Comedian Brian Regan first appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1995 and has been a consistent presence in the comedy world since. He has been on a non-stop tour of the country since 2005, and his next stop is the Warner Theatre on April 25 to 26 for three shows.
Regan sat down with The Eagle’s Tam Sackman to discuss Letterman, “clean” comedy and the best joke he’s ever heard.
The Eagle: You’ve been a frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman. How are you feeling about the transition that’s going on right now?
Brian Regan: I kind of assumed it would be happening at some time, so I wasn’t shocked when he announced his retirement. Late Night has been changing a lot over the past couple of years. I have really fond feelings towards Dave Letterman and the show because they’ve been kind enough to have me on as many times as they have over the years. I’m hoping to get on there at least one more time before Letterman’s done, and I wish him well in his retirement.
E: There’s a certain amount of pressure in comedy to be as raunchy or as offensive as you can possibly get away with. How do you manage to get laughs without offending anyone, and what kind of subject matter to you tend to stay away from or lean towards?
BR: Well, I am being as raunchy as I can get away with. It’s just that that’s not very raunchy. I mean, obviously, different comedians like to work different ways. I do the kind of stuff that I feel I’m interested comedically. I purposefully like to talk about everyday things and get as much comedy out of it as I can. That, to me, is my own personal fun comedy quest. There are other people out there who want to talk about stuff on the other side of the tracks. I’ll let them do the comedy on the other side of the tracks. I’ll do the comedy on this side of the tracks.
E: Who are your personal comedic inspirations and how has their work influenced you?
BR: Well there are so many comedians that do interesting, unique things, who I’ve liked. When I first started, comedians like Steve Martin and George Carlin were clearly people that I looked up to. And then, after I had been doing it a few years, there were contemporaries that were making it big, like Jerry Seinfeld. I still enjoy Jerry Seinfeld. I love how much mileage he can get out of relatively simple topics. There are a lot of people out there doing unique things. Then there are people who do stuff that isn’t the kind of comedy that I do, but I still really admire it. Like Maria Bamford— she does all of these crazy, quirky characters. She’s a lot of fun to watch, I really like her comedy a lot. It’s not the kind of comedy I do, but I still enjoy it.
E: What is the best joke that you’ve ever heard?
BR: Oh boy. Well, I like stuff that doesn’t seem like a joke. Johnny Carson told this joke years ago, when he was still a host and he said that it was the funniest joke that he had ever heard. Because I’m such a huge Johnny Carson fan, I’ll make it the funniest joke I’ve ever heard. Don’t expect a punchline that makes sense….
It’s a sweltering jungle and there are two hippos in a lake. They’re completely submerged except for their heads and there’s really nothing going on. There’s steam coming off the surface of the lake and these hippos are just kind of standing there. There’s a bird standing on one of the hippos backs and in the background you can see some monkeys crawling around in the jungle and stuff. There are one or two clouds up in the sky but it’s a pretty hot day. You can hear bird noises. Then all of the sudden, one of the hippos turns to the other hippo and says “I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that this is Tuesday.”
E: How do you think you’ve managed to stay relevant and successful for such a consistent period of time?
BR: I don’t know. I’m not trying to be flippant in my answer. One of the things that I try to do, or try not to do, is that I try not to figure out what the audience is looking for. I don’t stand on stage and say to myself “what will make these people laugh?” I get on stage and say to myself, “what do I think is funny?”. Hopefully, the audience will agree with me. I think once you make the mistake of trying to figure out what the people want, then you’re making a mistake as a comedian or an artist in general. It’s a much easier task for me to just stay with whatever I think is funny and not try to figure out what they think is funny.
E: What is your favorite place to perform?
BR: I like to be anywhere within driving distance from AU.
E: That was the answer we were looking for, thank you.
BR: You’re welcome. I don’t really perform internationally. I’ve done Canada a couple of times. I pretty much do all throughout the United States, and I’m not being evasive when I say I really like performing everywhere in the United States. I would like to perform internationally, too. I only know the English language, though, so I don’t know how I’d do in the sub-Saharan Africa. That’s one thing I like about doing stand-up. Being able to go to places I might not have been able to go to otherwise. You got your big cities that are fun, obviously— Washington, D.C., New York and Boston and San Francisco. But then I get to go to smaller places, too— I get to go to Fargo, North Dakota and Sioux Falls and stuff like that. It’s a blast to be able to experience both worlds.
E: What is your favorite thing to talk about on stage?
BR: Well, you know, for me it’s not as much subject matter as it is the newness of the joke. The newer the joke, the more exciting it is to tell because you don’t know where the laughs are. Or there might be no laughs whatsoever. To me, it’s analogous to running on virgin snow. It’s fun to just be putting brand new footprints out on a big, wide-open snowy area and not know what’s going to happen. I really enjoy when I’ve got new stuff in my setlist. Or relatively new stuff. That’s the funniest stuff to hit.
See Brian Regan at the Warner Theatre on Apr. 25-26. See the Warner Theatre Website for more.
