7 questions for standup comedians Tina Dybal, Justin Luke, and Ken Warner

Each month in 2017, we’ll introduce you to a trio of talented local standup comics, giving you a look at 36 such night owls over the course of the year. This month, we’ll highlight Tina Dybal, Justin Luke and Ken Warner, running seven questions past each, regarding their approach to the craft, audience interaction and writing style.

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?

Dybal: Hmmmmmmm, I think a good premise for a bit starts with some emotion attached to it. The emotion could range from happy, sad, angry, tired, or just a moment that made you feel something. I write notes in my phone when I think of an idea for a joke. I have written premises down while crying, drunk, laughing hysterically, waiting in line at a coffee shop, or even on the toilet. The bit gets good after you sit down and hash it out, not just writing an idea in your phone. I think that includes holding onto the first feeling you had when you wrote it, but also looking at it objectively to really make it a solid bit. I am a serial procrastinator in all aspects of my life; especially when it comes to comedy. So, deadlines do help nudge me in the right direction, but I end up hating myself all the same for waiting until the very last second. I’m working on that. For sure, I’ve definitely talked about something that happened day of in a set. It’s usually when I’m mad at someone, myself, or something.

Luke: It's always been a mix for me. I've gone through good periods and slumps in all of those situations. Stress is a good motivator, but sometimes I can feel a little overwhelmed and end up not doing anything. Deadlines are a good reminder but, sometimes, I push things back because I think “tomorrow me” can handle it better. When life is good, it puts me in a good state to be able to create, but then nothing could come from it. I've tried a few times, but I don't think any of it has made it into my actual act.

Warner: Honestly, I have found my favorite bits come out of when I’m either feeling really positive and goofy, or very negative and depressed. Emotional extremes seem to work really well for me, because most of my material is very personal. I don’t really have deadlines in comedy but do work well with them. I like pressure, so I will usually try to write hurriedly right before I get on stage. My favorite thing is doing very fresh material, so I often do talk about my day or things that have happened hours before when I get on stage. I use comedy to get a perspective on my own life, so I really enjoy getting the instant feedback on things that have happened to me.

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

Dybal: They are crucial. Doesn’t mean I go to as many as I should every week. But as I said before, the work you do off-stage is just as important once you get past just being afraid of being on stage. You’ve got to put your 10,000 hours in, and I think it’s safe to say 10,000 on stage and 10,000 writing. You can go to an open mic and do the same “Tight 5” that you know will work, but is that really pushing you to grow as a comedian? The answer might be “yes,” depending on where you’re at. If I get booked on a weekend at Helium, I’m going to make sure I have all my banger bits ready to rock, and tweak some things here and there. You use your good stuff on a weekend at the club, and you go to a mic to work the new stuff out so that you can put it in your banger pile. Or throw it away and don’t ever use it. Something amazing I’ve found from open mics as I’ve grown as a comedian is just when I think I’ve gotten a bit to “perfection” (and I say “perfection” loosely), I find a new tag or a new direction for the bit from messing around on stage. I say something stupid, or I start riffing and then the work starts all over again with a joke I thought was done. I’m not sure a bit will ever be “done,” and that’s one thing that mics are really great for.

Luke: Open mics are very important. You'd be a dummy to think you can skip over 'em. They suck most of the time, but it's practice, and you need to practice. Even when I don't have anything new or good to say, it's still good to get up there and work on your craft. Sometimes at a mic I'll realize “This joke should go in this order,” or I'll riff something in the moment that works and try to incorporate into my set. You never know what will happen on stage; my brain is operating in a completely different way than it does when I'm just trying to write, so I try to get on stage as much as I can stomach it.

Warner: Open mics are everything. Even the most seasoned comedian uses them to write, and they are the very first step in constructing jokes. But you generally only get around four minutes, so you need to use paid gigs where you get more time to construct longer sets. But I try to think of open mics like going to the gym or brushing my teeth. They are just something I do that I generally enjoy immensely

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?

Dybal: I’d say my style of comedy is more evergreen. I love vulnerability, and I think I’m more drawn to that type of comedy—I always have been, and I love honesty [both] on stage and off stage.  I’m a sucker for it. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate topical humor, and wish I was better at it. I throw in some pop culture references, but it is usually to supplement something in regards to myself or my life.

Luke: Oh, god, no. If you do topical humor, it only has such a small shelf life, unless you're so good that it can still be relevant when you apply different situations to it. I try to keep it to personal anecdotes and silly observations.

Warner: My sets don’t involve much topical humor, even though I am a huge news junkie. The reason is that comedy is how I process things emotionally in my own life. So, because of that I don’t feel any urge to talk about the news unless something that happened really upset me. So I usually end up talking about relationships—and other things I don’t understand—that are going on in my personal life.

