The Sacramento Comedy Foundation, a local nonprofit organization, will be hosting the fifth annual Sacramento Comedy Festival and they’ve now expanded to a whopping nine different venues. The party kicks off on Oct. 2, 2015, and lasts until Oct. 10 and takes place at regular hot spots like Punch Line Comedy Club, Laughs Unlimited Comedy Club and the Sacramento Comedy Spot. But also the festival includes some non-traditional venues such as the Starlite Lounge, Ooley Theater, Luna’s Café and more. Expect some spirited sets by Myq Kaplan of Last Comic Standing, Mo Mandel from truTV’s Barmageddon, and Rick Overton (actor/writer Emmy Award-winning comedian). There will also be a special Lavender Lights—Gay and Proud show on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Punch Line Sacramento featuring the hilarious Ronn Vigh (Last Comic Standing). Those who love improv will be delighted that Bay Area group 5 Play will perform two shows in two venues over the first weekend as well. If that weren’t enough, there’s even a Stand-Up Comedy Competition, which will have 60 comedians competing for a generous $2000 purse. Come for one show or buy a festival pass. You won’t be disappointed either way. Check out Saccomedyfest.ticketfly.com to get the lowdown.

You May Know Him Best as Huell in Breaking Bad, but Lavell Crawford Also Brings with Him an Impressive 25-year Resume in Comedy

When Lavell Crawford saw the pilot for Breaking Bad, he thought to himself, “Damn, this is gonna be a great show if it takes off.”

But like much of America, he didn’t return to his couch on Sunday nights to witness as the pressure surrounding Walter White ratcheted up week by week. As the show struggled, he was busy making a living as a working comedian.

Little did he know, just a few seasons later, he would become a crucial part of that show just as it crept out of the underground and took its cultural grip on the American consciousness, resulting in one of the biggest TV dramas in history.

To many, Lavell Crawford is Huell, the sizable muscle behind Breaking Bad’s Saul Goodman. To others, he’s the runner up from Season 5 of Last Comic Standing. But above all else, he’s an entertainer with 25 years of comedy under his belt.

I spoke with Crawford last week by phone, while he was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, filming a new Adam Sandler movie called Ridiculous Six.

Truthfully, he seemed a bit absent as we started the interview—barely interested in talking at all, let alone being funny. I’ve heard this isn’t rare with comedians, who make an on-stage living drawing laughter out of audiences. The idea that they should have to extend that performance into every nook and cranny of their life is unreasonable. We don’t ask that of musicians and actors or accountants and bellhops, so I suppose we shouldn’t ask it of comedians.

But thoughtful responses are the foundation for any worthwhile article, so I hoped he would loosen up. I made a point to shift out of “interviewer” mode and just ride the flow of the conversation, picking my moments to probe. With quickness, he settled in and began to provide a thoughtful, authentic glimpse into his world. Not only did he have me laughing by the end, but he had himself bellowing as well.

Crawford was 22 when he got into comedy. He was living at his mom’s house in St. Louis at the time.

“My cousin’s boyfriend was a comedian and I had seen him on public access and I thought he was OK,” he said. “There were all kinds of little comedy shows out there and Comedy Central had really gotten started. It was just calling me.”

He knew growing up that he was a clever kid and that he enjoyed the feeling of drawing laughter out of others, but that didn’t crystallize until he got in front of an audience himself for the first time.

“Once I started getting on stage, then I got the bug,” he said. “I became a promoter as well as a comedian, so I started making a living at it.”

After years of that, his career got a kick in the ass when he advanced to the finals of Last Comic Standing. And then came Breaking Bad. Now he finds his IMDb page stacked with movie roles, TV appearances and comedy specials.

In our interview, we talked about his influences, his upcoming show at Cache Creek Casino on March 21, 2015, and the possibility that Huell could return to the small screen on Better Call Saul—the new Breaking Bad spinoff/prequel.

What was your financial situation like when you started? 
I was living with my mama and I had a little part-time job, but I was cool. I always thought logically. I wasn’t out there just trying to do comedy and making that my sole means; that would be stupid. 

Who were your main influences? 
Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, you know. Lots of good ones who got up there and told stories. George Carlin. They all were inspirations. Anybody who gets on that stage and makes somebody mad has always been impressive to me. It’s almost like a fighter in the fight game. It makes you think, “Man, I wanna fight.”

Have you played Cache Creek before?
Yeah, I played there with the Last Comic Standing tour, but this is the first time I’ll do it individually. 

