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Photo by JR Johnson
Ryan Dalton
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Photo by Tracy Jane Weidel
Jamie Fritz
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Photo by Lee Otts
Sam Lyons
We continue with our monthly Q & A series highlighting local standup performers, featuring a trio who all performed at the Comedy Penthouse at Brennan’s last month. (This month’s show will be held at the West End club’s upstairs venue on Sunday, June 18 at, more or less, 8 pm.) Each month in 2017, our subjects are treated to the same seven questions and the fun comes in seeing points of agreement and variance between each group; certainly some of that comes this month’s installment, featuring scene stalwarts Ryan Dalton, Jamie Fritz and Sam Lyons.
What types of mindset are ideal for creating good comedic bits? Do you work best with deadlines? Do you writing 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?
Dalton: I try to write in a notebook as much as possible, but I tend to make short notes in my phone throughout the day. I'll try those small bits at mics. If they work, I'll see how I can make them better. If I think of something that makes me laugh, annoys me, or just feels like something we've all experienced, I'll make a note in my iPhone. These notes have gotten pretty long and unorganized. My best bits have come from notes I made months ago, forgot about, and then stumbled upon after scrolling through my phone while trying to look busy at a bar. The most fun I've had writing comedy comes for shows like History Shmistory. If you're not familiar with this show, it's a monthly showcase ran by Christian Lawrence where comedians impersonate historical figures. There's nothing more fun than writing a bunch of dick jokes in the voice of JFK. I could spend hours doing that. OK, I have spent hours doing that.
Fritz: When do I do my best writing? That is a tough answer, because it never happens the way you plan and every session is different from the last. I've sat down with a great concept and hammered out five minutes of awful. And other times, I've start with a funny sentence and it develops effortlessly. So I honestly can't say that something works for me as a rule. I have, however, learned that trying to force it never works. If all you have is a few sentences, but you know there is more looming in your subconscious, you have to wait until it surfaces on its own! It will come when it is ready, randomly at a stop sign or while in an argument. My jokes tend to piece themselves together on their own. I just have to get out of the way.
Lyons: I come up with possible premises literally all the time. My notes app is littered with odd phrases like "don't touch my hair" and "homeschool elections." I usually end up expanding right before my first time performing it, which makes it choppy, but also helps me view it in its raw form
Similarly, describe your experiences with open mics and how important (or not) they are in how you shape a set, or incorporate new material?
Dalton: Oh, man. Open mics are important, but they also make me want to never do comedy again. For the last five years, I've spent four or five nights a week at the same dive bars with the same people doing the same jokes in front of people who aren't even paying attention. It can feel like Groundhog Day. You get burnt out a little. I'll say to myself, "Goddamnit, I'm never going to the Nick's Pub open mic again. That place can burn to the ground for all I care." Then I'll sober up, think of a new bit, and go to the next mic. It's a vicious cycle. My relationship with mics is rocky, but I have to do them. We all have to do them. Comedians will only get better by pushing themselves in situations that are not ideal. An open mic where no one is paying is a great place to learn how to get people to pay attention to you.
Fritz: Open mics are a necessary evil. Very few of us are ready to try completely raw material in front of a paying audience at a club, and I am NO exception. The open mic is the only environment that you will learn the nuances of a joke—where your inside joke becomes relatable, and what sentence structure elevates the joke rather than tanking it completely. But it is equally important to know that you can't judge all aspects of a new joke on one audience. I have had jokes bomb miserably in one club and soar in the next. Stand by your work!
Lyons: I love open mics. When I started doing this in Mississippi, my town only had a mic a month. I was treating that one mic like Madison Square Garden, and I think that's why I still live by them now. They're an important tool of the trade, no matter how long you've been doing it.
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?
Dalton: I'll work with any topic. I don't try to have the latest political or topical joke in my act. I'll use Twitter or Facebook for that. All of my jokes are based on things that have happened to me or opinions I actually hold. They might stray from reality a bit, but real situations are where my jokes are grounded. Doing strictly topical jokes just seems kind of hollow to me. There's more to live comedy than reciting things that could have been tweets.
Fritz: My work tends to be focused on my life, family and friends. Current events, etc., are subtle side notes throughout. Let's say this: you will likely never hear me address politics directly, but you will always know where I stand.
Lyons: One hundred percent, if it makes me giggle I'm putting it in my next set. Could be a trending topic, something that happened 30 years ago, or something from my life. I don't wanna be known as the "pop culture comic" or the "jokes about his childhood comic.” I just wanna laugh, and I hope people laugh with me.
Any recollections of your first set? Went smoothly? Better left in the past? What stands out weeks, months, years later?
Dalton: My first year of comedy was spent believing I was way better than I actually was. I have a video of me about six months into doing standup. It's awful. Just real bad. I seemed so rehearsed. I looked like a child telling jokes for a school project. Let's never talk about this again. Thanks.
Fritz: As if I could forget my first time: WORST four-minutes imaginable. I didn't yet know how to craft a joke, the important differences between how you tell a story to your friends vs. a group of strangers. Though I had three close friends in the audience, they couldn't even muster up pity laughter throughout. They always say it wasn't that bad, but we all know what happened up there!
Lyons: Honestly, I still feel like my first set killed. I look back at the video and cringe at some of my methods and delivery, but the raw material was good and well-received. Which left me ill-prepared for my next set, which bombed.
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?
Dalton: Loose, spontaneous, messy, circus-wire performance to an appreciative audience type set for the win. Comedy is supposed to be fun for everyone involved. You can have a perfect set technically, but if the audience didn't care for it, it didn't matter.
Fritz: An appreciative audience is always preferred, if I'm picking. The illusion of spontaneity is what makes stand up feel amazing for the audience and it is much easier to craft that feeling when the audience is a willing participant. But I would never go into a performance without being prepared. I respect the audience enough to never offer them that variable.
Lyons: Definitely circus-wire. I think there's something beautiful about laying down the setup, getting halfway through the punchline and then realizing the joke is also funny for a totally different reason, and rolling with it. I love discovering the joke with the audience.
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?
Dalton: Recently, someone said to me, "You do that privileged white boy thing." Not sure if that was a comment on my act or just a very accurate guess at who I am. Honestly, I'm not sure there's a great way to compliment a set. Just laugh during it. Anytime someone has complimented me, I usually ruin it by explaining where I messed up or where I could have done better. I've been working on taking compliments. Trying hard to just say, "Thanks."
Fritz: Any compliment is a great compliment! Just make eye contact please; nothing feels more awkward than people walking by you like you are a stripper they don't want to tip. I have had a few people tell me, "You just keep getting better every time I see you!" Proof positive that you are never finished growing and developing in this field!
Lyons: As far as compliments, when I posted my first set, my college roommate started calling me “the black Jerry Seinfeld.” The best observation/advice I got was about a year in: "tell your jokes like you think they're funny." I guess I was still too obviously conscious about my material, which was killing my delivery.
When are your next, planned public performances?
Dalton: I'll be at Helium Comedy club June 8-10 with Donnie Baker. Also, I co-host an open mic with Andrew Mihalevich every Thursday at Fitz's in the Loop; that show starts at 10 p.m.
Fritz: Wednesday, June 7, Puttin’ on the fRitz at Hey Guys Comedy; Saturday, June 10, hosting Michael Thorne at Hey Guys Comedy; Wednesday, June 14, STL Funniest Person Comedy Competition at Helium; Saturday, June 17, hosting Ronnie and Donnie at Hey Guys Comedy; Saturday, June 24, featuring at the Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri.
Lyons: I'll be guest hosting the Palomino Open Mic at the Palomino Lounge on June 20.
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
