7 questions for Katie Davis, Brian McDowell and Duke Taylor

Throughout 2017, we’ve highlighted local comedians, asking them seven questions about their process, their delivery, their relationships to the audience and so on. Over eight months, including tonight’s finale, we’ve met 24 different folks attempting a vulnerable art form. In some of those months, the answers reflected certain similarities, while others showed three, very different approaches to the craft; we kinda get that this time, with comedians Katie Davis, Brian McDowell and Duke Taylor.

In putting these together, we ideally wanted to create a roster of voices that reflected a range of opinions and demographics and think we succeeded in catching folks of all stripes and of varied experience levels. Today’s features a collegiate-aged comic (Davis), home for the summer and working the open mic scene; alongside two mid-career comics (McDowell and Taylor) who’re no strangers to slots on local club shows and who each deservedly featured in the finals of Helium’s recent “Funniest Person in St. Louis.”

You can read their comments below and you can also check a brand-new roundup of local shows of note, coming to St. Louis stages in August. And be sure to check the end of the column for a list of all the interviews done to date; thanks to each of those folks for taking part… and for risking emotional life-and-limb for the entertainment of others.

What types of mindset are ideal for creating good comedic bits? Do you work best with deadlines? Do you write best under pressure? Or do you work more productively when life's playing nice? Have you worked something that's happened that day into a set?

Katie Davis: I am constantly writing down new ideas as they come. I’ve started carrying around a journal, and a lot of people really show their egos. They tell me to write down what they say all the time, which gets awkward when I don’t laugh. Well-balanced humor is created in every mindset. Sure, I have dark jokes, but you can’t just have dark jokes. I don’t think you can rush funny, either. I work things into my sets that happen that day almost every set because you have to prove that you can keep creating. Every time you get on that stage, you have to prove that you deserve that stage time.

Brian McDowell: Most of my comedic bits are created out of frustration, and that’s the same mindset I try to adopt onstage. So, life playing nice can be a little bit bad for business at times. I do sometimes have self-imposed writing deadlines, especially when I have a show coming up that requires me to do something new. And there have been times where I work something that happens that day into a set, although it’s not something I typically do.

Duke Taylor: Every mindset is good when it comes to creating jokes. Comedy is describing how you reacted to various situations. Rather it made you laugh, cry, upset, or angry. You deliver that to the audience. I'm not the greatest with deadlines because if you tell me I got a couple days… I will use those couple days. Yes. I have worked something that happened that day into my set. It makes it seem more real and unique because you haven't practiced it and you're unprepared so you going with the flow. It's not only new to the audience, it’s new to you, as well.

Similarly, describe your experiences with open mics and how important (or not) they are in how you shape a set or incorporate new material?

Davis: Open mics are basically all I do. They are the testing grounds. Sometimes, I get disappointed in myself when I tell all of my best jokes and none of my new jokes. It’s typically because I’m afraid people who’ve never seen me perform will make assumptions about me based on only that. Even if I kill, I feel guilty that I pulled my material, and lost an opportunity to become better. Open mics facilitate a community among people I’ve grown to respect in Columbia, Kirksville, and Saint Louis; they’re the reason I do comedy.

McDowell: For a new comic, open mics are an absolute necessity for shaping material, meeting other comics, and finding out how comedy works. Since I’ve been doing this a while (some would suggest I’ve been doing this way too long), I am pretty picky about which open mics I do. I mainly seek out time in front of an actual audience that isn’t comprised just of bored comedians waiting to get onstage. I find that, past a certain point, comedians who primarily perform in front of other comedians can develop bad habits that can reduce their effectiveness with an actual audience in a real comedy club.

Taylor: Open Mics are “Gyms for Comedians.” You can work out at home but if you want the best results you have to hit the gym. You don't want to practice new material at a major show because you don't know how it will go... you want to be absolutely ready with a set that you have worked most of the kinks out of.

Do your sets involve topical humor, i.e. based on the news, politics, current events or "now" pop culture? Or do you enjoy working with more evergreen-types of material?

Davis: I try to balance the two types of material. I make sure I have an old joke I know that works, and then throw mostly new topical humor for comparison. I get mad at myself if I just do all of one or the other because I am so much more dynamic than that.

McDowell: I have worked topical references in before, but I don’t do it too often. Social media has made delivering that type of humor much more difficult and less interesting than it used to be. Now, by the time I get onstage and try to deliver my “hot take” on the events of the day, thousands of kids have already said essentially the same thing on the Internet. It’s very difficult to find a comedian with an original take in reacting quickly to world events. I would rather spend my time developing material that is purely mine, and that I can use and hone for a while.

Taylor: I write material that moves me. It could be about relationships, peeing in the shower, or dog abuse. I go with what makes me laugh.

Any recollections of your first set? Went smoothly? Better left in the past? What stands out weeks, months, years later?

