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Interviews
0

Talking to Sean Patton About 'The Half Hour', Being Nomadic, and How Comedy's Made Him a Better Person

by @ 12:00 pm

For the past 15 years, Comedy Central’s half hour specials have showcased the future stars of standup. Looking back, the early years of Comedy Central Presents included memorable sets from the likes of Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dane Cook and dozens more. Re-branded The Half Hour in 2012, the series continues to feature the best up-and-coming comics in the country.

For many comedians, it’s that history that makes doing a half hour special so significant. While a half hour may once have been a comic’s first major exposure, comedians now have many ways to build an audience. Almost everyone who taped a special this year does non-standup comedy as well, branching out into the worlds of podcasting, sketch and improv, web series, acting, and more. In this new series, I sat down with each of this year’s 16 Half Hour comedians to talk about their specials, their careers, and their generation of comedians. Each interview will also feature an exclusive clip from the special. All the interviews can be found here.

Sean Patton has been seen on Conan and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, his first album, Standard Operating Procedure, is available on AST Records, and he acted in the slasher comedy Shotgun Wedding, out now on Netflix. He also co-created the long running and much beloved Comedy as a Second Language show in New York, which just celebrated its sixth anniversary. I caught up with Sean over the phone to talk about being disapproving audience members and why standup is the hardest art form.

How did the taping go?

I felt really great about it. But it went by so fast. It was literally, I blinked my eyes and it was done. And I don't know how many other people have said this, but I can hardly remember even doing it. It’s all just a blur of LED lights and laughter. [He laughs.] How'd I do it? I don't even know how I did it. Was I conscious? Did I black out? It was crazy. I mean, it was awesome, but you just spend so much time preparing for it that when if finally happens, you're like, “Oh that's it? That was it? Okay.” But it was really good.

Any memorable incidents from your taping? A couple people I’ve talked to screwed up jokes, and Andy Haynes had a heckler.

No. I heard about Andy's heckler. The one thing I do think is funny — someone took video on their phone of the monitor in the green room that was showing the audience while we were on, and there was one part where I slit my tongue odd, like a lizard you would say, but in a sort of sexually suggestive manner, and the camera was on this one middle-aged white dude, just shaking his head in disapproval the whole time. Just really not into that. And someone had taken a two minute video clip of that. I hope they keep that guy in, just disapproving. Being like, “Wow that's disgusting, he's performing orally on a woman. That's disgusting.” Because he really he didn't like it. READ MORE

reddit
0

Highlights from Mitch Hurwitz's Reddit AMA

by | June 17th, 2013

Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz took to Reddit today to answer "questions, complaints, criticisms, etc." and thank fans for "supporting this crazy casserole of a show." Unsurprisingly, the internet had quite a lot to ask him, on topics ranging from the future of television to his writing process to ostriches. The always-exuberant Hurwitz gave thoughtful answers for more than an hour and half, even hinting that might return for more in the next few weeks. Below are the highlights of his AMA, with some minor spoilers for the fourth season (and major ones for the original seasons.)

On any crazy story lines that never made it into the show:

Believe it or not, I don't think there IS one! Because every time I think of something that's too outlandish, I end up trying to find a way to use it. I remember pitching Buster loses his hand as a bad example to motivate the writers to think outside the box…and then a moment later, I thought "Hey, why don't we have Buster lose his hand?"

On advice for aspiring writers:

[T]he first advice I'd give aspiring writers is to try to exceed expectations. I feel like everyone gives the advice that you should write a spec script, and I found a lot of people who just try to write as badly as they think the show is written (for whatever that show is) – people who start the process without respecting what they're writing for. You have to choose something to write that you really want to write.

On whether doing a fourth seasons hurt the chances of an AD movie:

I would say that I'm more interested in telling the ongoing saga of this family than working out a particular strategy for how to do it. I kind of feel like the form will emerge in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated – like Netflix a few years ago – so it's possible that a film studio says "There's a lot of AD out there. Do we want to invest in more" or it's possible that a film studio says "Wow, we had no idea there was this kind of a following." And I think the latter scenario is possible. Just because I didn't think there was that kind of a following!

