, or do you like it when they are there and you're there and everyone's doing their thing?
Sw: I would just ignore them, and that's what I do when they are heckling. Ignore them, ignore them, ignore them. I don't get heckled really. I did in the early days, like everyone gets heckled, and I would just try to ignore them and if I couldn't, then I would just say, "Fuck you." I never tried to, i couldn't make a joke about it, like think of something off the top of my head. And usually when I would say, "Fuck you" that would get a laugh too, because I wouldn't have swore in the whole time until then.

BYT: Is that also something else that you make a conscious effort in keeping it pretty clean?
SW: Yes, I started doing that right from the beginning because I didn't want to develop material that if I ever got that chance to go on national television, I wanted to be able to do my material, I didn't want to build up a lot of stuff that I couldn't do anyway.
BYT: Yeah, I feel like that is the boat I am in. I wish I would have started with a focus on being cleaner instead of having to clean it up.

BYT: Is there any specific type of comedy that you enjoy yourself? Or, because you are so involved with it, do you try to maybe stay outside of it with other art. I noticed you do painting and music as well. Or is there a comedy that you like to go back to as inspiration for yourself?
SW: Sometimes I will read some Kurt Vonnegut books to inspire myself, but I don't really go back to stand ups to inspire myself. But I like watching the talk shows, Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson and Letterman and Leno. You know, I still watch comedians here and there occasionally.

BYT: On your tour now, do you actually have somebody open for you, or do you find it easier to just go straight out? Do you feel that your audience knows what they want and they know what they paid for, so it's just as well for you to go straight out?
SW: Yeah, 95% of the time there's no opening act. Sometimes, the theater wants to have one and they'll get an opening act, but most of the time there isn't one.Which is alright, you know?

BYT: Early on in your career, was there ever a time when you were legitimately worried about money to keep doing stand up, to be able to keep yourself going and have the time to do it or to have to try to find money elsewhere, and also step away from it for a bit? (15:56 in : 8:06 left)
SW: Well, when I started, I was painting the dormitories of Emerson College in Boston. I was painting during the day, and then I was doing comedy at night. A few months later I had another job in the day, working in the MIT Coop bookstore. And then, when I started making enough to pay my rent, which was about $175, then I stopped working in the day and just kept doing shows at night. So, I didn't have to ever go back and get a regular job.

BYT: When you took that leap, it was good to go and you were able to just keep supporting?
SW: Yeah, I mean I lived, I just barely had any money, but I had to go around my apartment and get change to take the subway in order to get to the show.

BYT: When you did finally become a full time comedian, was there any doubt that you were ready for it? Did you know, "I am good, this is what I should be doing and I'm gonna hit it head on. This is the time."?
SW: I never had that amount of confidence. I was just doing it, and slowly learning to do it, but I never thought of what you described. I never felt that confident. I just kept going to the shows every night. About 5 nights a week, or 4 nights a week working on my act. I didn't know what was going to happen. I certainly didn't think I was something.

BYT: Early on, when you said you were writing a lot more and you had a lot more ideas, would you actually commit a certain amount of time to sit and work on stuff, or what is just kind of like when an idea hit you, you wrote it down and then time to work on it was when you hit the stage, or were you very disciplined as a writer early on?
SW: In the very beginning, I tried to write on purpose, but after I started doing it for a while, the jokes just kinda would come to me. I mean, my subconscious was searching for jokes, but other than the beginning I didn't sit down and try to write them. I was noticing, I was aware and observing things and some of the jokes would just jump out to me.

BYT: I personally find those jokes to be the funnier ones, when you're not really looking for it, it just kind of jumps out at you
SW: Yup, because they're more natural. On the other hand, I think it's kind of good to try to write on purpose. I'm contradicting what I said, but I think as a comedian it would be good to try to write on purpose. I wish I had.

BYT: Any thought on how the media and Youtube has really changed things? I read an interview recently, someone had interviewed Gallagher in The Onion, and he said that comedy had become mediocre and unclever and unsmart. Do you ever get an opinion similar to that with current comedy. Do you ever think, "Back when I was doing it, there was a different energy or a different vibe, and now it's changed so much"?
SW: No, I think there's a lot of good comedy out now. There's so many comedians, and there's so many really excellent ones. You know, Lewis Black, and Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle. I don't think that when I came up that those were any better days than there are now.

BYT: Final thought, are you a big fan of meditation and stuff to relax and kind of focus on what you're doing?
SW: No, not really. I've never really done that.

BYT: Ok, well I think that's everything, unless there was anything else you want to throw out.
SW: Can you hold on for a second?

BYT: Yes
SW: No that's it, I just think that when you do what you do, you should trust yourself. Trust what you think is funny and just try it out on the audience. I would try jokes on my friends and if they didn't laugh, I wouldn't try them. And then one night, I did some stuff that someone didn't like, and it worked. So, from then on I would just trust my own gut, and I think you should trust your own gut. Not that you asked me for advice, but just trust your own gut on what you think is funny and try it directly on the audience.

BYT: Ok, well I really appreciate this phone call. It's a really cool experience for myself and I think, I hope they're gonna be happy with my work.
SW: I'm sure it will be alright. Thank you, I enjoyed speaking with you.

BYT: Thank you and good luck with the tour.
SW: Thank you and one other thing. The connection between the performer and the audience is very important so, if you come across, I don't know how to describe it, but if they like the person and feel comfortable with the person on stage, that will make the connection stronger.

BYT: Just sort of a sense of likeability and confidence, that sort of translates?
SW: Yeah. And I wish you the best, and maybe I'll see you sometime. If you ever go to one of my shows, just come backstage and say hello. Are you going to the one in Washington?

Steven Wright will be at Warner Theatre Saturday Night. Tickets are still available. http://www.warnertheatre.com/

Previously in comedy:

• 2/10: Behind The Desk 35: Spotting THE Crazy In the Arts (Vol. 2)
• 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
• 1/24: LiveDC: Adam Carolla @ Fillmore
• 1/20: Behind The Desk 32: Eddie Brill Is Common
• 1/17: LiveDC: JB Smoove @ 930 Club
• 12/8: Tom Arnold - Up Close & Very Nice
• 12/5: LiveDC: Michael Ian Black @ Sixth and I Synagogue
• 12/5: Lauren Weedman-BUSTED
• 12/1: R.I.P. Patrice O'Neal - brilliant 1969 to 2011
• 11/30: BYT Interview: Michael Ian Black