Reggie Watts interview

Here's a phone interview I did last month with Reggie Watts. I first saw Watts in 2008 at the comedy festival here in Vancouver. I'd never heard of him before and he blew me away. Then I interviewed him in 2009 when he was a little bigger. Now everyone knows the guy. At least the comedy world does. He's a unique talent. I haven't seen him in his new gig as bandleader on The Late Show with James Corden but he's doing that, which is a bit of a departure, even though he was a one-man bandleader on Comedy Bang-Bang. We talked about that and all kinds of stuff, including how easy he claims it is to write a hit song.

Reggie Watts

July 8, 2015

"The bands that practice for four hours are awesome because that's their process and that music sounds awesome but for me, I like knowing you can create really high quality things with very little effort."

– Reggie Watts

Guy MacPherson: How are you?

Reggie Watts: Uh, I'm good.

GM: Are you?

RW: I think so, yeah.

GM: Where are you?

RW: I'm in New York.

GM: Do you still have a place in New York?

RW: I do, yeah. Same old, same old.

GM: Last time I spoke to you, you were boarding a plane.

RW: Oh, yeah. Sounds about right. I'm going to board a plane tonight.

GM: You were actually in the process as we spoke.

RW: You caught me at a better time this time.

GM: Oh good. Yeah, that was 2009. And I first saw you and wrote about you in 2008.

RW: Oh wow.

GM: How early was that in your career? You hadn't hit yet like you did after that.

RW: I don't know. It just depends on what the criteria is but I'd been playing music in Seattle for ten years before that. Or more than that, I guess. Fifteen years before that. So it's hard to say. I guess it depends on if you count it as comedy, then that's the other version of it.

GM: Do you remember your first comedy show, when you broke away from doing straight-ahead music?

RW: Yeah, I guess it would have been in Seattle. I was doing some sketch comedy in the mid-'90s. But I also did standup in high school as well and travelled around Montana doing standup. I guess I've been doing standup since I was 18.

GM: Was it just spoken word standup, like more traditional stuff?

RW: No, it was pretty much exactly what I do today, minus the loop pedal.

GM: Wait a second. But that's a big part of your act. What do you mean "minus the loop pedal"? What were you doing then?

RW: I was still doing music. Just doing weird à cappella music stuff and accents and characters and things like that. So yeah, same thing.

GM: I remember a set you did at the Vancouver festival. It was on a rock comedy show. Howard Kremer came out after you and he'd never seen you before. He said, "Reggie Watts is bad for comedy because he's funnier than comedy!"

RW: (laughs) Oh, that's an amazing thing! That's awesome. He's great.

GM: You were turning heads in that festival back in 2008. You certainly turned mine. It was like, 'What the hell is this?'

RW: (laughs) That's awesome. Yeah, it was a fun time to kind of do a little bit of a sneak attack.

GM: That's just it. Now you're all over the place so anybody who wants to know about you can see you and figure out what you're all about. But I walked into your first show not knowing what to expect. I kind of envy people who see you like that for the first time because it's just mind-blowing. Now you don't have that sneak attack thing.

RW: There are other ways to still do that, where you can subvert what people think they know of you or what to expect. So it's just kind of a different approach but I can still achieve a type of that result.

GM: How do you do it now?

RW: Well, I just kind of read the audience and try to do the opposite of what they expect, whatever that is. It could be they think they know or they're yelling out names of songs I've done and I can play off of that or I could be really super straight and do comedy straight for a while or whatever. There's a bunch of different things you can do to help throw people off again.

GM: Are your shows still largely improvised?

RW: Yeah, it's the only way I can do it, really.

GM: Except you do have certain songs you get to, that are largely the same throughout, right? Like you used to have the Fuck Shit Stack.

RW: Yeah, I don't do those. I haven't done Fuck Shit Stack live probably in four years.

GM: But I mean things like that, where you have a prepared song to perform.

RW: No, I don't really do that. I mean, there's types of beats and things but I don't really have songs that I think in my head, "I'm going to do this song." It's mostly what's a cool beat? And then I just start adding stuff on top of it.

GM: Do you have any favourite musical comedy acts, either through history or contemporary?