READ MORE

Web Videos
0

Olde English Looks Back at 'Leaked Pixar Trailer'

by | June 17th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group looked back at a parody movie trailer. 

Caleb: Another sketch that I like a lot is the Leaked Pixar Trailer. And that is a video that, I think, was coinciding with a release of a movie.

Raphael: Well it was a parody of the Wall-E teaser trailer. The joke was that all their movies are so outside of the box and interesting and different, so the premise would be, they're tired of that and they just want to phone it in.

Adam: They got lazy.

Caleb: Yeah. They got lazy, and they're using the same premise which is, something happens to a thing.

Raphael: Yeah. What if this thing could talk?

Adam: It's Pixar going through the motions. It's like, a triangle can talk. What is it?

Raphael: Mr. Cube.

Caleb: Goes to the cylinder.

Adam: Yeah, the movie is called Mr. Cube Goes to the Cylinder. And it's about a cube who discovers himself through the twists and turns of, you know. It's them going through their story beats in a very lazy way.

Chioke: But also the animation is very lazy too. READ MORE

Interviews
2

Talking to Baron Vaughn About 'The Half Hour', Structuring an Act, and Recreating Behaviors

by | June 17th, 2013

For the past 15 years, Comedy Central’s half hour specials have showcased the future stars of standup. Looking back, the early years of Comedy Central Presents included memorable sets from the likes of Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dane Cook and dozens more. Re-branded The Half Hour in 2012, the series continues to feature the best up-and-coming comics in the country.

For many comedians, it’s that history that makes doing a half hour special so significant. While a half hour may once have been a comic’s first major exposure, comedians now have many ways to build an audience. Almost everyone who taped a special this year does non-standup comedy as well, branching out into the worlds of podcasting, sketch and improv, web series, acting, and more. In this new series, I sat down with each of this year’s 16 Half Hour comedians to talk about their specials, their careers, and their generation of comedians. Each interview will also feature an exclusive clip from the special. All the interviews can be found here.

Baron Vaughn's talents can be found in many genres; he played Leo on USA's comedy drama Fairly Legal, he explores philosophical ideas on his podcast, Deep S##! w/ Baron Vaughn, he's done two sets on Conan, and he released his first album, Raised by Cable, on AST Records. I caught up with him over the phone to talk about eclectic lineups and only taking interesting paths.

How did your taping go?

I really enjoyed my taping. I start doing standup in Boston, so in a sense it was a bit of a homecoming for me. Actually, the place that we taped was around the corner from the first place I ever did standup, so it was very important to me to go have a meal in that restaurant that the comedy club is in before my show. Jonah Ray and I ate there and talked comedy before our tapings.

Also, I really liked my night. I was the night with three people, a triple taping, and when I would look at the lineups, they had the headshots of all the different comedians that were paired together. And, in my opinion, every one looks like they're in a band. Like, the duo headshots are how about, like, “Guys with facial hair? What about two brown people with blue eyes? Black guys with glasses?” And then my night was kind of, "A Latina —she's interesting; black dude—I don't know what he's about; and also Brody Stevens [who taped a special that will be used for his upcoming Comedy Central show]. Who knows, it's gonna be fun." So I felt like my night was, "Who knows? Night" and I embraced that.

What did doing a Half Hour mean to you, either practically or symbolically?

Well, symbolically, it's a right of passage. It's nice to be told that what I'm doing counts, and to be given this opportunity means, “Hey, people are paying attention to you. Keep going,” which is always nice and encouraging. And then at the same time, watching those early versions of Comedy Central Presents—and I've been watching Comedy Central since before it was Comedy Central. There were two channels. I remember there was The Comedy Channel and HA! That's how you had to say it, because it had an exclamation point at the end – “Haaaa”. And then there were a lot of a shows like Lounge Lizards and Two Drink Minimum that kind of bled into when Comedy Central started, so I was watching all of these shows and watching all these comedians. And so I would like to think that I am in the place I should be in my career as was the same for other people who did Presents at their time. Like, where I am right now is where Brian Regan was when he did his. So that's cool to know I'm on the same path as a Brian Regan or a Louis C.K. or a Dave Attell or all these different, brilliant comedians that we all know and love. But everyone's kind of moving up. And that's the other thing, from a practical sense. I've shown myself I can do a half hour on television. I can do an hour at a club. Again, I'm where I'm supposed to be and that's always a good thing to kind of check in and be like, “Alright, I'm on the right path,” instead of being like, “Wah,” which sometimes I do a little too much. READ MORE

Web Videos
0

Olde English Looks Back at 'Michel Gondry'

by | June 14th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group can't quite agree on how a celebrity encounter played out.

