You may know Collin Bullock as a Chicago comedian or as host of "Awkward Moments with Collin Bullock" or you may not know him at all. Nonetheless this Illinois native has a steadily growing fanbase in Chicago and beyond thanks to his darkly absurd stand-up and engaging podcast. "Awkward Moments with Collin Bullock" showcases Bullock's interviews with Chicago comedians as well as occasional non-local guests like Marc Maron (comedian and host of the popular WTF podcast). Recently Bullock talked with the Examiner about his start in comedy, superpowers, Weezer and more. 

How did you first start doing comedy?

I've always been cracking jokes around my friends and in class, etc… I first did stand up, in the traditional sense of the word, in college at an open mic night run by the now famous SNL and 30 Rock writer Hannibal Buress. He was just a student at the time. It was in the basement of the student center, and I bombed hard. But I liked that I got everyone to look at me, and at one point I tripped on my own feet while walking across the stage and I ad-libbed some line about god punishing me and I got some laughs from it, and that momentarily made me forget that my parents were disappointed in me.

The next summer I went to Los Angeles for an internship, where I worked on The Bold and the Beautiful. I started doing stand up every night at clubs and open mic nights, etc. I was still terrible, but at least I felt proactive.

After the internship was over, I didn't do stand up for many years, and instead played in a series of mediocore indie bands. Eventually I found myself living in my hometown of Champaign, IL.

I was working as an aide to special needs kids in the public school system, and being poor all day. My girlfriend at the time dumped me, and I was depressed, and I read in the local newspaper about a comedy open mic night starting up at a bar downtown. So I showed up, did five minutes and got a few laughs. I felt momentarily less depressed, and the addiction had its claws in me.

A year later I moved to chicago, started doing it every night, and now I'm by far the most popular comedian in the entire city!*

(*Examiner note: this last statement is based more in sarcasm than ego.)

Who are some of your favorite comedians or influences?

I would probably list Dave Attell as my favorite comedian. He was amazingly smart, well-written jokes that are filthy and juvenile. I like that.

I think Patton Oswalt is also insanely funny, and very original. I get compared to him a lot. One time a guy said I was like "two Patton Oswalts on top of each other," whatever that means.

One time I was doing a show and, while I was pausing, getting ready for a punchline, a lady in the front row just yelled "Patton Oswalt!" I turned to her and said "Jesus, lady, do you just go to Oasis concerts and yell 'The Beatles!'?"

I also really admire Marc Maron for his honesty, and for choosing to do comedy his own way instead of fitting within well worn "set up/punchline" formulas.

Flight or invisibility: which superpower would you rather have and why?

Hmmm…good question. I'm gonna go with invisibility.

People say flying would be cool, but it would actually be terrifying to be up in the air all by yourself, staring at the ground a mile below you. Plus, it would be very cold up there and you would have to deal with birds and stuff like that and the government would probably send fighter jets to take you down or whatever, because the government hates superpowers unless they can control them.

If I was invisible then I could get into R-rated movies, which has long been a dream of mine.

What is some of your favorite music right now?

I'm an emo kid from back in the day, so earlier this year I went to go see two concerts that blew my mind:

I saw Dashboard Confessional at Lincoln Hall, when it was just Chris and an acoustic guitar playing Swiss Army Romance in it's entirety. If you ever wanted to see a 6'4, 250 pound dude yell "NEW COATS OF PAINT WILL NOT REACQUAINT, BROKEN HEARTS TO BROKEN HOMES" while crying, then that was your venue that night.

I also saw Weezer play two nights at the Aragon Ballroom. They played Blue Album in it's entirety the first night and Pinkerton in it's entirety the second night. It was totally hipster nostalgia bait, but man did it work on me. I loved every minute of it.

How was the experience of interviewing Marc Maron? 

It was great. A lot of people ask me how I get him to do the show. The answer is: I just emailed him.

To listen to "Awkward Moments with Collin Bullock" or find out about Bullock's upcoming stand-up comedy appearances, visit www.awkwardmomentspod.com