How much does your act change from one night to the next? 
I dabble in new stuff, but I have specials out there that people have seen and I’m on YouTube, so they have their favorites. In the people-pleasing business, you can’t please everybody. But I don’t really like sticking to one routine. I’ve been doing this for 25 years, so I’ve got a lot of things I can talk about.

How long do reporters typically wait to ask you about Breaking Bad in interviews?
Well shit, usually the first question is Breaking Bad! The first thing that comes out is, “Sooooooo, Breaking Bad…” 

You joined the show in Season 4. Were you watching before you were cast as Huell?
I knew about Breaking Bad because I had watched the pilot, but I was working comedy clubs and doing stand-up, so I didn’t get to watch it for a long time. But then when I got called for an audition, I was like alright. 

My audition was at 6 in the evening and I had just gotten off the road. I was exhausted and I had moved my wife and my two step kids to Los Angeles. I really wanted to just go home and sit on the couch and let everything ooze out of my body, but they wanted me to come in. The manager was so hyped. 

I read for Luscious the truck driver, and then they asked me to read for this other part. I was like, “OK, I didn’t know I was supposed to read for that part.” But I read for it and they were like, “When could you start?” and then Huell was on there for two seasons. 

Had the show become a phenomenon yet?
It was a cult classic, but they weren’t making money. They hung in there, and then in Season 4 it became the monster it became. I think that was because it was on AMC. If it was on HBO, it would have been a monster from the get-go. 

Could you tell it was a special show while you were shooting?  
Honestly, they don’t really let you in on all of the info. They give you some of the pages from your script, but that’s it. But every episode we were doing was just so powerful. The fourth season was epic and the fifth season just caught on fire. It was another level of “Oh my goodness, what’s gonna happen? Am I gonna get shot today? What’s gonna go down?”

How often do people recognize you from Breaking Bad? 
A lot, because I did make a big impact on the show. But I met this one chick on the plane last night coming here to Albuquerque and she was like, “I remember when I had ‘Mike’ from Breaking Bad on my plane. I’m always excited when Breaking Bad characters are on my plane.” [Breaking Bad was filmed in Albuquerque.] She was telling me this, looking me dead in my face. She fucking didn’t even get it that I was on the show. I had to show her ass a picture of me and Saul Goodman and she was like, “Aww shit.” I said, “Well damn, I don’t know if you’ve got selective memory, but did you really watch?” 

You’re not particularly a forgettable looking guy.
That’s what I’m saying!

So you’ve acted, done stand-up, voiced animation. Do you still consider yourself a stand up comedian above all else? 
Well, I’m a comedian first, actor second. You don’t have to put a bunch of titles on what you do, shit. Let everybody else do that. That’s just a waste of time. 

Did the Breaking Bad role open up a lot of acting opportunities for you? 
Oh hell yeah, every step is gonna open doors. Last Comic Standing opened me up to the acting world and put more money in the clubs for me. And then Breaking Bad was like the key to the city, because everybody that was in Hollywood who had a part wanted to meet with me.

I got to do The Crazy Ones and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I just did a movie with Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg called American Ultra. Now I’m on set in Santa Fe for a movie with Adam Sandler called Ridiculous Six, so it’s opened up a lot for me. 
 
Will we get to see Huell on Better Call Saul? 
I’m sure we will. It’s a prequel, so I think they’re going to figure out a way to introduce me. They never show how we met in Breaking Bad. I think the fans want it, so I think they’re gonna figure out a way to get it going. 

Not to change the subject, but do cougars’ vaginas bite? 
[Laughter] I don’t know! 

Context: Nearly all of Crawford’s tweets are short questions or comments like the one I just posed back to him. He follows them up with the word, “Discuss” For example: “Hard-ons and jogging pants. Discuss.”
They’re just random-ass thoughts I have, like, “If you eat Taco Bell, do your farts ring?” “Discuss.”

So that’s your approach to social media? If you have a fleeting thought, you fire it off? 
Yeah, I put “discuss” at the end so people know I ain’t trying to be funny. Everybody’s trying to be funny or be a jerk. Thinking they always got to find a way to put somebody down. I just don’t believe in that. I’m 46 years old. I have children. I believe in God; I’m a church person. I just think the whole energy that social media brings is just something you shouldn’t allow inside you, man. It’s horrible. That’s why I say things like, “Women twerking to gospel music, are they Jesus freaks? Discuss.” Ya know, it’s funny, stupid stuff.

