Everyone who knows Dejan Tyler knows two things about him: the dude loves comedy, and the dude loves food. The self-proclaimed “Underground Soup King,” Tyler is the host of the YouTube show Deez Eats, curator of the world’s most delicious Instagram and connoisseur of every restaurant within a 100-mile radius of the 916. Name a barbecue joint you stopped by once wandering three miles off the freeway looking for cheap gas in Dixon, and he will tell you what to get and what day of the week they make pozole.

So as Tyler left my house Sunday afternoon after a few hours talking and sharing a box of tissues (for the smoke, not the tears), I realized I’d forgotten to ask him the only question I had actually prepared. If he could only pick one, which would it be? Food? Or comedy?

“Comedy,” Tyler answers without missing a beat. “But I would probably just talk about how much I miss food.”

Much less clear to Tyler was how long he’d actually been doing comedy, but ultimately he remembered his mnemonic device for this question. “I know my career and my son are the same age … So yeah, 13 years,” he said in a voice that made me think his son could be anywhere from 10 to 23.

Thirteen years is a long time even in comedy, where careers seem to age in dog years, and Tyler is just now coming off the release of his first album, Get Rich or Diabetes.

“I’m a procrastinator,” Tyler explains.

It was a roundabout road just getting there, sometimes literally. Last year, Tyler entered the World Series of Comedy, a national comedy competition with satellites all around the country. Tyler’s first qualifying round was at Laughs Unlimited in Old Sacramento. On the way to the show, he got in a car accident. Another driver had cut him off and smashed into his car.

“She didn’t speak English, but I didn’t have insurance,” Tyler remembers.

The situation was not going to be solved anytime soon, making him late for the competition. Worse, the judges’ criteria included professionalism, so Tyler was being docked for every minute he was late.

“When I finally got there, Joe Lowers [the WSOC executive producer] said, ‘I was gonna tell you to not even perform at all, because you lost so many points already.’”

Tyler won first place that night, but with the deductions he barely squeaked through to the next round. Over the next two weeks he eventually made it to the final round in Las Vegas, where he took second overall.

After the show, one of the judges, David Drozen, approached him. Drozen, a long time comedy producer, had produced albums for hundred of comics, including Richard Pryor, for which he won a Grammy. Now the CEO of Uproar Entertainment, Drozen asked Tyler if he would release an album on his label.

Tyler credits his humorous heritage to his grandmother.

“My grandmother was hilarious,” he says. “She killed me. That’s where I get it from. She was a riot.”

Tyler’s grandmother had an old school stereo/cassette player, on which he remembers listening to records like Richard Jeni’s Platypus Man and Robin Harris’ Bébé’s Kids.

“I would sit in front of the speaker and just listen to it over and over and over,” Tyler says of Bébé’s Kids. “I was like, I never heard nothing like this.’ The first time I heard it I was in tears. I couldn’t breathe.”

In school, Tyler’s quick wit got him into trouble just as much as it got him out of it. Tyler’s family had moved from Inglewood to East Palo Alto just after he was born.

“In the ‘80s when crack was poppin’ off, East Palo Alto was wild,” says Tyler. “I had a smart mouth. I would talk myself into shit, and fight my way out of it.

“This one kid, Raymond, had this crazy-ass buckwheat hair, and one day these girls were talking about him and said, ‘He’s so ugly he’s cute,’” he continues. “I’m like, ‘Nah, he just ugly.’ But I didn’t expect everyone to laugh that hard. And he was little and always had a runny nose, but was crazy in the face. He looked feral. This kid jumped on me, and I felt like he was in my clothes. He’s in my shirt biting and scratching. I didn’t know those were his cousins that were talking about him. I should have stayed out of it. But I just called Crazy Ray ‘ugly.’ And then I had to fight him every day. We fought at school. We fought on the bus. Other kids would tell him where I was.”

Tyler survived his experience with Raymond to go on to play in marching band and orchestra in high school, as well as play football for the South Sacramento Vikings. But even before they became his living, words were always his primary weapon.

“I didn’t always wanna do stand-up, I just like entertaining people,” Tyler says. “I tell good stories. My base skill is communication, not necessarily comedy.”

When he finally tried stand-up comedy for the first time, he was ready.

“My first time, I murdered it, because I didn’t know any better,” he says.

Now, he’s embraced the 13-year (probably) struggle to find his audience after that day in 2005, and the perils of being seen as a comic’s comic, a distinction that can be both a blessing and a curse.

“More comics are digging my work than audience members sometimes,” Tyler says. “But the amount of exposure I’ve gotten being a procrastinator is probably the amount I deserve.”