RW: Yeah. I love Weird Al Yankovic, of course. And Victor Borge. I really dug him. Smothers Brothers. I'm trying to think of other cats from the past. I guess contemporary-wise, Becky & Murray (?). They're pretty cool. They've been at it for a long time. They're these southern guys that make these really weird songs. They're great. They do these great parody songs and they're awesome. I'm trying to think of anybody else. But those are some good examples. A good range.

GM: It's great when they're really good musicians, too, rather than just a novelty thing. Legitimately good musicians as well as being very funny.

RW: Yeah, it's nice when people have music talent, when they actually know music. You can just tell the difference immediately. It's just nice when they're knowledgeable in that sense and also have a natural sense of what's funny.

GM: I see that you have three middle names. Then I noticed your mother is French so that explained it. My mother was French and I have a long name, too.

RW: (laughs) Yeah, it's a Euro-thing, I guess.

GM: But you've always been Reggie?

RW: Yeah. I mean, my parents call me Reginald, but other people call me Reggie. I think it's just an American thing. People just shorten names.

GM: Do you speak French?

RW: I do, yeah. I was just in France for ten days a few days ago. I just had to speak French there. It was good. My girlfriend actually speaks more fluently than I do but I can understand it.

GM: I never picked it up. My mom was from France but we just spoke English.

RW: Yeah, it happens often with a parent from another country. They just end up speaking English because it's more convenient for everybody.

GM: How are you enjoying being a late night talk show band leader?

RW: I'm having a good time. It's definitely a weird thing to suddenly be doing. But for the most part it's pretty fun.

GM: I imagine you have to have music prepared for this. You have to plan out the show, what you're going to do to intro or outro. Do you play with musical guests, too?

RW: Not that often, actually. We had... what's his name? He has like a Russian last name... He did a little bit recently and the band played with him. Some kid wrote lyrics to a song, this elementary school kid, and he created music for it and sang it, and the band would sing on it as well. But it doesn't really happen that often. Most of the time the artists perform their thing and we kind of hang out on the side. I try to avoid being a backing band for artists as much as possible. 

GM: But you're still playing with Karen. That's still the band's name?

RW: Oh, yeah, yeah, Karen. That's right.

GM: So is it good to be in that group dynamic again after being solo for so many years?

RW: It's so cool. I picked some great musicians. I needed some really good improvisers. Everybody improvises so well, it's just a natural extension of what I do. I was in bands for so long, I completely remembered what that's like. Yeah, it's been a really easy transition. Something that I have more experience in so when I'm playing with other musicians, it's pretty immediate how to do that.

GM: But it had been a while.

RW: Yeah, it had been a while. But at the same time when I started doing it, it was so immediate it was crazy.

GM: I know you were on Comedy Bang-Bang, but you were alone there. Was there a steep learning curve to doing a network late-night talk show in that capacity?

RW: Not too much. I'd say the learning curve is more just production. Like when you're on stage and you've got a guy in your ear saying, 'Commercial break in 5 seconds' or something like that. Or if they're showing a clip, 'Coming out of clip in 10, 9, 8...". That type of a thing. That's really the only thing. Everything else was pretty easy: the band playing and stopping when we need to. That stuff we kind of had to figure out a little bit but it didn't take too long. It's a pretty simple process, actually.

GM: What are the hours like?

RW: On average, I would say it's like 2 to 6:30, Monday to Thursday.

GM: So you're able to get out and perform on weekends. Or is it preventing you from doing more road stuff?

RW: A little bit, but we get chunks of time off. We just had three weeks off. But also we have three-day weekends so if I need to do gigs, I can usually go fly out somewhere and do a gig for a couple of days and come back.

GM: When you're out performing on your own, how do you weigh blowing minds versus getting laughs?

RW: I don't really think about it in that way. I just try to make sure the audience feels like they're being entertained. As long as they seem to be having a good time, and that can range from silence to laughing hysterically, that's all I'm really concerned about. It doesn't have to be funny all the time; it can be kind of serious and introspective or just get really huge and be blown out of proportion and be very absurd.

GM: I know you love getting laughs. And you're such a great singer. If you had to sing seriously, non-ironically or non-humorously, would you feel self-conscious to do a heartfelt song?