Have those ideas ever made it into your act? 
Oh yeah, a lot of times I bring them on stage even though they’re stupid to me. And sometimes people really have jumped on it. Like one time I said, “Do squirrels have orgasms, or do they bust nuts?” The people laughed because it’s silly. We’re just having fun.

Have fun with Lavell Crawford at Cache Creek in Brooks, California, on March 21, 2015, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $35 to $45 and can be purchased through Cachecreek.com.

Comedian Iliza Shlesinger moves from reality show fame to rise the stand-up ranks

Talent, hard work and confidence–and a dash of luck–are needed to nurture any career in entertainment, and Iliza Shlesinger has been fortunate enough to have all these ingredients in abundance.

The winner of Last Comic Standing 6 back in 2008, Shlesinger is the only female comic to take the title, though even that wasn’t an easy road. She staved off elimination multiple times in order to take the prize. It’s an accomplishment to be sure, but it’s not something she has ever hung her hat on.

“It’s a cool thing for sure, but I think other people are more impressed with it than I am,” she says. “I would be a real tool if I rested on those laurels and still talked about it.”

While it’s not her sole accomplishment, it certainly gave her a quicker start than others in the field. Still, it’s what she’s done since that’s entrenched her as a force in stand-up.

“I know comics who have been doing it longer than I have,” Shlesinger says. “I know comics who have been doing it for 10 years, and they’re still featuring, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the way it is. I’ve had the luxury of skipping a lot of the BS that stands between opening and being a headliner. I’m very fortunate to have been able to do that, but there’s also lot of hard work that I’ve put into it.

“I don’t brag about it, because I know what I did. As we get farther and farther away from it, I don’t want to be the guy who’s like, ‘Remember how good I was at football in high school?’”

Her journey in comedy began before Last Comic Standing. She says her first loves were sketch comedy and improv. She wrote for a troupe while she was in college, but then one day, she wrote a one-woman show, which, probably more so than her victory in the popular TV show, laid the roadmap for her current career.

“I was the only girl in my troupe who wrote stuff, and then it hit me, why am I writing stuff for other girls who aren’t writing for themselves?” she explains. “Why don’t I throw my thoughts in linear form on to paper and write them for myself? I just started writing paragraphs. It’s a weird answer, but I moved to Los Angeles, and it didn’t seem like a stretch to start doing stand-up comedy. Someone gave me some stage time, and they asked me to come back the next week. I just kept coming back and getting asked to do other shows, and it just became something I was obsessed with, I guess.”

Shlesinger says that she always knew she would be “funny for a living.” She was so single-minded about that inevitability that she “just didn’t think about anything else.” For years, she hosted The Weakly News, a news satire show for Thestream.tv in addition to touring as a stand-up comic. Armed with striking good looks and an even sharper tongue, she has recently made the jump to more traditional airwaves, hosting the syndicated dating show Excused, which has recently been picked up for a second season. Shlesinger discussed her latest endeavor, how success as a stand-up comic hasn’t necessarily translated to success in auditioning for acting roles and fetishist Google searches in the following interview.

When I Googled your name, the second thing that popped up was “Iliza Shlesinger feet.” I wasn’t sure if you were aware of that.
I don’t know why. It’s very odd. Everyone mentions it to me. I don’t have a foot fetish, I don’t know people who have feet fetishes. People are just creepy.

It’s because of that one video you did, right? For The Weakly News where you showed your feet because you injured one of them.
I guess, but it’s not like billions of people watch it, but I’ve done plenty of videos where my arms are showing, and people forget about that.

That’s just the one that happened to catch on.
Yeah, people are sick.

How did you get hooked up with Excused and how has the experience been so far for you?
I wish I got hooked up with it. I auditioned for it. Do little girls dream of hosting a dating show when they grow up? No. [Loud car horn] Sorry. [To another driver] For real?! Oh my God! I’m sorry, this one person is ruining my life single-handedly. Give me one second. Is it bad that I believe she should be put in jail for being that bad of a driver? My whole thing is like, if you’re driving and this is a simple turn that you can’t complete, what poor decisions are you making in everyday life that are affecting the rest of us. You’re an animal. You shouldn’t be allowed out if you can’t make a left hand turn.

Anyway… It’s a late night dating show, and I got the gig, and I was like, I either do it my way or I don’t do it at all. I make up all my own jokes on the spot. There are no writers, there’s nothing like that. I’m fortunate, because most stand-up comedians get a gig, and they have to read lines…but for me, they really let me say what I wanted to say.