Tyler knows taking the next step requires leaving Sacramento and his job in property management, which he says is tough because it’s both comfortable, and a great source of material.

“I’m in it for the experience,” Tyler says. “Shit’s crazy. It’s a lot of women. Being a young, black dude in that field, I know why I’m there. I’m always at the hood property, because they’re scared. I’m like, ‘It’s just drunkass Tony, man, chill out!’”

But the album and its reception in the last few weeks have served as huge inspiration for Tyler. He recorded it over five shows at Laugh Unlimited, which Tyler considers his home club, and it was his first headlining weekend there.

“I really felt like this was a culmination of my journey in comedy thus far,” says Tyler, and it’s left him feeling like there’s a lot more he wants to say to the world.

“I’m a lot more motivated right now. I really see it,” he says. “You ever see The Last Dragon, at the end, where they dunk him in the water and go, ‘Who’s the master?’ I’m like, you know what? I’m the master, motherfucker.”

Dejan Tyler’s album, Get Rich or Diabetes, is out now on Uproar Entertainment. To give it a listen or to get yourself a copy, go to Uproarcomedycd.com. You can see Tyler live at Punch Line (2100 Arden Way, Sacramento) on Sunday, Dec. 2 with Zach Edlow, presented by Homegrown Comedy. For more info, go to Punchlinesac.com.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 18 – 19 of issue #279 (Nov. 21 – Dec. 5, 2018)**

Comedian Glory Magaña (pronounced like lasagna) used to live a double life. A couple of times a week, she would leave her hometown of Modesto and drive to San Francisco. Her family always wondered where she would take off to, and Magaña would tell them, “I’m off to see this guy. I have a boyfriend.” That was a lie. Magaña would commute to the city to take comedy classes, something that she knew her super traditional Mexican family would be opposed to. Her mom would say “Comic?! You mean like a clown?” when she would try to entertain the idea of following her comedic dreams.

Upon completion of her comedy classes, Magaña was to perform in a concluding showcase. As the show approached, she grew nervous and couldn’t stand not having the support of her family in the audience. She came clean to her mother with what she had really been commuting to San Francisco for. Magaña remembers her mom being very upset and having no choice but to go to her big show solo.

She recalls arriving at the venue that day and the ticket-taker telling her, “You packed out the house!” Confused, Magaña told him, “That can’t be right. I have no one coming.”

When she looked out from the stage, Magaña saw the face of her mother in the crowd. She held back tears of joy and went out there and gave one of her best performances.

“My mom came up to me after and was like ‘You are funny! You are good at this. You can’t quit. Pursue your calling,” Magaña warmly remembers.

Since then, she has had some really great shows and some really not-so-good shows. Magaña said her worst was at a show in San Francisco where she opened for comedian Adam Ray. She will never forget how horribly she bombed. Her best show was in Stockton, where she was initially very afraid to perform. The day had started off incredibly, because her mom, who had been battling cancer, had learned she was in remission. With her mom and brother in the audience to support her, Magaña said she brought the house down that night and left her mom and brother in awe. The crowd was totally feeling it, and it was one of the first times she truly felt like a comedian.

A few years ago, Magaña’s mom passed away from cancer. Whenever she is faced with challenges she thinks she is not strong enough to overcome, the voice of her mother resonates within her. In a sweet twist of irony, her mother is the number one force that continuously propels her to pursue her comedic dreams.

Magaña is known for her clean-ish jokes that involve ethnicity, love, family and chubby boys. Magaña loves chubby boys. Growing up, she would watch a Spanish soap opera called Carrusel de Niños and be totally captivated by the romance between two of the portly kids on the show.

“The chubby little girl was a hopeless romantic … just like me!” says Magaña. “And I also though the little chubby boy was soooo cute. After that, the rest was history. Not to mention I feel like a skinny little thing when I’m around bigger men. Beats going on a diet!”

In her routine, she can be heard talking about her type of guy like they are the finest wine made of the juiciest grapes.

Magaña herself towers nearly six-feet tall, and played basketball and volleyball in college on scholarship in Iowa.

“Everyone in Iowa thought I was Samoan. There aren’t many Mexican girls who are almost six-feet tall. I was tight with all the Samoan athletes, too, so that probably fed into it,” she says. People always confuse her for different ethnicities, but Magaña says she rolls with it.

“My Samoan girlfriends would urge me to use my ethnicity mix-ups as a part of my routine,” she says. “They cry laughing when I act like I am one of them.”

She often uses the enigma of her ethnicity as a core part of her routine.

