DAG 6/19 at 7pm at The Vic!
As you know the Just For Laughs festival is sweeping in to Chicago June 17th through 21st and it is bringing some of the world’s greatest comedians with it. Ellen DeGeneres, Lisa Lampanelli, Martin Short, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Engvall, Louis CK, Andy Dick, Robert Smigel, Bob Odenkirk, and Harold Ramis are just a few of the highlights that I’m personally looking forward to. There’s more… A LOT MORE. Look at the full schedule here!
One of the perks of being The Comedy Examiner is not only getting to see these shows but also actually getting to talk with the comedians. On Tuesday, June 2nd at precisely 3:30 PM CST I got to sit in on one ‘a them fancy conference calls with David Alan Grier. He’ll be hosting “Comedy You Can Believe In” at The Vic Theatre on Friday, June 19th. Actually he’ll be doing a little more than hosting. He wrote the opening and some interstitial bits and will be performing along side Aries Spears, Mark Curry, Bruce Bruce, Jo Koy, and Marina Franklin. It’s being taped to air later on TBS. Grier was asked to suggest the line up so he REALLY does believe in this comedy.
I dialed in and got to ask a couple of silly questions AND listen in on his responses to serious questions from serious media outlets…
To preface, D.A.G. was born in Detroit, his father is the Psychiatrist who wrote “Black Rage”, he graduated from Yale Drama with an MBA, has done Broadway (Tony Nominated), Radio, Television, AND Movies. All of that makes this nerd excited. A colleague asked him as to what medium he preferred… I was gonna ask the same thing... to which he responded that he “loves the variety of doing it all” and especially loves writing. He’d also love to do DRAMA! That excited me more. He was trained at Yale after all. I had read on his Wikipedia page that he was in talks to be in a musical called “the Nation” about Minister Louis Farrakhan. IN my mind it was a serious rock opera in the vein of The Who’s Tommy… turns out it was a total LIE. He was joking about it and it ended up being taken seriously… I told him he HAD to do it now. He said he’d consider it. I had to ask about it. Come on! A musical about Farrakhan?!
He worked with two Chicago trained improvisers on “The Chocolate News”, Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele, and since Chicago is an improv town I asked him how he feels about improv. “I HATED IT,” he replied. “I had to do it for my ‘In Living Color’ audition. I was in a group with Martin Lawrence and Susie Essman and Keenan would yell out suggestions.” He must have done well despite his hatred of improv. He prefers the stability of writing good sound bits and being in control of them… but that comes from a guy who’s comedy heroes are Willie Tyler & Lester. He saw them at the Fox Theater as a kid in Detroit.
I got to ask him a final stupid question. His pack rat brother and nephew were on ‘Clean House’ and I wanted to know if their home was still clean. I am a dork. “Portions are! My nephew’s room is.” ADORABLE.
The final serious question of the call came from another college and it was also one that I was interested in hearing the answer to… any advice for up and coming comedians? I LOVE HIS ANSWER: “Be talented enough to make it and stupid enough to keep trying.” He tagged it with, “Don’t let anyone try to tell you who you are. DEFINE YOURSELF.”
Turns out D.A.G. is a thoughtful, intelligent, and hilarious person.
Someone PLEASE cast him in a serious role. I am DYING to see him bust out his Yale Drama chops.
For “Comedy You Can Believe In” information please click here!
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