SAN FRANCISCO COMEDY BLOG

by Chad Lehrman

Jimmy Dore is headlining at Rooster T. Feathers in Sunnyvale April 3rd-6th. His new 1 hour special “Citizen Jimmy” will be premiering in June on Comedy Central, and his numerous TV credits include Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and NBC’s Late Friday.

Jimmy Dore @ Rooster T. Feathers
157 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
April 3, 4, 5 & 6

Why did you choose to film your new Comedy Central special in San Francisco?

It’s a great city for comedy, it’s just a fun town. My show has gotten more political, kind of a Jon Stewart Daily Show sensibility. I like to talk about the crazy state of our government and world. I don’t know how people don’t talk about it. And that just seemed like the perfect place to do it.

When did your style become more political?

About 3 years ago, the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles was opening and asked me to do a show. They were already in New York and they were opening in Los Angeles, and they needed people to do shows there, so they called me. I had just learned how to do video editing at the time, so I did a video show with politics- kind of like a hybrid of the Daily Show and the Bill Maher show. Comedy Central saw it and said, “Hey would you like to do a 1 hour special?” And I said sure. That’s kind of how it all started.

My comedy has always had touches of politics, but it’s been more a little bit of everything, a potpourri, you know- here’s some jokes about growing up, here’s some jokes about dating, politics, drugs. I had a bunch of stuff. To be more focused on something helps, cause it helps people to know who you are. I like talking about that stuff anyway- the stuff that’s happening today is really interesting. If you would have told me 8 years ago that our country would be invading other countries and torturing people and everyone would be going along with it, I would be like “Really?” And that the government would start spying on us and tapping our phones and opening our mail without a warrant, I’d be like, “Seriously? And everybody’s ok with it?”

How do you think standup will change once George Bush is out of office?

I’ve always said that Republicans are great for comedy. When Ronald Reagan was President, that’s when modern day standup comedy really took off. Then it really had another boom under George Bush. It’s always good for comedy when there’s an oppressive conservative ruling party in power, because at its soul, comedy is rebellious. You’re pointing out where the grown-ups are being stupid, so the more oppressive the government is at the time, the more people have that need for a release. If you have a hippie in charge of the government, you don’t really need standup comedy that much. If you have a dictator, that’s when people need the release. They need to know, “Ok, I’m not crazy. Other people feel this way. That makes me feel better.” Comedy is like that shared experience. That’s why I think Dane Cook is so popular, cause kids who are 16 go, “Oh yeah, I do that stuff too all the time.” Then people who come see me can say, “Oh I think about that all the time, cause I’m a grown-up.”

Since so much of what you do is based on current events, where do you get your news from?

I get my news about 90% from the internet, and 10% from television and radio. I’m all over the internet. I like to go to the more progressive websites for sure. They kind of group all the writings from a bunch of different people. If you just rely on the network news- you don’t get any news. You get nothing. And then you wonder why the electorate is ignorant. It’s kind of not their fault.

It’s amazing how many different news sources are out there now, it’s so broad.

Yeah, there used to be this shared experience. When I started doing comedy, you could make a joke about a commercial or a TV show, and everybody knew what you were talking about. Now I don’t even know half the TV shows. There’s just too much stuff, you can’t keep up. There’s no shared experience anymore. That’s why a show like American Idol is such a phenomenon- you get half the viewing public watching it, that’s a big deal.

How do you put your videos together? Are you using Tivo and then making it a Powerpoint presentation?

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. I take it off my Tivo and I put it on my Mac. I use KeyNote, which is the program Al Gore uses when he does his presentations. You can easily slip video into it and edit it really easily.

How did you get involved with the Marijuanalogues?

They invited me. They had been asked to do the Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. The 3 guys were Arj Barker, Tony Camin, and Doug Benson. Doug Benson had sold a TV pilot and so he had to work on that. It was in production, and he couldn’t go to the festival. They needed another person and they asked me to do it. I got to do it over there in Australia for a month, and then I did it in San Francisco and all over the country, and I got to do it off-Broadway for a few weeks. Being asked to do the show was a thrill, and it was one the greatest experiences of my life.

How do you like performing at Rooster T. Feathers?

It’s a great club- it’s a real throwback to when comedy clubs were comedy clubs. It’s been there forever, almost 30 years I think. Comedy is meant to be experienced close up and it’s an intimate club. We’ve all had the unfortunate experience of seeing a comedian in a 5,000 or 10,000 seat venue and that sucks. Even my favorite comic- I saw Rodney Dangerfield in a 7,500 seat theater and it sucked. I’ve seen Rodney Dangerfield at a small club like the Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, which seats 200 people, and it was fantastic. I saw George Carlin there at the same place and I thought, “THIS is how comedy is supposed to be seen, like this.” When comedy was big in Vegas in the 50s, when comedians used to play the “lounge,” that’s what it was- the lounge was 200-300 people. That’s the perfect shape of an audience. 300 people, maybe 500 tops. After that, it starts to be too much. I’ve done shows for 2,000 people and it’s really fun, but it’s a different experience. After about 500 people, it starts to lose the same feel and become something else.

In the new Steve Martin book, he said that towards the end of his stand-up career, the shows became more like a party being held in his honor.

Yeah, I can’t even imagine doing comedy for 20,000 people. That’s not comedy- you’re not doing comedy. That’s people getting together because they love the idea of what you do. They’re not really going to experience your comedy, they’re going to experience cheering for someone who they’ve already liked. I’m sure it’s a fucking ego boost to do comedy for 20,000 people, but it certainly is not an artistic endeavor.

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