“No one ever knows what I am,” she says. “I make fun of the stuff people come up with.”

As a Mexican-American woman in the world of comedy, Magaña says that people have welcomed her and that she has learned there are a lot of hilarious women of color out there.

“Every time I perform, I meet all of these fellow woman comics and damn they are so funny,” she says. “I sometimes feel a little insecure they are so funny. A lot of ethnic women [are] holding it down and showing true talent.”

For some comedy showcases, you have to pay to apply to perform, sort of like applying to college. Magaña thought about applying to compete in the Women in Comedy festival in Boston, but was always told that it was extremely difficult by comedians she looked up to.

“Women I thought were absolutely hilarious, maybe even funnier than me, were constantly rejected, so I questioned if I had a chance,” she says, “but I applied anyway and got accepted!”

Performing in that festival and mingling with other powerfully funny women has been one of the highlights of Magaña’s career thus far.

A few months ago, Magaña was asked to perform at the Crest Theatre for the upcoming Cap City Comedy Slam. In addition to Magaña, the lineup includes headliner Kirby Shabazz and performers Kabir “Kabeezy” Singh and Ellis Rodriguez. Singh was named “The next big Indian comedian by India West newspaper and has opened up for Dave Chappelle and Dane Cook to name a few. Shabazz is known for his relentless attempt to kill health food stores via jokes and poking at the racist connotations of the Home Alone franchise as well as winning last year’s StandUp NBC comedy competition. The Cap City Comedy Slam is meant to showcase the unique perspectives and diversity of the region’s up-and-coming comedians. This showcase will offer perspectives in how really hilarious minority comics see the world around them.

Magaña is excited to grace the historic Crest Theatre stage for her first time, and to be joined by such great company. The self-proclaimed “tall drink of horchata” is gonna make you laugh, make you love the chub and make you feel susceptible to being dunked on at any moment.

Don’t miss Glory Magaña at the Cap City Comedy Slam on Friday, Mar. 2, 2018, at the Crest Theatre (1013 K St.). Doors at 7 p.m. and show at 8. Tickets are $25. Check out Crestsacramento.com for more info on the show.

**This piece first appeared in print on pages 18 – 19 of issue #260 (Feb. 26 – Mar. 12, 2018)**

DJ Sandhu is a unique comedian who’s hard to nail down. His material can go from incredibly liberal to unexpectedly conservative stances on dating and relationships. In the last few years he’s grown out a long black beard that’s the stuff of legend. Born of Indian parents, and blessed with bushy eyebrows, he’s had more than his fair share of troubles at airports as a result. He’s told me stories of being taken off of flights in Paris because he looked like a terrorist, and flat out being denied entry into Canada while a guy with five guns was waved right in. Despite these humiliating (and expensive) travel changes, he does his best to find the humor in these situations. In one of his bits, he admits that he isn’t sure he’d want to get on a flight that didn’t give extra security screening to someone who looked like him.

He’s placed well at The World Series of Comedy for two straight years and even taught a class on comedy finance for 100 comedians at this year’s event in Las Vegas. Quick to give advice to new comedians and frequently giving visiting comics a place to crash when they come through Sacramento, he has a reputation as one of the nicest performers in town.

I spoke with DJ at The Sacramento Comedy Spot a couple of hours before we were both scheduled to perform on The Friday Show. He’s always up to something unusual, like painting his beard purple in honor of the Kings or performing in a System of a Down tribute band, but he’s reached new levels of eccentricity by getting a pet pig. And he’s adorable.

Tell me about your pig.
His name is Sir Nigel Buckingham.

How did this come about?
Anthony Krayenhagen and Chris Teicheira [Modesto comedians] did a Pretending to Care podcast when they were dumping on an article Brian Crall [Sacramento Comedy Spot founder] wrote.

The article about how to start performing stand-up comedy?
As I’m listening to it, I said, “You’re way out of pocket, and I’m going to ambush your next podcast and defend his honor.” So I went there with my girlfriend and my girlfriend said, “There’s something wrong with your pig!” Her gut was just dragging on the floor and Chris said she was pregnant. Then my girlfriend said, “Can I have one?” And she just gave me a look and I said, “Look if you want it, go for it, but it’s going to be you raising it because I’m not around so much.”

We were planning on naming it Lord Hidalgo Noriega then she decided she wanted to name it Nigel. I still wanted a title so I came up with Sir Nigel Buckingham. At the last second I tried to get her to let me name it Hash Browns, because I think that’s an adorable name.