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

Dybal: I actually have a video of my first set. It was from May 2014, and I think I watched it about a year into comedy, and I haven’t watched it since. I was wearing combat boots, which always make me feel awesome, so that was cool. I had fun, and I fell in love with the feeling of being on stage. That doesn’t mean the jokes were incredible or anything, but no one is good at stand-up when they start. I think if I listened to my first set ever today, I would hate it and be super embarrassed. That’s okay with me though, because I want to constantly be growing as a comedian and learning from past mistakes or bad jokes. I’ve always had a lot of ideas and jumped around when it came to choosing a career. I was actually in the process of transferring to SLU to complete my Bachelor’s Degree and take the MCATs when I did my first set. Needless to say, I didn’t go to SLU. Comedy is the one thing I’ve stuck with and really ever been good at. I love it.

Luke: My very first set was at a college open mic. It was so loud that I couldn't hear myself think. My legs were shaking so bad that I couldn't move from where I was standing. But after it felt good. I had it set in my mind that I wanted to do standup for months at that point, and I just happened to hear about that mic on accident, and so to accomplish that felt really good at the time.

Warner: I remember my first set very vividly. It was at this independent venue in the town [where] I went to college. The heater was broken, and it was one of the coldest days I have every experienced, and I remember literally being able to see my breath as I was speaking on stage. The cold made me shake even more than I would’ve been if I was warm. That said, it went really well, all things considered. I had a really good time and left feeling completely exhilarated. My level of discomfort stands out. I feel so much more comfortable on stage now and feel like myself. I was so nervous and my jokes were a lot of one-liners not connected to my personal life. Now I’m much more myself on stage, and am able to talk about things that are going on in my life.

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?

Dybal: There’s pros and cons to both scenarios, and a time and a place for both. My choice? Hands down a loose, messy, spontaneous set to an appreciative audience. Like I said earlier, I love vulnerability, and I love messing around on stage. Those messy, spontaneous sets where you’re just being yourself and being present in that moment with an audience and yourself are my favorite. You’re not thinking about anything else. And let’s be real—an appreciative audience is pretty much the best thing you can ask for as a comic. Plus, it’s a really good time to get weird and accidentally find a new direction for a joke or find a new joke all together. Anything can happen in those sets.

Luke: Oh, the second every time. I've always had more fun being loose on stage than just saying all my jokes the way they're written in the order they belong in. It works, but that's when it feels like a job. And sometimes it is, but I enjoy the chaos of what can happen in the moment.

Warner: Absolutely the second option. Connecting to the audience is just as important as laughter for me; so as much as I love making people laugh, I really crave that feeling of coming away like I processed something in the moment with the audience. Thinking of something in the moment that goes over well is absolutely my favorite aspect of comedy. I’m constantly working toward becoming more present and improvisational on stage.

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?

Dybal: “Hey, great set. I really enjoyed the show tonight. You were really funny.” That’s good enough for me. I’ve heard some really cool stuff from audience members after a show. Remembering a joke or whatever. Best compliment? Kind of a weird story. I opened up for Carly Aquilino in late January of this year with another comic, Bobby Jaycox. Last week, Bobby’s grandfather passed away, and I was out in West County buying his family flowers at Walter Knolls to drop off at the wake. I live in St. Louis City, so I was kind of out of my element. I walked in was asking the florists what to buy for a funeral, because I don’t know that kind of stuff. Moments later, a girl working there walks up to the register and said “Is your name Tina?” I said yeah, and then she said to her co-worker, “I KNEW IT! I HEARD YOUR VOICE AND I KNEW IT WAS YOU! OMG WE SAW YOU AND A GUY BOBBY OPEN UP FOR CARLY AQUILINO!” (I have a really low, raspy voice for a female, and I make fun of it in my act.) It was really cool because so many times, people don’t remember you, and they don’t care about you. So that totally made my day to know we made those girls laugh and they connected to us.

Luke: Honestly, there's nothing more I hate than having to talk to people after a set. I have social anxiety (big whoop) so I would rather people just keep it quick and simple and I will say, "Thank you, thanks for coming to the show," and we can both go about our evening. As of late, I don't remember, but one of the most memorable was after a show a drunk dude talked to me about how I reminded him of his friend that moved to NY to do comedy and then got mugged and killed. That, or the couple in Des Moines that talked to me about their son who had a similar affliction to mine growing up and also wanted to do standup. That was very sweet.

Warner: I’m not sure if I know the correct answer to that question, because I think it depends on the comedian. I just like to hear that something to the effect of “good set” personally. I talk about a lot of personal things in my act, so it’s also nice to hear from people that they relate. That said, sometimes it can be difficult to talk about the details of something I just talked about on stage with another person one-on-one, because I often find it hard to talk about personal matters with even my closest friends. For whatever reason I’m most comfortable talking about the most personal matters of my life to a room full of strangers.

When are your next, planned public performances?

Dybal: March 18, 9:30 pm, Live, Nude, Rude & Unplugged at The Haunt. March 25, 8 p.m., Contraceptive Comedy at Shameless Grounds. Come out and see a show!

Luke: Picnic Time this Friday, March 10 at 9 p.m. at The Monocle. Picnic Time every month at The Monocle. Picnic Time Forever. Please come to Picnic Time.

Warner: I run a monthly showcase at Foam Coffee and Beer called Coffee Break with Ken Warner, and the next one is on April 14th at 7 p.m. Before that I am doing a show in Cape Girardeau called Cup n’ Cork on the 17 of March.