RW: No, not at all. I love singing, whether it's seriously or a parody or an absurd example of something. I like all of it. It's really up to my mood. Sometimes I feel like doing something seriously; sometimes a song can be mostly serious with some funny stuff. There's all sorts of mixtures and ratios.

GM: You were in the LA alt-scene and now you have perhaps more of a mainstream presence, at least on network TV. Is that helping gain new followers?

RW: I think so. My Twitter follower numbers haven't really gone up too crazily or anything, but I think there's definitely more visibility and people can share more things now, but not like a massive, noticeable difference, I would say. Which is actually great because I don't want to get too big, in a way that makes it difficult to walk down the street or something like that. Right now I think I'm at a comfortable level and the people that do approach me are really super sweet. Just cool people, really. Very respectful. That's the perfect level, I think.

GM: I imagine you also don't want to get too big that you can't do what you want to do.

RW: Exactly.

GM: And use whatever language you want to use even though people aren't used to seeing that on TV.

RW: Yeah, you just want to be able to do what you wanna do. You're aware of context. I'm not going to swear all the time or do weird shit just because I'm on a large channel or whatever; it's mainly just context-based behaviour, I guess. And the show's good because they really let me do whatever I wanna do. It all works out.

GM: And they get you involved on the show, too.

RW: Yeah, there are definitely sketches that we've done in the past and some other things that are upcoming. It's a real mix of not knowing – and purposely not knowing, like I don't really read scripts or anything like that; I just kinda show up and hope the show is easy to understand – so that and an awareness of things that they're looking to do in the future.

GM: Is the show doing well, do you know?

RW: I think it is. It's nominated for a Critics Choice Award, which I guess is very rare for a first year show. We've submitted stuff for Emmys. We submitted the theme song for Best Theme Song or something like that. And critically I think it's been received pretty well, I suppose. I don't read a lot of reviews about it, but in general it seems to be doing pretty good.

GM: So you're playing the Pemberton festival. Do you know much about it?

RW: No, not really. I guess it can be compared to things like Bonaroo or Sasquatch or Coachella. Something like that, but in a different geography, different vibe, I'm assuming. I don't even know how long it's been going.

GM: It would seem that you'd be in your element in that kind of environment.

RW: Yeah, for sure, like mountains and trees. That's my favourite kind of terrain. Something more up north that's got more forests and more familiar terrain that I'm used to growing up with is exciting to me. Sasquatch is cool but it's not really a foresty kind of a thing; it's the Gorge so it's a cliff-plateau kind of vibe. And Coachella's more desert. Bonaroo's definitely got trees and stuff but it's really hot and dusty. It's just different when you can be in a place that's got a little bit more wetness and greener. That's kind of exciting to me.

GM: Hopefully there will be some wetness and there won't be forest fires like there have been.

RW: No, I know it's always the worry.

GM: But I was thinking more that it's a big, outdoor music festival that has comedy. The crowds, I'm assuming, would be mostly there for the various bands that are performing and here you come out and do your thing. I could imagine even though there's no roof, you blowing the roof off the place.

RW: Yeah, I hope so! That's the great thing about what I do is I can decide how much music is going to be in the act or how much talking is going to be in the act. It's a music festival. It's kinda great because I can mostly do music and people can dance and respond to what's going on and that's really fun. So I can adapt to the situation. But yeah, for sure, if it's a music festival, I'm stoked to check out music, get inspired by that and use that inspiration on stage for my set.

GM: Do you envision a time when you return to straight-ahead music?

RW: Yeah. I'm working on a record deal right now. I'm going to record some form of an album or a series of EPs in the next half a year. We'll see what happens with that. It's open right now but it's definitely going to occur. That's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It'll be great. Whatever it is, it could be a mixture of serious music or it could all be serious music or it could be some serious, some jokey stuff. I don't know. But I'm definitely going to put out some music this year for sure.

GM: I know you have catholic tastes in music. It's wide-ranging, from the Carpenters to jazz to hip-hop. Is there a particular style that you would play or would you be all over the map?

RW: Probably all over the map to a certain degree. I mean, not all over the map to be all over the map just for the sake of it. I think it'll definitely be very beat driven. I don't know, it could be somewhere in the realm of anywhere from indie rock to electronic stuff and also some straight-up pop tunes. Just dumb pop stuff. I like pop music but I like to create pop music very, very quickly where I'm going to hook you very quickly just to show how easy it is to make that kind of music.

