Transcript: Crafting Your Onstage Persona

Comedy Insider NYC
Episode “Crafting your Onstage Persona”

Christian Thom: Hi, Christian Thom here. New York City has long been hailed as the cultural capitol of the United States, from its vibrant night life, to its museums and galleries. From its delicate panoply of exotic subway aromas, to the mysterious fluids that wash up on our streets, like so many immigrants looking for freedom. One thing you can say about New York. It is the premiere city for stand up comedy in America. Not counting Chicago, and Los Angeles. And the bets of the best headline here, at the Gotham comedy club.
Comedian Jim Mendrinos is the man who literally wrote the book on comedy. In his career he has preformed for over a hundred thousand complete idiots and now he is here to share that experience with you. You told me that when you were starting off, Sam Kinison grabbed you by the scruff of the neck and said this, I show you, write a joke.
Jim Mendrinos: Yeah, and you know it was amazing because the construction was there but was missing was me. You know I would just go, and I put the jokes there, and I would do them as written, which is exactly what you don’t want to do when you’re writing a joke. You want to have your personality in there and his exact quote was “Get your fucking personality in the line.”
Which was something that really took me years to really internalize and fix, but its difference between saying something I wrote then saying something fro he heart, when every comic starts there is a filter in there head that says I can’t say that. I can’t talk about that. And what he did was basically help me take away that filter which I think lets your own personality come out quicker and it’s your own personality that forms your character as a standup.
I know I really don’t look like a comedian; I really look like your cross country driver who kills hookers at truck stops. I know this; either that or I look like your high school English professor who used to look at you a bit too languidly your sophomore year. But we all have our crosses to bear my friend.
Christian Thom: Now I have heard Woody Allen say this, you never consciously try to create a persona. It’s only your natural personality.
Jim Mendrinos: Yeah that never works.
Christian Thom: Right?
Jim Mendrinos: Well, I shouldn’t say never it does, if you’re going to be a dedicated solid comedic character like Steve Martin, where he was always doing that over the top kind of absurdist behavior, or Rodney Dangerfield who perfectly crafted this looser character. Then you can sit there and go, ok let me, here’s how I dress for that character, here’s how I do this with that character. But a great standup, I am not talking about the good ones I am talking about the great ones, are the ones who have a life on stage. You know a myriad of there emotions, there not just one or two things they say. If you remember back to Eddy Murphy, his first stand up special. I mean he had bits that were angry and he had bits that were dirty. And he had bits that were pure joy. And when you look at all the character comics, they play one note. And you know, it’s the exceptional performer that can play one note.
I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, a little question. How come when we all can’t fall asleep; we all wind up doing the same stupid thing? We all stare at the alarm clock, and then we will say things, things like if I fell asleep right this very second. I could get four hours and twenty two seconds worth of sleep. Snooze alarm goes of you will smack the hell out of it. Then just lie in bed and justify why you should be allowed to stay there. You’re like nnnnnn, boom, I won’t shower. Nnnnnn, boom, I wont shave. Nnnnnn, fuck it I will call in sick.
For me, and I am sure you have had this, you are performing you see another comic perform and they do similar and or exact…
Christian Thom: And then you can’t do that joke or you’re so mad they did that joke?
Jim Mendrinos: Yeah well, in my opinion if somebody does the same joke, I wrote a really crappy joke. But when you inject your personality in it and you inject what is funny about it. I should be writing stuff that’s so original…
Christian Thom: You can’t copy it.
Jim Mendrinos: Yeah.
If you haven’t been to Montreal you got to go you know why? Because everyone in Montreal is gorgeous, man woman, child everyone, which is amazing because not more than 40 miles away from there in Plattsburg, New York you have the ugliest fucking human beings, I have ever seen. Really there is supermodels’ grazing alongside the highways in Montreal.
I was reasonably sure they were not going to allow me in the city, that’s how good looking they are. I was positive I would get there and there would be a Mounty like Monsieur, Where you going? Uh, Montreal. You? No. You go to Plattsburg.”
You know I started when I was 19, I am 42 now. You know the stuff I was doing at 19, 20 would look so bad coming from my mouth at this point. And that’s the bottom line, eventually what you wrote which was the truth for you then, becomes a lie. Well, that’s why you don’t want to set your persona; you want to let who you are at the moment defining who you are on stage. You have to understand that everything has to evolve.
Weird shit happens to your body as you get older, like the other day I yawned and I threw my back out. How miserably out of shape am I that yawning is now a strenuous activity. Consult physician before yawning, told you weird stuff. You know when I was getting old I could tell you the exact moment. I was lying on the couch and my leg fell asleep, and I just didn’t even bother to wake it up. I was like I ain’t got no plans, do what you want to do. I am tired of being the boss of you.
You got to evolve and you got to constantly take an inventory of who you are as a human being right now. And unless you’re doing a character like a Rodney Dangerfield, you know. It’s hard to make that lie seem real to the audience. You will lose an audience very quickly if you don’t evolve your material and let the material and your humanity meet together to define your persona.
When we talk as stand ups, we can’t paint a dry picture, the audience is drunk. We play at least on the club level, in front of a bunch of people who are drunk. Their distracted because their there with dates.
Christian Thom: And our job is to get them drunker. And then send them into their cars.
Jim Mendrinos: It’s the only art form in the world with a two drink minimum. Picasso didn’t have a two drink minimum, your not going to the Louvre and having a couple of scotches just to get in.
You guys have been a lot of fun enjoy the rest of your night, goodnight.