[IMG:L]Steven Wright might be an Oscar winner and a Grammy nominee, but to the youth of today he’s merely known for playing a stoned couch potato in the cult hit Half Baked.
“I hadn’t done a special in 15 years and I started to notice the audience was in their 40s and 50s and 60s … so the people who are in college now, they were only 5 when my last HBO special came out. They know me as ‘the guy on the couch.’ They don’t even know I do stand up.”
The Boston native is releasing his first comedy album since 1985, I Still Have a Pony–a follow up to his 2006 DVD release Steven Wright: When the Leaves Blow Away. Wright had more than his famous one-liners to share when Hollywood.com rang him up last week to chat about his new CD.
Hollywood.com: You waited awhile to release another comedy album after your Grammy nominated recording I Have a Pony. Why now?
Steven Wright: You mean after all these years? The first one got so known and then when I had enough material for another one I didn’t know if I recorded that, I didn’t know if I had enough material to write another one and then if I did that one to write another one so I just kept performing live so I don’t know how many I would have had, had I kept recording them. Then I made this DVD at Comedy Central, this special, and then I thought, ‘Well I have all this material so I thought well I will just put another one out anyway.’
HW: What’s your inspiration for these jokes, what’s your process?
SW: I don’t sit down and try to write jokes. I can’t really do that or they come out contrived, so I’ve learned over the years just through my daily life I just notice things. Occasionally, I mean from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, millions or billions of pieces of information float past you. Words you hear, words you read, all different things and talking to people. Some of it just jumps out like, ‘Oh, if you connected that to over there with that thing, that’s a joke.’ So I just kind of notice things and then if something’s funny, I write it down. Then I have a bunch of stuff and I might go into a small club in Boston. I live in Massachusetts and try to go on for three or four or five minutes and try out new material. If I am going on a tour, I’ll slide some new material in the show there and figure out what works.
HW: When you pop into these clubs, are you the kind of comic who shows up at midnight and slips in as a surprise, or will you book yourself an actual slot so you end up with fans in the crowd?
SW: No, I’ll go on the open mike, the audition night because I like when there is 30 people in the audience rather than a packed audience for trying out material. So I will just go in and talk to the guy and figure out where there is a spot where I can slide in among the other comedians. That’s the best way I find to do it. It is not in the paper or anything.
HW: Where is the best place in Boston to try out new material?
SW: I like to go to the Comedy Connection. It is in Nathaniel Hall in Boston. I like the room physically. It is a nice size club. It has just the right amount of people on an open mike night, like 30 people it is very casual it is very laid back. You get a good sense from that audience a good measurement that if they don’t like it, then most audiences won’t like it.
HW: How do fans react to you when they see you on the street? Do they assume you will have your stage persona going?
SW: It is kind of funny why I have that straight face. I mean yeah, I’ve been laughing with you on the phone, but I don’t laugh on stage because right from the start, I was trying to concentrate on what joke I was saying. Now it is my style, so if they meet me and I’m walking down the street, I’m not going to be laughing for no reason. So they’ll meet me and say, ‘Oh, you are always like that?’ Then if I am laughing about something, they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know you laughed.’ So I get both things.
HW: Are the acting roles that come your way are always based on your stage persona?
SW: Yeah, which is fine with me. I wanted to write and do stand up and write short films and eventually a longer film. I never went into this trying to be Mr. Actor Range. I’m happy to be in any movies. I’m not beating my hand on the table going, ‘God damn it I want to yell! I want to be an accountant!’
HW: Do you remember the first time you were invited to perform on the Tonight Show?
SW: I watched that show since I was about 14. I loved Johnny [Carson]–I thought he was amazing. I just loved seeing him doing the stand up and the interviews and seeing all the comedians that came on. My fantasy, my dream, was if I could be the guy that went on there to do that show. Then when I was 26, I was on there. It was incredible. It was surreal. He came into the make up room said hello to me for a few minutes and I was speechless. I couldn’t believe he was standing there. He was telling me to relax and go out and just do what I do and have fun. He said he had heard good things about me. He was a very supportive guy … He could have said, ‘We are going to kill you, we are going to execute you and we are going to throw your body in the Pacific Ocean,’ and I would have still just nodded my head and said yes because he was my hero. And then when I came out to do my stand up and I heard him laughing over at the desk, I was like, ‘Oh my God Johnny Carson is laughing at something I made up!’
HW: What was going through your head when he called you over to the couch?
SW: I was confused because I knew that wasn’t regular, so I actually took a step and I paused and slowed down almost to a stop and then I kept going over. By then I was in shock because I knew my act but I didn’t know what to say to him when he asked me questions. I could barely talk really. It is so funny to watch now because I was so afraid. Big long pauses … of all the talk shows, he made me look the best during those interviews. He was always trying to make you look good. He was an amazing, classy performer and you felt connected to him even though he was the king and he was on top.
HW: What do you think of Last Comic Standing and the way reality TV is helping up-and-coming comics?
SW: Things change over time and if that’s the way to break through then I have no problem with it. A long time ago, the Tonight Show for myself and other people, you could go on and in five minutes your life could possibly change, your whole career could change. I don’t think there is a show like that now, as powerful as the Tonight Show, but maybe that’s a version of where something could change in a short time. Whatever people need to do or whatever the layout is at the time and those are the channels to go through, that’s fine.
HW: Do younger comics ask you for advice when they run into you? What do they ask?
SW: They just generally say, ‘Do you have any advice?’ and I just tell them two things. They should trust their gut on what they think is funny and try it out on the audience directly. Don’t try it out on people like their friends before because you don’t get a real gage … then I tell them that the more they do it, the more they learn just from going on. Standing there is where you learn, from being there and it is endless. I haven’t learned all of it.