GM: Is it that easy?

RW: Yeah, I mean it's pretty easy to create hits. People approach it like a science, some of those songwriting teams. But it's pretty easy. It's just listening to what's current, picking up on trends, infusing that into what you're doing, and then writing some lyrics that evoke some kind of dramatic feeling or quirky absurdity that makes no sense, and then put a really hooky melody on it and tighten it up and make it sound good. It's pretty easy. So one of the things I'm interested in is writing some "hit songs" quote-unquote. My interest is to show that it's not that difficult to make art.

GM: As a way to expose it or as a way to celebrate it?

RW: Celebrate it but also to expose, to demystify it a little bit, to de-preciousize it. When people are like, 'That new Rihanna song is so incredible,' it's like, yeah, it's a great song, it's really hooky. But I think sometimes people think, wow, it takes a team of incredibly talented people to put something together like that. If you listen to a Tame Impala album, that's someone doing something artful. They're amazing. They're making really incredible, artistic music but when you listen to a Rihanna track, you just have to hit the right tropes. You know what tropes to hit and have a production style that sounds current. That's kind of all it takes. And if you get someone that looks good, you create a music video. So my thing is I just want to kind of expose just how easy it is to do that kind of stuff as opposed to writing a song like something the Talking Heads would have come up with. There's a huge difference, a vast difference and it's nice to educate people between the two.

GM: And if the byproduct is that it becomes a runaway hit and makes you millions, it's a win-win situation.

RW: Yeah, for sure. Because it's just an experiment but if it blows up it'd be great because then people would be like, 'How long did it take to write?' And I'll be like, 'It took about ten minutes to write the essence of the song and maybe about a day to record it.' Even on the Late, Late Show, all the music that we're doing is mostly improvised. We're creating it right before the show and sometimes playing it for the first time. Or even sometimes during the break just before we're about to go out of commercial, I'll just start humming something into the microphone and the band will learn it real quickly and we just play it live. I want people to know that it's super easy to create all the in and out music that you hear on late shows. The bands that practice for four hours are awesome because that's their process and that music sounds awesome but for me, I like knowing you can create really high quality things with very little effort.

GM: My dad was a jazz musician and when he would record a CD, it was a day. It was done in one day.

RW: Yeah, exactly.

GM: You think of jazz – or I do, anyway – as a higher art form than pop music, but the pop music records take months. I'm always thinking, 'What are they doing?'

RW: (laughs) Yeah, I know. It's usually way too many cooks in the kitchen. It's just a lot of people hemming and hawing about, like, 'Should it be "the" or "and"?' or 'She's got me feeling so good but her fire... I don't know, there's something about fire. Fire seems old.' It's just this weird discussion debate form about whether this sounds hip or not. They take a long time doing it because they want to make it a perfect, perfect pop attack as opposed to Nirvana writing Teen Spirit relatively quickly and recording it in a pretty low-fi way and it becoming this gigantic hit, where it was just natural. A lot of pop music is manufactured and designed. And the more designed, the more produced, the more people are involved and the longer and more complicated the process is. A lot of it has to do with people just justifying their existence and participation in the process. Because it doesn't take seven people to write a song. It takes one to three, maximum. If it's a group, it could just take the group to write the song. But in modern pop music you'll have, like, three lyricists and four producers and a remix artist or whatever. They're just unnecessary positions to creating a good song.

GM: It's like Hollywood movies with all the executives giving notes and it costs so much, whereas an independent film is so much more interesting and takes two weeks.

RW: Oh, totally. Because the passion's there and there's a clear vision. There's less complexity obstructing the creative process. If there's more money involved, there's more people involved.

Podcast episode 397ish: Fatima Dhowre

Wow, this one's a bit late. But that's the beauty of podcasts – they're here for the long-run. You can listen to them through the lifespan of the internet. Maybe revisit this episode in twenty or thirty years just for fun. Fatima Dhowre visited the What's So Funny? studios a few weeks back and we had a lovely chat. The standup comic is a regular on Morgan Brayton & Other People on OutTV and hosts the monthly Roast Battle at Little Mountain Gallery. She told me everything I've always wanted to know about Somalia and more. Turns out she's been there dozens of times in her life. We also talked about her love of roasts, and we inadvertently stumbled onto her secret talent. Plus it turned out that she had a special relationship with our guest announcer's namesake uncle. The episode was full of surprises!

