Like so many, arts reporter Geoff Edgers was grounded by the pandemic. So he decided to launch an Instagram Live show called “Stuck With Geoff” from his barn in Massachusetts. (It ends next month.) His guests have included Jamie Lee Curtis, Anthony S. Fauci and David Byrne, among others. Recently, Edgers chatted with comedian Brian Regan. (This interview has been edited for clarity and length.)
Q: You're doing shows now, and you did them last year to prepare for your new Netflix special, "Brian Regan: On the Rocks." Last year, Dave Chappelle was doing shows where he had to get tested for covid and he still got it. What did you do? I assume you didn't get covid.
A: You assume incorrectly, I ended up unfortunately catching it along the way, but I’m fine now, I’m doing a-okay. And yeah, we did our best to try to protect ourselves. But yeah, I caught the big C.
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Q: Was it bad for you?
A: Well, you know, different people get it in different ways, and I got a pretty rough case of it. I was coughing quite a bit. My goal when I had it was to try to go to sleep so I could stop coughing.
Q: Sarah Cooper did a comedy special for Netflix, and one of the bits I liked is when she's performing in a parking lot with the people honking when they like something.
A: The drive-in movies were a trip. I did two. My strongest laughs sounded like this [mimics weak laughter]. I’m looking at it, 600 cars, people in cars, some people sitting next to their cars, and I had friends say, “No, people were laughing, having a good time.” But it’s just a weird vibe, man, laughs are going up into the sky. And I just turned it into an experiment to see how well I could pretend like I was killing.
Q: People call you "the comedian's comedian." Sometimes, I think that's a compliment. And sometimes I think if I were a comedian, I would want to be everybody's comedian. You're a master of words. How do you view that phrase?
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A: Well, I am a comedian’s comedian. I only perform for comedians. You know, if someone is an actual non-comedian, I don’t even allow them into the showroom. So I’m the only one performing exclusively for other comedians. It’s actually quite an honor that I don’t know what that term means. It means that comedians like what I do. So I am honored by that. But I also like to make audiences laugh. There are comedians who care about the audience but don’t care about other comedians. The extreme in that would be a hack comedian, somebody who is just pushing buttons. And then you have comedians who care more about what comedians think than the audience. That’s another extreme. It’s called playing to the back of the house. ... You want the comedians in the back laughing. I consider myself a pig and I want everybody laughing. I’m a big, gluttonous laughter pig.
Share this articleShareQ: You tell these hilarious jokes that do not rely on going blue in any way. You're like the anti-Bob Saget. I've never heard you curse onstage. Was that a conscious decision?
A: If you want to hear me curse, golf with me, and as soon as I hit my first tee shot, it’s going to go into the woods and you’re going to hear a lot of language that you would not see in any of my specials. I’m capable of cursing. I know how to do it. But in my shows, I just like the personal challenge of seeing how many laughs I can get out of people without hitting certain buzz words. But I’m always clear to point out that there are comedians who work blue or dirty or raunchy, who I think are brilliant. That should exist. But I also think the kind of comedy I do should exist.
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Q: What is a joke that you tried that you thought would work beautifully and it died and you had to send it away?
A: I’m intrigued when a publication makes a list of something. A list of the top 25 bass guitarists in rock history or something. As soon as any publication makes a list, people immediately give that publication power. And people start arguing. Why is number 17 not number eight and why is the number one there, it should be number five and number 10 should be number two? So my joke, which no one ever seems to get, is I say, “So the other day, I’m just sitting around and I grab a scrap piece of paper and I write at the top ‘Brian Regan’s list of the world’s top 10 sandwiches.’ I wrote 1 to 10 and I put a lot of work and thought into it. And I wrote down the sandwiches in the order that I thought they should be in. And then when I was done with my sandwich, I was like, ‘Now what?’ So I just grabbed it, I walked around my neighborhood and I just tacked it to a tree and I went home and I thought that was the end of it. Five minutes later, there’s just furious pounding at my door. I open the door and a guy yells, ‘Ham and cheese is only number six.’ I tried to explain to him that he was free to have his own thoughts, but he would have none of that.
A: I like that.
Q: As I said, your wordplay is particularly wonderful. Are there comedians who deeply influenced you?
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A: Well, George Carlin is the obvious example. Years ago at the comedy club where I started, Rodney Dangerfield dropped in. ... There are like 30 people in the audience. He goes onstage, they go nuts. It’s Rodney Dangerfield. And he pulls out these 3-by-5 cards. He puts on his glasses and he goes, “I’m just going to try some stuff out for you.” The crowd is loving it. ... The next day he comes into the comedy club. No 3-by-5 cards, no glasses. He does the same jokes, but the ones that didn’t work were out. The ones that did sort of work he’s doing it again, but with words edited, and he killed. I remember thinking, look how much this guy accomplished in 24 hours. And it all had to do with just analyzing words, cutting words out. It just was a eureka moment for me. Thinking funny things is one thing, but it’s a craft, and if you can laser in on picking words and picking moments and picking beats, you can really make it pop.
Anying Guo contributed to the production of this story.
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