Ben: Michel Gondry, that’s a good story.

Chioke: It's like in the height of Michel Gondry being his most Michel Gondry-ish.

Adam: Yeah, The Science of Sleep had just come out.

Raphael: That's another example of…

Ben: Cardboard abounds!

Raphael: …aiming for a niche audience. That's the most mainstream we could be. Like, who's big? Michel Gondry. People are gonna love that. I think it didn't even occur to us that there were a large number of people who'd never heard of this man, because to us he was the biggest celebrity at that time.

Ben: Well, we were big DIY filmmakers. And Michel Gondry is the king of DIY filmmakers.

Adam: We were all obssessed with his music video collection.

Raphael: Yeah, all his movies. Like huge, huge fans.

Adam: Now we think he's dogshit.

[They all laugh.]

Raphael: I don't think that, Raphael said.

Caleb: Handsomely. READ MORE

Web Videos
0

Olde English Looks Back at 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

by | June 12th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group looked back at their take on a 90s classic.

Ben: On the theme of music videos that are also by Raphael, I really liked one of our sketches called Breakfast at Tiffany's. It started as a live sketch, and it's a really fun live sketch because the first minute, minute and a half?

Raphael: No comedy.

Ben: Is no comedy. It is literally Adam and Raphael singing the beginning of Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Word-for-word, note-for-note, Adam's playing the guitar. It's a perfect reproduction.

Raphael: Pretty sincerely, but not so sincerely that that's the joke. We're just doing the song.

Ben: So when you play it live, the audience is just sitting there. First they laugh when they hear the song, and then 30 seconds in they're like, where's the fucking joke? And they're just sitting there like this [hunched forward], and then a minute in, they've gotten kind of bored and they sit back.

Raphael: Then when the joke comes…

Ben: When the joke comes they just fucking explode. READ MORE

Interviews
0

Talking to Ben Kronberg About 'The Half Hour', Music, and the Unavoidable Humility of Comedy

by | June 11th, 2013

For the past 15 years, Comedy Central’s half hour specials have showcased the future stars of standup. Looking back, the early years of Comedy Central Presents included memorable sets from the likes of Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dane Cook and dozens more. Re-branded The Half Hour in 2012, the series continues to feature the best up-and-coming comics in the country.

For many comedians, it’s that history that makes doing a half hour special so significant. While a half hour may once have been a comic’s first major exposure, comedians now have many ways to build an audience. Almost everyone who taped a special this year does non-standup comedy as well, branching out into the worlds of podcasting, sketch and improv, web series, acting, and more. In this new series, I sat down with each of this year’s 16 Half Hour comedians to talk about their specials, their careers, and their generation of comedians. Each interview will also feature an exclusive clip from the special. All the interviews can be found here.

New York-based standup Ben Kronberg fits in the tradition of low-energy, one-liner comics, often incorporating his joke-filled notebook into his act. But his talents are varied; he also does the music for the excellent Modern Comedian series. I met up with him recently in a Williamsburg coffee shop to talk about DIY shows and the rat-race that is New York comedy.

So, my first question for everybody has been, how did your taping go?

Well what has everybody been saying? Cause I don't want to be too above or below what everybody. Mine was just as good. It went equally as well as all the others. Yeah, it's an interesting questions, because it’s like, the subjectivity of experience and, you know, two people sitting in a movie theater side-by-side, are they seeing the same movie?

Yeah. That’s a great answer.