Here you go. Sorry about the delay. Click below to stream or go to iTunes or Stitcher (or any other number of places) to download and subscribe.

Podcast episode 396ish: Marcus Ryan

We've got another itinerant episode in the car with an itinerant standup comedian. Marcus Ryan hails from the land down under but spends his time in various countries all over the globe. Every couple of years he finds himself in Vancouver and we always welcome him to the show. In this episode, Marcus explains the terrifying insects and reptiles of his home and native land, talks about his one-man Edmonton Fringe show called Love Me Tinder, complains about the unrelenting heat of Vancouver summers, regales us with a harrowing tale of hitchhiking in Ucluelet, sings the praises of Burning Man, and second-guesses his merchandizing strategy. Crikey, it's a good one!

Throw another shrimp on the barby and have a listen. Click below or download us at iTunes, Stitcher or wherever fine podcasts are dispensed.

July 19: Fatima Dhowre

We're back in studio tonight. And with a brand new guest, too! Fatima Dhowre is a standup comic who hosts a regular show at Little Mountain Gallery called Roast Battle which is exactly what you'd think it is: two comics going at it one on one, with two judges interrupting and getting in zingers of their own. It's a lot of fun. So we'll talk about that. And I'm also fascinated with what Somalia is like this time of year (or any time of year). Fatima has actually been there on more than one occasion because who wouldn't want to go to Somalia, right? She's also a regular on Morgan Brayton & Other People on Out TV (she's one of the other people). And we'll talk about lots more, too, I'm sure.

We're on the air at 11 pm in Vancouver (not sure what time that is in Somalia). But if you happen to be reading this from lands far, far away, you can listen in at coopradio.org.

Podcast episode 395ish: Ron Josol

We talk to the great Ron Josol in roving studio in this episode. It's fitting because Josol roves all over the world in pursuit of laughs. We talk about performing in Haiti, the Philippines, China and the US, and how it takes an adaptable nature. We also discuss duck embryos, Russell Peters, and the effect a family tragedy had on his life.

Check it out below. Or download us at iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, etc. Hell, just go ahead and subscribe already.

Podcast episode 394ish: Matt Bilinski

You know him and love him as Matt Billon. But Matt Bilinski is a new man. After 36 years with one name, he's opted to start fresh with another one, opting for that age-old show biz tradition of longer and more ethnic sounding. Wait... what? But there's reason behind his decision, as you'll hear on this episode. He also tells us how he took down a criminal, how he spurned Hollywood in the early stages of his career, and how he handled a very sick Mike MacDonald (the king of Canadian standup) on the road.

It's yours for the taking. Just click below to get started or go download the episode at iTunes or Stitcher or wherever.

July 12: Marcus Ryan

Tonight we go for a ride with Marcus Ryan. Whenever the Aussie is in town, he joins us on the program. This is his fourth appearance, but first in the Comedy Cab. Marcus is a true itinerant, moving around the world from place to place, hardly spending any time in his home town of Wonthaggi, southeast of Melbourne. I love that name, Wonthaggi, and use it at any opportunity but it doesn't even crack the list of top 10 funny names of places in Victoria, let alone the whole of Australia. Anyway, he'll be putting on his one-man show, Love Me Tinder, at the Edmonton Fringe this summer so look for it if you're around those parts.

We're on the air at 11 pm Vancouver time on CFRO 100.5 FM. You can livestream us at coopradio.org.

July 5: Ron Josol

Happy Sunday (cough cough). It's smokey here in Vancouver. Thankfully tonight's episode has been pre-recorded. We'd hate to have to work in these conditions. I spoke to standup Ron Josol a week or so ago when he was in town to perform at Laffline's in New West. He joined me in the roving studio, the Comedy Cab (aka my car), to talk about playing in Haiti, eating duck embryos, opening for Russell Peters, and how his mother's ill health affected his life.

We're on the air at 11 pm Vancouver time on CFRO, 100.5 FM. You can stream us at coopradio.org or wait for the podcast to drop in a few days.

