Comedian Brian Regan will perform at Syracuse’s Oncenter Complex on Sunday at 8 p.m. He sat down with The Daily Orange to talk about his life on tour, his experiences at Heidelberg College in Ohio and how the jokes he tells during one show may not be the same ones he reveals in another.

 

The Daily Orange: How do you feel about the upcoming show?

Regan: Oh, I like having any show anywhere. But I’ve been to Syracuse a few times before, and I always like coming back. I’m looking forward to it.

 

Are there any places to go before or after the show?

I like to go to the Syracuse Discotech and dance until the end of the night. I’m making that up. I was worried that there’s actually a place called the Syracuse Discotech, and you were thinking, ‘Wow, he really goes there?’ You know, unfortunately, when you do a bunch of all-nighters, you don’t get to really experience the towns as much as I used to in the past.

 

How would you describe the touring life?

You hear a lot of times about a band that will tour three or four months to promote an album or CD. They go out on tour for longer. I think I’m actually on a voyage. It’s beyond a tour. It’s like I’m headed to another planet. It’s fun.

 

Any voices, characters or skits you like to perform the most?

My favorite stuff to perform is whatever is the most recent. The newer the material, the more fun it is to do. Something you’ve done a lot, someone will think, ‘Oh, it must feel good to know you’re going to get a laugh.’ It’s actually more fun to not know if you’re going to get a laugh. I like that feeling of running out on virgin snow and hearing the little crunch as you’re running. I like that with comedy, too. I like, you know, the newer the stuff, the more exciting — especially if it gets a big laugh. (The audience) thinks, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that was going to happen.’

 

Is there a particular way you get new ideas?

The way I do it is I try to live my life the way I would normally live my life. I don’t sit down and try to create comedy because it just doesn’t work that way for me. I’m not good with a blank piece of paper. It’ll just stay blank. I’ve got to go out, watch the TV that I want to watch, do things with my family I would normally do, travel the way I would normally travel, read the way I would normally read. I don’t know how or why, but some things just jump out more than other things. You go, ‘Hey man, that seems kind of funny.’ That’s when you write it down, and you work on it from that point.

 

Your comedy is a different brand of comedy. It’s not so cynical, and it doesn’t have too much swearing like some comics like to do. Why is that?

I enjoy doing it the way I do it. It has nothing to do with being Johnny Wholesome or nothing like that. When I’m offstage with my buddies, I’m capable of saying some crass things, which would surprise a lot of people, I’m sure. On stage, I like to do my comedy the way I do it because it’s fun for me to do it that way.

 

Why did you major in accounting in college?

Well, when I was in high school, my senior year, I took an accounting class and did really well at it. When I got to college, it was then when I realized that my high school accounting teacher went so incredibly slow. She allowed all of us to really learn the stuff. When I went to college my freshman year, the pace, the acceleration of learning was cranked up into hyperspeed. If you missed a class, you might as well have cut the class.

 

So that’s why you changed your major to theater arts?

I thought this new major would be more fun. One of the first classes I took was a speech class. AndI tried to make them funny so I wouldn’t drive myself crazy with boredom. The first few times that I made my class laugh with my speeches, something happened inside of me. I thought, ‘Wow, that was fun.’ I also thought, ‘I don’t remember feeling like that when I walked from my accounting class!’

 

Is there anything else you’d like to add that I didn’t ask about?

Um, I think you covered it. I’ll plug a couple things. I have a new CD out called ‘Brian Regan all by myself,’ which is available on my Web page. I also have the Twitter thing. I just got up to 25,000 followers, which I’m pretty proud of. The Twitter name is brianregancomic, all one word.

 

smtracey@syr.edu

Published on February 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm