5 Questions with Kellen Erskine
October 25th, 2007 | Interviews, San Francisco Comedyby Chad Lehrman
A recent finalist in the SF International Comedy Competition, fast-rising San Jose comedian Kellen Erskine has opened for big-name comics such as Norm MacDonald and John Heffron.
How was your experience in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition? (winning 5th place)
It was a great experience overall, but it’s a relief for it to be over. I wouldn’t do it again for a while. It’s nice to be doing shows now where I’m not being judged anymore. It’s a weird experience because a competition is the only time you’re doing a show and you’re hoping other people do badly. And even though you have a really good set, 4 or 5 people could judge you otherwise, like if they didn’t like stage presence or something. It was 18 shows in 18 different cities in front of thousands of people. I really wanted to place within the top 5 just so I could pay for all the gas.
Why is it important to you to work clean?
For me personally it’s not just keeping it clean, but I want to have original premises, and there are literally billions of topics out there. It’s so funny to me that the majority of comics mostly pick sex. For me, it’s finding topics that are original that nobody else has done before. That’s more of what I strive for- trying to be clever within other topics. It’s sort of cliche, but… using the gimmick of a swear word or using sex as a topic is just already done so much.
Who are your major influences?
There’s nobody that I pattern myself after, but my favorite comics would be Steven Wright, Mitch Hedberg… Brian Regan is another one I appreciate. He’s totally physical but he’s very good. I appreciate people who are good at what they do. Also, Groucho Marx. He’s not really an influence, but my comedic hero. If there is anything I pattern myself after, it’s people that have some originality, cause that’s what I’m striving for. Those are the comics that I like, the ones with the jokes that I’ve never heard.
How would you compare the San Jose and San Francisco comedy scenes? Do you see any reason to move to San Francisco?
San Francisco is like my grandma’s house- it’s fun to visit but I would never live there. I go there like 3 times a week and I still get lost leaving it. I don’t like driving there. Every time I leave San Francisco it’s a relief after the stress of trying to find parking. I’m not gonna move there but it’s still critical to improving at comedy just because there’s so many venues up there and in San Jose there aren’t.
What are your writing habits like?
I steal. No, I write every day. For me it’s more of a mindset. I try not to listen to the radio in the car because I want to be thinking about jokes. It really is my passion, doing this. I keep track of my thoughts throughout the day and then at night I put them into a computer, whatever I’ve written down or recorded. I’ll try out as much new stuff as I can at the open mikes during the week. I just want my set to constantly be refined, hopefully better every time. I’ve found that like one out of every 50 jokes that I write is one I actually keep. So for me it’s the process of coming up with the other 49 so I can find that one. And if I don’t do that every day, if I wrote like one day a week, it would take 7 times as long.
Below is an episode of “Inbound,” Kellen’s online cartoon. For more episodes, visit captainbigbeard.com.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
Great interview. Kellen is a fantabulous writer and comic. He’s one Bay Area comic that I look up to and he always makes me laugh. He destroyed at the Pleasanton Hotel on 10/31/2007 for a Halloween Comedy Costume Contest. His costume was Scope and his set was all about Scope the mouthwash. Classic. He won too!! Keep up the good work!!