Podcast episode 393ish: Jesse Joyce

In this episode of What's So Funny?, Jesse Joyce takes us behind the scenes at the Comedy Central Roasts. The Pittsburgh native wrote for and with Greg Giraldo on the roasts until Giraldo's untimely death. Now he writes for the roast in general and for such hilarious dudes as Larry King and Donald Trump. He tells us why that's not nearly as fun as writing for real comics. We get to hear some of his favourite jokes as well as what it's like to try and sneak handjobs in an Irish convent, his theory on the Canadian inferiority/superiority complex, and some of his favourite unsung comedy heroes, which include some Canadians (I had to point that out).

If you see a gizmo below, click and away you go. Or you can download the episode at iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.

June 28: Matt Bilinski

We've got a first-timer on the show tonight... Well, first time with a new name. Matt Billon guested back in 2010. Now we've got the new and improved version: Matt Bilinski. What's the story behind the name change? Beats me, but we'll find out tonight, that's for sure. We'll talk about his travels (he's always on the road somewhere), his home (I can never figure out where it is), opening for Doug Stanhope (again), and whether he truly believes the moon landing was a hoax (he makes a great case for it in his act).

Join us, won't you? I mean, over the airwaves. You can hear the show starting at 11 pm Vancouver time at CFRO, 100.5 FM or livestream us at coopradio.org.

Podcast episode 392ish: Kathleen McGee

Here's a new episode to get your weekend started. Kathleen McGee is a relatively new transplant to Vancouver, but if she had her druthers, she'd be basking in the warm glow of Hollywood. She talks about her struggles getting back to La-La Land, dismisses her reputation as a "dirty" comic, discusses her love of rugby and Broadway, reveals her secret fantasy to get to lady jail, and does one better than Seinfeld by slamming political correctness and feminist bloggers. It's fun! It's emotional! And she's available for children's parties! Literally.

Here you go. Have at it. Click below or subscribe in iTunes (or places like iTunes).

Podcast episode 391ish: Steve Bays

Steve Bays is baaaaack! In a big way. Or a very long way, at least. This episode breaks the record for the longest in our 11-year history. Two hours and nine minutes is too long, I grant you. But the beauty of podcasts is that you stop when you're tired and it'll be right there where you left off when you get back. I don't know what it is about that guy, but we always just keep talking and talking. What did we cover? What didn't we cover is more like it. Steve, as you probably know, is the lead singer for Hot Hot Heat, Mounties and Fur Trade, but the band that got the most mentions was one of his firsts: Pilot Light. We discuss the do's and don't's of interviewing rock stars, drinking junkie beer in Switzerland, grandparents, gruesome band injuries, being Jew-ish, homesickness in Tokyo, and the end of civilization. And even more than that!

It's all ready to be downloaded at your favourite podcast repository, such as your iTunes, Stitcher, and the like. Or you can start streaming it right here if you see the gizmo below. Your call.

June 21: Jesse Joyce

Happy Father's Day, fathers, if you go for that kinda thing. No fathers on the show tonight (except for me). Our guest is standup comedian/writer Jesse Joyce, who was in town a couple weeks ago headlining the Comedy MIX. Joyce was writing partners with the late great Greg Giraldo on the Comedy Central Roasts. He hasn't performed on one (yet) but has written for and performed on others (see below). His reputation has grown to the point where he's writing for the likes of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Dave Attell, Jim Norton, Jeff Dunham and... Matt Lauer. He tells us his story tonight, which includes living for a year in an Irish convent. Makes sense, right?

Join us, won't you? We're on the air at 11 pm on CFRO 100.5 FM in Vancouver. Or you can livestream us at coopradio.org from anywhere on the globe that has internet.

June 14: Kathleen McGee

We've got another newbie on the show tonight. That's always exciting. This time it's standup comic Kathleen McGee, who I've seen perform several times but have never spoken to her. This much I know (or think I know): she's from Alberta, may or may not have lived in Toronto, lives in Vancouver now, has performed in Los Angeles as evidenced by the videos of her at the Laugh Factory online, and will be opening for Hannibal Burress on June 19 in Edmonton [that was three years ago, it turns out]. But that's about all I know as she has let her domain lapse.

We'll get all the details tonight at 11 on Co-op Radio 100.5 FM. Livestream us at coopradio.org if you will.