Like, I'm performing at colleges a lot now, so I'm doing an hour in front of audiences that may or may not be into comedy. I've been hired to do this thing, and so many of the contexts that I'm performing in are these—not all things are created equal. Just because I'm getting paid good money for the show and there's people there doesn't always mean it’s good. But that said, I think it went good. When you get off stage, all that you can think of is, "Where did I fuck up? What didn't I do right?" I should have done this or I pussed out on that joke. So that happened a little bit, but that happens every time you get off stage. I mean, sometimes you get off stage and just like, "Yeah. Couldn't have gone better." But when it's something that's being recorded, it’s impossible to not to evaluate that process. But people laughed when they should have and I was just lucky to get to do it. Now that I'm in the Comedy Central realm of things, I feel like, this is where comedy happens. I just felt lucky after it. And I had a lot of people come to watch, like family and friends from out of state, so that was an awesome part of it. I actually had people there who can talk about the experience and not just me being like, “This is what happened.” It would be better if you interviewed my mom right now. READ MORE

Web Videos
0

Olde English Looks Back at 'Totally Crazy'

by | June 10th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group looked back at a uniquely Olde English rap video.

Caleb: Well I would say that if you look at like the '08 sketches, there's I Hate Nature, but then I think in the same year, there's also Totally Crazy. I could see another group trying, maybe not executing as well, but trying to do I Hate Nature, but I don't think anyone would have made Totally Crazy.

Raphael: Totally Crazy's a very Raphael sketch.

Caleb: But it works really well.

Ben: I think Totally Crazy is an awesome video, by the way.

Raphael: Totally Crazy I guess is the best hip-hop song I could possible write.

Ben: The premise is basically, it's the annoying guy at work who tells stories that are seemingly pointless and don't have a direction. But it's his hip hop song about a mundane night of his life.

Caleb: But how crazy he thinks it is. READ MORE

Interviews
2

Talking to The Lonely Island About 'The Wack Album', 'SNL', and Why They Haven't Done a Live Show Yet

by | June 10th, 2013

Within months of The Lonely Island joining Saturday Night Live back in 2005, the trio – made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone – marked a new era in the show's history with the viral hit Lazy Sunday, kicking off a run of Digital Shorts that would include Emmy-winning Dick in a Box and Grammy-nominated I'm on a Boat.

All three have since left the show, working independently on their own big-name projects. Samberg has starred in films like That's My Boy and Celeste and Jesse Forever, and will be seen in the up-coming Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Schaffer directed the group's first film, cult favorite Hot Rod, and 2012's The Watch. Taccone directed the SNL-spinoff MacGruber and played the loathsome Booth Jonathan on the HBO show Girls.

The group's third record, The Wack Album, comes out tomorrow; the trio, who have known each other since middle school, have been promoting the album by releasing videos and tracks each week on Wack Wednesdays. I met up with them recently in the glittery conference room of Cash Money Records to talk about emulating Kanye and why they still work so well together.

Why did you decide to release the songs in this way? It seems like almost half of the tracks will be out before the album is released.

Jorma: We're just taking a page out of Kanye West's old notebook. That he doesn't use anymore.

Andy: Yeah, we wanted to record a video of ourselves watching the projection of his video on a wall and project the video of us watching it on a wall.

Jorma: And just commenting on how much we liked it.

Andy: Because he's so good at marketing. And for us, we're not on SNL anymore and we want to make sure that people know we have a record. So we figured if we had a time and a place that people could know that they could check in for new stuff and check it out that it would be helpful. But it's been fun. It's fun to be in our own like mini-SNL cycle where we're posting things and feeling like we're connecting with an audience.

Akiva: We're honestly still on that pace right now. Because of our Wack Wednesdays, and just our own sense. Because we're, honestly, a little control freaky, about how all of the product that we release comes out. Start to finish, we're involved in the editing, in the producing, the directing, all that sort of stuff and with with songs too, so the pace hasn't let up at all. READ MORE

Interviews
0

Talking to Andy Haynes About 'The Half Hour', Hecklers, And Hitting the Road

by | June 10th, 2013

For the past 15 years, Comedy Central’s half hour specials have showcased the future stars of standup. Looking back, the early years of Comedy Central Presents included memorable sets from the likes of Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dane Cook and dozens more. Re-branded The Half Hour in 2012, the series continues to feature the best up-and-coming comics in the country.