I’ve seen a few clips from the show, and you really don’t pull any punches with the contestants.
There are things that I want to say that they won’t let me say. Then you watch it, and because of standards and practices, they edit out a lot of things. Even though it’s a late night show, in some places it’s syndicated at 4 in the afternoon, and it’s like, really? It’s weird what will fly and what won’t. Last night, I made a gay joke on the show, and they kept that in, but I’m not allowed to say, “douche bag.” It’s like, OK, let’s offend the gay community, but not douche bags.

Were you into dating shows when you were younger?
No. I loved Blind Date when I was in middle school or high school. I don’t remember, but this is the same producer who did Blind Date. Everyone liked Blind Date. I remember, of course, watching Singled Out. I really liked Jenny McCarthy, and I always thought she was great on that show. It’s kind of ironic that I looked up to this blonde woman with big boobs who was funny and crazy, and now I do that for a living. I don’t think I look like Jenny McCarthy at all, but it’s funny how things come full circle.

Has the show affected your views of the dating pool or the dating scene?
No. It’s such a microcosm. You’re going to get creepy guys and gold diggers and douche bags no matter where you go or what you do, so the fact that we condense that world down to 19 minutes and put it on display, I’m not disheartened or anything like that. It’s a TV show, so everything’s exacerbated. I look for very specific things in mates, and I don’t think I’ve found it on my show, so I don’t like to judge them because different people like different things. I’m trying to be as political about this statement as possible [laughs].

Is writing something you’d like to get more into?
For TV shows? No. The people who love writing, all they want to do is be writers, just like teachers or nurses or whatever. I find a lot of times for stand-up comics, you write because it’s a gig that you can get that you’re good at, but if you had your druthers, you’d write for yourself or do your own thing. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve never had to take any sort of job in comedy that I didn’t want because of these small successes that I’ve had. Writing for my own show would be one thing, but I don’t really have an interest, other than for a friend or a really cool project, in sitting in a writers’ room and writing for someone else. It’s hard to do once you’ve done stand-up. It spoils you for a lot of things.

Is it the singular control you have over it?
Kind of. I could imagine any writer would be like that. When you write a joke, you want to have it said a certain way, and depending upon your director or your producer with his two cents, the actor may say it differently. For me, I don’t think I would want to have the challenge of writing for someone else’s voice. I’m always impressed when writers can do that. Being a stand-up comic is a weird thing, because when you’re on stage, everyone loves you and you’re a star. And then the next day, when you go out on an audition for like girlfriend No. 3, you walk in the room and no one knows who you are. Someone will be like, “Oh, have you tried stand-up?” and you’re like, “Yeah, I’ve tried, and I’ve bought a house with that money.” One art form doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good in another art form or recognized in one, so it’s a real mindfuck for lack of a better term.

Sometimes I’ll see stand-up comics who I really like, and they’re in a commercial for like two seconds, but I know them by name.
Right, right. It’s weird. Even just from an appreciation standpoint, you go to a club, you’re there for the weekend, they pick you up in a car, your fans come. You want to go to these casting directors and say, “I have fans.” People ask me for my autograph, and you want me to show me your profile so I can read this horribly written thing about being a sexually frustrated neighbor. Give me a break. It’s the weirdest thing ever.

Is it tough to find good roles for women in comedy?
I think it’s getting easier and easier. I think people are starting to realize that women are just as funny. It’s not about the fact that you have a vagina. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of unfunny women, but there’s also plenty of unfunny guys. In fact, there are probably more unfunny guys. Pretty much everything I read is, “You’re the quirky neighbor who just wants to have sex and doesn’t understand relationships.” I’m like, I don’t really know a ton of women like that, but OK. A lot of them are written in a very similar voice. One network will get a show that’s a hit so every network will copy it. I think women are gaining more and more. You look around at movies and TV shows, and women are getting more of a chance to give their opinions, and I think that’s great.

Iliza Shlesinger will play Punch Line in Sacramento Nov. 15—17, 2012. You can buy tickets for the show through Punchlinesac.com. To keep up to date on Iliza, you can follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/Iliza, where, amongst other things, you can view daily pictures of her freakishly adorable dog Blanche.

Felipe Esparza tickles the charity bone
Words by Adam Saake

Most of the time you get 20 minutes. Maybe. Celebrities are busy people with complicated agendas that their publicists keep moving like a well-oiled machine. This was not the case with this past season’s winner of Last Comic Standing, Felipe Esparza. On the dot, I ran out of questions at the 20-minute mark and began to end our interview.

“I never made it that far,” jokes Espraza.