Podcast episode 390ish: Dan Quinn

Dan Quinn returns for his quinquennial appearance on the show. It's a good one, too. He reveals who the moodiest comic on the Snowed In Comedy Tour is, rails against amateur comedians running shows, talks about closing out a night at New York's famed Luna Lounge after Marc Maron, Janeane Garofalo, and Dave Chappelle, and tells us what it's like to perform on an all-Dutch show in Amsterdam. This episode is brought to you by the word 'Abominable.'

Click below to get started. If you don't see anything below, blame your browser, not me. There are alternatives, though, such as iTunes, Stitcher, PodcastLand, TuneIn Radio, etc. etc.

Podcast episode 389ish: Mark B. Hughes & Jason Kryska

Here's an episode with a couple of raw dogs: Mark Hughes and Jason Kryska. These bad boys perform comedy that tilts toward the dark, but their backstories couldn't be more different. Jason has lived a button-down life and been married for 18 long years; Mark has overcome a heroin and cocaine addiction that landed him ten years in the slammer. Another difference? Hughes has performed comedy in the nude (and will again on June 13 at 303 Columbia in Exposed!: A Night of Naked Comedy), whereas Jason doesn't even like to see himself naked, let alone anyone else seeing him. The two are the creators of Comedy Shocker and they're putting on another show July 4 at the Rickshaw called Downward Spiral. Check it out. No nudity in that one. Not planned, anyway.

But first, have a listen to the podcast. You can do it right now, as a matter of fact, by clicking below. Or go download it at iTunes or wherever else you download podcasts.

June 7: Steve Bays

Mr. Bays, it's time for your annual check-up. Steve Bays has been paying us an annual visit since 2011. The last time he was here, he brought his bandmates from Mounties: Hawksley Workman and Ryan Dahl. This time, he's solo. Steve's always juggling a zillion things. When he's not writing, producing, performing and touring with his own groups – Hot Hot Heat, Mounties and Fur Trade – he's producing other groups, directing videos, and drinking at Legion halls. Okay, I don't know all he does. Maybe we'll find out tonight. Maybe not. But we'll have fun, as we always do.

Tune in to 100.5 FM in Vancouver or livestream us at coopradio.org at 11 pm.

May 24: Dan Quinn

Dan Quinn guests with us every five years whether he wants to or not. He was first here in 2005, then 2010. So here we are in 2015 and it's his turn again. Man, it seems like he was just with us. Anyway, the timing's perfect because he's started a new room at the Biltmore Cabaret every Tuesday night. It's an all-pro show. So he'll tell us all about that and why he has it in for the open mikers and whatever else is going on. No doubt we'll talk about his highly successful yearly trek called the Snowed In Comedy Tour, too.

So tune in tonight at 11 pm PST to 100.5 FM or livestream us at coopradio.org. If not, you'll just have to wait another five years for his return.

Podcast episode 388ish: Chad Daniels

Chad Daniels is one of the funniest standup comics working. Anywhere. The fact he still lives in the middle of nowhere proves it. The Fergus Falls, Minnesota, citizen headlines everywhere and crushes everywhere. He's good enough to be out of the glare of show business yet still be an in-demand comic in clubs and on late night talk shows. In this podcast episode, he talks about why he still lives there and what it means for his career. We also discuss his reputation as a loveable asshole, why he wants to pop his kid in the face, getting attacked on stage, unfair comparisons to Louis C.K., and how a sprained ankle changed the course of his career. The episode is brought to you by Communication.

Stream the episode here, if you can see the gizmo. Or go to iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever fine podcasts are dispensed.

May 17: Mark B. Hughes & Jason Kryska

Put the kids to bed early tonight. We've got a couple of comics on who love to push boundaries. Not sure what boundaries will be pushed tonight on the radio, but they for sure will be doing that at the Comedy Shocker presents: Downward Spiral at the Rickshaw Theatre on July 4. It's a tripe-X show but we'll knock at least one of the X's off for our show tonight. Mark B. Hughes is, by his own admission, a "bad boy" with the drugs, alcohol and willingness to do crime removed. And Jason Kryska is billed as "fat and dirty." His words, not mine. He's kinda new to Vancouver, I hear. I've never met either of these fine gentlemen so I'll learn along with you tonight.