For many comedians, it’s that history that makes doing a half hour special so significant. While a half hour may once have been a comic’s first major exposure, comedians now have many ways to build an audience. Almost everyone who taped a special this year does non-standup comedy as well, branching out into the worlds of podcasting, sketch and improv, web series, acting, and more. In this new series, I sat down with each of this year’s 16 Half Hour comedians to talk about their specials, their careers, and their generation of comedians. Each interview will also feature an exclusive clip from the special. All the interviews can be found here.

Los Angeles-based standup and writer Andy Haynes has been seen on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and his Modern Comedian episode documents the preparation for his set on Conan. I caught up with him over the phone to talk about accidental compliments and whittling away at comedy.

How did your taping go?

It was good. It was a lot of fun. There was one weird part at the end. A guy heckled me and he had to be removed from the show. So that was kind of bizarre. But overall it was great.

Wow. You’re the only person I’ve talked to that had a heckler.

I might be the only person that got a heckler, which is just my luck. I have a joke that mentions 9/11. It’s not about 9/11, but the premise is that nobody's gonna forget about 9/11. And he just decided to start booing. He wasn't mad about 9/11, though. He was mad that he had seen the clip on YouTube. He felt like that was poor form of me, if he had seen a YouTube clip of a joke. Which is a whole new threshold of turning over material that I'm just not prepared for.

It'll be interesting to see how they've edited the final part with the heckler. It was my last joke. It was a little weird, because I just kind of wanted to do that joke and get out of there, so when that guy heckled, it really changed the energy in the room, the momentum. And I also was dealing with him at the same time. I didn't think to go like, “Let's do it again,” so I just told another joke that wasn't really my planned closer. READ MORE

Real Life Is Sad
0

Stephen Fry Reveals That He Tried to Commit Suicide

by | June 5th, 2013

British comedian and national treasure Stephen Fry tried to commit suicide a year ago, he confessed during a podcast taping. During an interview with comic Richard Herring on his popular Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, Fry said that he "took a huge number of pills and a huge amount of vodka. The mixture of them made my body convulse so much that I broke four ribs – but I was still unconscious." Fry was on location at the time (anyone who follows his pioneering Twitter feed knows he bounces around the globe filming movies and documentaries) and was found in his hotel room by a producer who sought medical help. He has spoken frequently in the past about his battles with mental illness and manic depression, even making an Emmy-winning documentary, Stephen Fry: The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive; he's also the president of British mental health charity Mind.

Fry has been a popular comedian in the UK since the 1980s, when he and comedy partner Hugh Laurie made a name for themselves with shows like A Bit of Fry & Laurie and Blackadder, and he currently hosts the beloved panel show QI. He is widely adored in the UK today, with BBC Four dedicating two nights of programming to him for his 50th birthday back in 2007. Through it all, he said in the interview, his struggle with mental health issues has remained.

‘When I’m conscious, when I’m rational, I realise that being Stephen Fry is a very happy thing to be; people are extraordinarily nice to me. Mostly it’s great, but there are times when you’re on stage or when I’m doing QI and laughing [on the outside], but inside I’m going “I want to fucking die.”’

The podcast will be available for download tomorrow, while a video of the interview is available for download now for £3.50 (about $5.40). (Credit: Chortle)

Improv
1

UCB Announces Ridiculously Good Del Close Marathon Line-Up, Again

by | June 4th, 2013

UCB has announced the schedule for its annual Del Close Marathon and as always, it seems too good to be true. The 56-hour long-form improv marathon has grown even from last year's insanity, featuring 420 shows on seven stages across New York City. There's an extra international quality to this year's festival, with teams from Mexico, UK, Portugal and Finland appearing. (Though there's also a team claiming to be from Caprica, so who the hell knows.) The highlights are spread across the stages, from the return of last year's amazing Mantzoukas and Morris at the main Chelsea theater, to several hours of Matt Besser's improv4humans at its cousin UCB East, to a special taping of The Chris Gethard Show at a nearby theater. Most excitingly, the schedule promises three (!) Asssscat 3000 shows on the last night of the festival, featuring Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh alongside some of their friends. Unlike last year, where one big Asssscat show was held at a nearby 700-seat auditorium and required a separate ticket, this year's Asssscats will take place in the tiny (and sure-to-be-overflowing) UCB Theatre in Chelsea. This year's marathon runs from June 28-June 30. According to UCB's Artistic Director Nate Dern, all-marathon wristbands will again go for $30, available at any of the stages once the marathon starts. It's a pretty good deal, but to really get your money's worth, I'd recommend forsaking sleep, balanced meals, and non-improv related conversations for the three days. It's worth it.