Did you have to audition for Last Comic Standing?
For Last Comic Standing I had to audition. I didn’t wait in line this year so someone must have put in a good word for me this time.

So you’ve auditioned in the past?
Yeah, and I sucked.

I didn’t see you, because you weren’t on those shows.
No, you never noticed me.

You touch yourself in this very strange way while you’re on stage. Almost like you’re trying to pinch your own nipple. Is this a weird tick you’ve developed along the way?
I think every comedian looks for something to hold on to. Some comedians, they lean on the microphone stand. Some comics sit down and others just stand still. I just walk around. I used to wear big coats, and I always closed it over me and tried to hide, because I was so scared of being on stage. And I was just trying to cover myself up like if I had a cape. And little by little I stopped holding my coat and pushing it over me. Because it looks weird. Then I just forgot about it, and now I pretend to hold a coat or something. It’s a habit I guess, I can’t get rid of it.

Normally your delivery is very laid-back and the timed structure of the show seems like it might have been a challenge for you. Did you have to adapt?
I had to adapt, because I only had two-and-a-half or three minutes to wrap it up. We had to submit three minutes of material, no more, no less. I tried to go for the strongest jokes. I have a lot of one-liners, so it was hard for me to do a story because I don’t have so many long jokes. The only long joke I have is [whispers], “I want cereal.” That took a big chance, that one and the last joke I did at the finale, “Now I know you can keep a secret.” There was a risk I took. I did those jokes at the end, because if I had done those jokes at the beginning, I probably would have lost my timing. It was hard to come up with fast jokes. Then the audience. The audience would clap at everything that Tommy and I were saying. They will applause break “hello.” I had to time the audience. I would do the setup and they’d laugh at the setup. Whoa, hold on. The joke’s not even there yet. Like, I said this joke; I said, “The restaurant that’s parked in front of my house…” That got a big ass applause break. And then the punch line was, “…got robbed after I paid.” Some of the comics, I don’t know if they were used to the crowd cheering for them so loud. It was bothering their timing a lot. Me, I was just riding the flow.

Were you writing new material along the way to pepper in with some of the older bits?
A lot of the jokes that I said in the beginning of the competition were new bits. Like the one about the new law in Arizona. I say, “That law sounds scary, but if I get deported I’m going to say the same thing I say when I get kicked out of a club. ‘But sir, I was already in there. My friends are all in there. They’re still holding my credit card.’” That was a new joke; it was only like a month old. “I want cereal” was like a year old.

Were you always a jackass growing up, or did you make your way into comedy through other channels?
Ever since my friend Jackie Escalara invited me over to his house. See, I lived in the housing projects but across the street, not even 100 feet away, was a regular neighborhood. Across the street in a regular house was my friend, Jackie Escalara. He introduced me to Bill Cosby on a little Fisher-Price record player. I listened to that whole bit, about “me and my brother Russell.” The one where Bill Cosby is talking about him and his brother fighting all night. And from then on, I said, man this is funny. I memorized the album. It’s weird how when you’re a kid, when you really love something, you remember it–unlike math and English. You forget that shit when you get home. I wanted to be a comedian from then on.

Were there any Latino comedians who influenced your style and that you looked up to?
I think I like Paul Rodriguez and George Carlin the best. And Richard Pryor. I think my top three are Paul Rodriguez first, Rodney Dangerfield second and George Carlin third. If those three guys had a baby, it would be me looking like Mitch Hedburg but speaking Spanish.

I don’t want to think about the three of them having a baby, at all.
I know huh? It would be crazy. Drinking wine like George Carlin, riding in a Nova with hubcaps and smoking crack in the back! I love Paul Rodriguez because he has different material all the time, and he’s always talking shit about somebody. It’s hilarious. Like I remember Carlos Mencia was on stage preaching. Like he always does now, preaching about how much money he made. He was saying he made a million dollars. But, when we were in the parking lot–there were a bunch of comedians hanging out in our group, and Paul Rodriguez has a Ferrari man. A Ferrari Testarossa. One with a clear fiberglass and you can see the engine in the back. He revs that shit up! I mean loud! He looks at Carlos Mencia and says, “Hey Carlos, next year maybe you should make three million dollars!” And takes off on Sunset.

What are you going to do next? Where are you headed?
I want to continue. I’m going to do the 65-city tour first and foremost with the other four comics. Mike Destefano, Mike Hugh, Roy Woods Jr. and Tommy Johnagin. Four of the strongest comics I ever had to compete with in my life, in comedy. I have a movie that I did with Paul Rodriguez called I Am Not Like That No More, and we’re going to shop that around. And also I’m going to be honored by the city of Los Angeles for being a local hero.