We're on the air at 11 pm on CFRO 100.5 FM. If you're not near a radio, listen online at coopradio.org or TuneIn Radio.

May 10: Chad Daniels

Happy Mother's Day. In honour, our guest tonight is a single dad: Chad Daniels. Chad's a regular visitor to Vancouver. He comes through town to headline the Comedy MIX once a year from his home base in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Where? Not exactly the centre of show biz but it doesn't matter when you're as talented as he is. The guy is one of the top headliners in North America. Needless to say you won't see him on any series but he's made numerous appearances on the late night talk shows and has several albums out, each equally hilarious. Tonight (or whenever this was recorded) we'll sit down and talk about all sorts of things relating to Chad Daniels. Tune in to see if he's the loveable asshole he seems like on stage. And I'll play a couple clips of his in case you've never had the pleasure of hearing his standup.

We're on the air on CFRO 100.5 FM in Vancouver at 11 pm. You can livestream us from Minnesota at coopradio.org.

Podcast episode 387ish: Bobby Slayton

Release the Pitbull! Yes, this episode with the Pitbull of Comedy, Bobby Slayton, is coming out ahead of its airing on radio. Why? Why not?! It's in the can so let's just put it out there. Slayton (or Yid Vicious, as he's been called) was a real gentleman when he sat down to talk with me a couple weeks ago. Oh, still opinionated as all hell and hilarious, but a pussycat. Nice guy. I spent the previous evening binge-watching old Evening at the Improv episodes from the 1980s and found one with him. He was introduced by Harvey Korman. I couldn't stop talking about it with him. So that's the through-line. So we talked about his early days in comedy, how Scientology is different from mainstream religions, how Fox News is different from mainstream news, how his pop-star daughter toured with a different Pitbull, and how his tattoos hold up today.

Here's the streaming link. If you don't want to listen to it in one sitting, go download it at iTunes or Stitcher or your podcast server of choice. That way you can stop and start willy-nilly without having to start from the beginning each time. But you knew that, right? Right?!

Podcast episode 386ish: Sean Lecomber

Here it is: Driving Miss Podcast. That's the name our guest, Sean Lecomber, suggested for this episode of What's So Funny?, and all future episodes where we use the roving studio (my car). I took Sean for a ride in this one. We drove around and talked about swimming Nazis, rude babies, flackseed penises, the land of rape and honey, opening with Jesus, and malcontent fetuses. That sounds horrible! But it isn't. The context is pure delight, trust me.

You can hop in the backseat and listen in by clicking our handy-dandy link below. Or, if your browser is not showing it, go over to iTunes or Stitcher and the like where you'll be able to download it and listen to your heart's content.

Apr. 26: Sean Lecomber

Not Sean Lecomber

The What's So Funny? train is leaving the station. All aboard!... Or car, to be more accurate. Our roving studio hits the road for another rollicking hour. Our guest is not Shaun Majumder. Boy, was I disappointed when I found out. But Fort Saskatchewan's own Sean Lecomber steps up big time and buckles up as we drive around Vancouver talking about all manner of comedy. We discuss t-shirts in swimming pools, self-confidence, squelching baby hecklers, the correct pronunciation of 'flaccid', Tisdale's slogan, Christian athletes, and sanctified abortions. The episode is loaded with fair points.

We're on the air at 11 pm. Tune in to 100.5 FM in Vancouver or livestream us coopradio.org from anywhere else you happen to be.

Podcast episode 385ish: Goldie Hoffman

Every so often we do a super-long episode of What's So Funny? Not by design. It just happens. This is one of those times. Goldie Hoffman is no shrinking violet. She can't be contained in an hour, so this one runs 93 minutes. More bang for your buck. That is, if you paid anything for these. In this episode, the actor/comedian explains why Vancouver isn't a real city but rather one filled with "townies," discusses the problem with progressives* (of whom she counts herself among), and rails against taxes on tampons. She also talks about growing up in what she calls the "cult" of Hasidic Judaism and being one of ten (10!) children. She even names them all. This episode brought to you by the Truth.

* To get up to speed, read the excellent essay she wrote on the subject on her blog.

You can stream it here or if you'd rather, go download it iTunes or Stitcher or wherever fine podcasts are dispensed.