Web Videos
0

Olde English Looks Back at 'I Hate Nature'

by | June 4th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group looked back at one of their later parodies.

Chioke: One of the things that interests me about the group is how people started getting more polished. I like the comedy from the very beginning to the very end, but it definitely feels like, if you look at the really early sketches and if you know the guys well enough, you can see Adam writing that or Ben coming up with the origination of this. And then towards the end, if you look at I Hate Nature—I Hate Nature is brilliant, and it's really funny and it's very clean, but it's interesting because I feel like around the time that you guys stopped working together was when the videos felt like they were independent of the people. They're so good by themselves, they're not specific to one person. It felt like you got to a point where it was like a brand. It was all things working. From an outsider, you know what I mean?

Adam: Well, it get more refined and polished, what we were making. We took less chances on weird stuff. I think by that time—the last videos we made were in 2008—we were competing CollegeHumor and other web outlets. We started doing topical sketches and specific parodies and things like that, as opposed to this really free-wheeling attitude we had early on, when no one was doing web videos, so we just whatever.

The Exquisite Corpse Project is available for download for $5 from Splitsider Presents.

Interviews
0

Talking to Cristela Alonzo About 'The Half Hour', Her Development Deal, and Working Herself to Death

by | June 4th, 2013

For the past 15 years, Comedy Central’s half hour specials have showcased the future stars of standup. Looking back, the early years of Comedy Central Presents included memorable sets from the likes of Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Dane Cook and dozens more. Re-branded The Half Hour in 2012, the series continues to feature the best up-and-coming comics in the country.

For many comedians, it’s that history that makes doing a half hour special so significant. While a half hour may once have been a comic’s first major exposure, comedians now have many ways to build an audience. Almost everyone who taped a special this year does non-standup comedy as well, branching out into the worlds of podcasting, sketch and improv, web series, acting, and more. In this new series, I sat down with each of this year’s 16 Half Hour comedians to talk about their specials, their careers, and their generation of comedians. Each interview will also feature an exclusive clip from the special. All the interviews can be found here.

Cristela Alonzo made her late-night debut on Conan last year; not long after, she signed a deal to develop a sitcom about her life. I got the chance to talk to the Texas native over the phone about coming up in Dallas and her kitschy idea for a podcast.

So how did the taping go? What was it like?

You know, the taping was good. People keep asking me how I feel, and I think everybody expects me to say, “Oh I'm so happy, and it went great!” But really, I had been stressing over that set for so long that I was just happy it was done. Afterwards I'm like, “Yeah, that happened.” Even now, I still can't believe I did it. When I started doing standup, I never—you never think you're gonna do it. You never think you're gonna get a half hour, you just start doing it because you really like it. It was one of those things where I'm doing it and then afterwards, I'm like, “Wow. That, wow. That was a thing. That was crazy.” So I feel like I gave birth. Just tired, but I was very happy with it.

Doing a half hour seems like such a defining moment in someone’s career. How did you prepare for it? And what did it mean to you?

Well I'm kind of a perfectionist, which is very hard to do in standup because you can't plan anything. So I always want to prepare for any worst-case scenario, which is hard because you can't. But I was really lucky. I was very lucky to have my home club, the Comedy and Magic Club, they gave me a bunch stage time whenever I wanted it to run my set. Which is very rare in LA, to get that much stage time. Me prepping for it was kind of like the Rocky IV montage when Rocky has to train in the mountains to go fight Drago. It was very tiring, it was kind of like going to the gym. And I'm that kind of person that thinks that everything's gonna go bad, so if it doesn't, I feel relieved. The 30 [minute-special] was such a big deal for me. I watched 30s all the time. One of my really good friends is Kathleen Madigan, and I remember watching her [special] years ago. I can't believe that I'm actually doing the same thing she got to do years ago. It's kind of weird to think about it like that. You just can't even believe you're there. READ MORE

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