Who did you rescue?
Nobody.

Are you getting a Purple Heart?
[Laughs] You’re the first person to ask me a funny question. That’s funny.

Felipe Esparza will perform at The Crest Theatre on Sept. 9. Tickets start at $25. For more on the show and Felipe Esparza, go to www.felipesworld.com.

Comedian Mike E. Winfield stands ready to command a larger audience

With a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman airing in the near future, Mike E. Winfield has succeeded in dropping the “local” prefix from his title of comedian. In fact, the local label has been absent for some time, given Winfield’s appearances on Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, and various comedy festivals and competitions.

So far, he’s stayed busy. He touched down in Sacramento the day we arranged an interview, fresh off a flight from Nebraska–“yes, Nebraska, Nebraska,” he confirmed. Two months prior to his stint in Cornhusker land, he did a U.S.O. show in Okinawa, Japan. This month, he’s treating his hometown to a headlining show at the Punchline. “This one has the most buildup,” he said. “It’s from an accumulation of being on stuff. More people recognize me now.”

So I read on your blog that you went snowboarding once, and it’s going to be the only time. What happened that was so traumatizing?
I hit a little kid, man. I was dumb. I forgot to learn how to brake before I went to the more advanced slopes. I was doing full speed and this kid was coming horizontally. I see the kid from far away coming toward this perfect intersection.

I kept thinking, “No, this is not about to happen;” that poor little girl, man. She had on pink and her skis ended up stuck straight up in the snow. I played like I was hurt so I wouldn’t look like a dick. Her dad yelled at me. My friend, who I will never hang out with again, he was like, “You should probably apologize.”

It was fun up until that point. I didn’t even have the right attire. I just put on a whole bunch of clothes. I had Vaseline on my face because I heard it would keep me warm.

I feel like somebody played a joke on you with the Vaseline thing. You also just got back from Japan?
Yeah, I was in Okinawa for a military show. There are troops stationed out there. You want to talk about people who appreciated a show. You didn’t want to leave. There are some bad situations out there. You feel for the troops. They are working hard. A lot of them don’t want to be there. There’s nothing to do. All their outlets are alcohol and clubs, just drinking, waiting for their time to pass.

That was my first one, and I’m down to do more. It felt like I was giving. I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing in life for the right reasons finally.

Are there any weird cultural experiences you had?
The fact that all the vehicles were the same things we had, but smaller versions of them. That struck me first.

Did you earn your stripes in Sacramento?
Yeah, I think I first got on stage at Laughs Unlimited. My first work, I did a weekend at the Punchline, then the following weekend I was booked at Laughs Unlimited. So like my first week of work was two back-to-back weeks. It just didn’t stop. I felt like a new person because I was getting a lot of work. I think it was because I was really clean. It’s opened up a lot of doors.

Would you still consider your material to be clean?
I have my times. Lately I’m on being whoever I am. I just want to be myself and have people say, “Yeah, I’m going to see this guy because he’s funny,” not because, “He does dances and then a flip at the end.” I just want them to go because they think Mike E. Winfield is a funny dude.

I read that you consider your college speech class your start at comedy. Is there truth to that?
As soon as I’d walk in front of the class they’d just start laughing. I would talk about how to make a Whopper. I didn’t have any intellectual speeches. I’d get grades on the delivery, but the content would get Ds. The professor said to just try [standup].

It was fun. I wish I could take another speech class to make up for what I did back in the day.

Whatever happened with the pilot you did with Bobby Lee of MadTV? I take it that didn’t get picked up? Are you trying to break into television and film?
That was like two and a half years ago. It just didn’t get picked up. I’ve been in some other stuff. I’ve decided this is my goal: I’m just going to do standup until I’m happy with the product I have from it. When I’m ready to pitch my own show, I’ll already have my sitcom ideas. If somebody gives me an offer, I’ll do it. I’m just not going to audition for some crap I don’t want to be in anyway.

You look at the greats. They came up with their own product. They had a fan base from standup or whatever else, and they pushed their own stuff. I enjoy standup too much anyway.

Why is it important we include the E. when printing your name?
Right now, it sticks out. The E. has a ring to it–just a little. That’s going to be my thing. Remember when Puff Daddy changed his name? When I get big I’m going to drop the E. That’s how you’ll know. I’ll even throw a press conference.