Davis: The first set I ever performed was in Kirksville, Missouri in the backyard of the TKE fraternity house. They had a deck overlooking several rows of folding chairs. I was shaking, I was so nervous. I was also distracted because a guy I matched with on Tinder was there, and I hadn’t responded to his three-ish paragraphs he sent me over the app. When the show started, we realized the audience couldn’t see the face of the first comedian. I was nervous, but I just keep reminding myself I will never be that nervous ever again, which always calms me before the show. Almost a year later, I don’t get nervous and the Tinder guy, Ty Clay, turns out to be a good friend and an even better comedian.

McDowell: I was living in Albuquerque, and writing funny essays making fun of that town that I would share with people in the kitchen of the coffeehouse where I was employed for a while. Someone there ran an open mic at a local gay bar and invited me to read some of what I was writing there. I gave it a try, and it went over well. People seemed to get it and enjoy it. A comedian who was also a part of that show took me aside and told me I was performing stand-up comedy, even if I didn’t realize it. So, the next time I went onstage, I actually memorized some funny things to say instead of just reading it.

If given the choice, would you prefer to: deliver a technically-solid, polished, rehearsed, all-cylinders-firing set to a middling-into-it audience; or would rather offer up a loose, spontaneous, messy, circus-wire performance to an appreciative audience?

Davis: I value cerebral humor. Jokes that are “messy” aren’t my style. As long as I respect my jokes I will continue to perform, but once I become a sell-out, that’s when I’ll call it.

McDowell: Weirdly, the first choice sounds better to me than the second. I would rather be solid in presenting material that I came up with than messy in reacting to the room. I am guessing this answer is very atypical.

Taylor: I would say both it just depends on the day. Of course, you love doing the material you worked on numerous times and that you're more confident in but you also want to have fun doing something that not even you know what the outcome will be. Doing the same set over and over again can make you bored with it and it shows in the performance. So you always want to have fun.

The set's over. People are milling around the room. What's the best way to compliment a performer's set? What's the best comment that you've heard of late, whether it be a compliment or a smart observation? How much do you wanna hear from patrons, as opposed to other performers?

Davis: The best compliment I’ve heard is that someone’s set was smart. Slapstick humor can get a laugh, but smart humor stays with you.Patrons have spotted me upwards of fifteen times in public places, and shower me with compliments. It’s sweet, but my stage persona is different than my personal persona, and I feel undeserving of their praise. However, when I see other comics who made me laugh, I become a HUGE fangirl. I’m more interested in meeting performers rather than patrons because I’ve never met a good comedian with a boring personality, but I’ve met plenty of good people with boring personalities.

McDowell: Offering a performer you enjoy sex, drugs, or booze is always a nice place to start. In lieu of that, a simple quick compliment or good suggestion will suffice. Just don’t say anything that’s weirdly passive aggressive, don’t negatively compare them to other comedians, and don’t try to tell them some lame joke that they’ve probably already heard.

Taylor: The best way is to be real. If you didn't think they did good... tell them, if you have advice to help them... tell them, if you think they killed the stage... tell them. Honestly is always the best to me because it makes you stronger. You will never get better if everyone tells you..you did great. The best compliment I've got so far was from a fellow comic. I got the chance to open for Paul Mooney at the Laugh Lounge and I have been working on rearranging this joke and after help from a few friends I find a perfect balance and tried it on stage that night. After the show, a vet in the comedy game gave me props on how great of a joke it is, and how I should keep it and make it closer. It's a good feeling to know your hard work is being recognized. And me personally I love feedback from everybody, but mostly patrons because those are the people that comes support. Comics are there for the same reasons you are but patrons are they to laugh.

When are your next, planned public performances?

Davis: I am performing in Pints & Punchlines in Columbia, Missouri at Rose Music Hall on August 5. Doors open at 9, the show is at 9:30. If you show up because of this article, let me know! I’d love to hang out with you, and grab a drink! Otherwise, stay on the lookout for UpChuckles Comedy Shows.

McDowell: I will be a part of the always-excellent Impolite Company show at the Crack Fox in downtown St. Louis on August 18 at 10:30 p.m. All of the public performances that I would actually want anybody to watch are listed on www.brianmcdowellcomedy.com.

Taylor: I have maybe four or five shows lined up in St. Louis in August and a few in September in Kansas City. But for details go follow my fan page. I post all upcoming shows, random jokes, and skits. So please support... With Support Dreams become Destinations!!!

Read prior editions here:

January: Carolyn Agnew, Rima Parikh, Angela Smith

February: Sarah Bursich, Kenny Kinds, Stryker Spurlock

March: Tina Dybal, Justin Luke, Ken Warner

April: Eric Brown, Ella Fritts, JC Sibala

May: Yale Hollander, Kelsey McClure, Tree Sanchez

June: Ryan Dalton, Jamie Fritz, Sam Lyons

July: Andrew Frank, Sarah Pearl, Rob Tee