He had a crown on when I met him a few nights ago. Where do you find a crown for a pig?
We had already planned on getting him a mini crown and cape, so the day before we got him we went to Petco to get him his bed, food and a leash, and as soon as we walked in, that outfit was at the door.
This year for Halloween I’m going to be Khal Drogo, my girlfriend will be Khaleesi and she’s going to make a dragon costume for Nigel.

What’s the biggest surprise about owning a pig?
Everyone’s always saying how smart pigs are, but I was reading about it and found out the chain of command is that number one is humans, number two is chimps and apes, number three is whales and dolphins, and number four is pigs. So they’re the fourth smartest thing on the planet.

What’s the dumbest animal?
Comedians [laughs]!

This pig is gonna get big, right?
Probably about 200 pounds. Considering I’m 175 pounds, it’ll make me feel good about myself.
Tell me about your background. A lot of people make assumptions about you. Let’s get that straight.
I’m born and raised in Sacramento. My parents were born and raised in the Punjabi area of India. And my mom and dad moved to England when they were 3 and 7. My dad moved to Sacramento when he was 12.

So they met in England?
Just a bit, but once they turned 18 they were in an arranged marriage. My mom’s aunt is married to my dad’s uncle. There’s no blood relation, but there’s no word for that in Punjabi. So when people would ask my parents how they met, he would say, “She’s my cousin!” and she would say, “No! We are not cousins. Stop it!”

So the arranged marriage worked out for them?
Yeah. Neither of them drinks or smokes, and they don’t eat meat. They don’t have vices, so it’s not like one is sacrificing for the other.

Where did you go to high school?
Laguna Creek in Elk Grove.

Was being a comedian something you wanted to do then?
Never. I wanted to be in a punk or a metal band.

You’re in a band now, right?
Yeah, it’s Steal This Band. It’s a System of a Down tribute band. They get so mad when I call it a cover band. I guess a cover band plays a bunch of people’s stuff, and a tribute band … only [covers one band]. We’ve been together almost a year, but we’ve only done five shows. They’re all in “real” bands so it’s just something we do on the side.

You can sing. I remember we were in Marysville at The Silver Dollar Saloon after a show and you sang “Pony” by Ginuwine. I’ve heard you sing it before, too.
I would use that to pick up on women at bars. I’d put that song on and make a spectacle. I’d walk the bar top and find the biggest dude in the room and start giving him a lap dance. They always joke back with it, because you can’t hit me, I’m too small. You can’t win a fight against me if you’re a big dude, because if I win, a little guy just kicked your ass; and if you win the cops will be like, “Why are you picking on this skinny little Indian?” Then I’d go to the girl I actually wanted to get with.

So what was the spark that got you to try comedy?
My brother went to UC Santa Cruz and they had a culture show and they got a comedian to come up from Los Angeles to close it out. They paid for his flight, his hotel and all of his food and drinks for the weekend.

Is this someone you can name?
His name’s on the wall of The Comedy Store. I don’t think he does comedy anymore. They paid him $3,000.

So they didn’t know what they were doing?
He saw them coming. There were children and old immigrant women and everyone in-between there. He’s cussing and was just super vulgar. So he turned the audience off immediately and never got them back. Later on, we’re having a bonfire at the beach and passing a guitar around and someone says to me, “Why don’t you try comedy, you’re funnier than this guy!” He heard that and started treating me different. It really hurt him. So I said, “What, do you think you’re Russell Peters?” Once he started treating me crappy, I recognized that he saw I would be able to do this.

He inspired me to perform, so I came back to Sacramento and did Laughs Unlimited’s open mic back around 2006 and performed three times with different sets, and just put a pin in it and went back to college. Then about three years later I just started it up again. I was going to clubs and watching and became friends with some of the headliners and features. I didn’t even know the local hosts. But I spent the next six months doing open mics and showcases.

I ended up getting my first day job and my first hosting weekend at Laughs Unlimited the same week. Kivi Rogers was the headliner and he was giving me advice, and I was taking it way too literal. After one of the shows he said, “That’s your stage. You don’t leave that stage empty!” What he meant was to not introduce people and walk off the stage before they get up. What I did was after the show I said, “Thank you guys for coming, have a good night!” and I just stayed on the stage until everybody got up and was gone. I was doing that for the whole weekend.

You can see DJ Sandhu performing at the Sacramento Comedy Spot (1050 20th St.) on Oct. 8, 2017. Visit Saccomedyfest.com for details on this and the other nine shows that are a part of the Sacramento Comedy Festival, which takes place from Oct. 6–8.

Lance Woods is a comedy force of nature. In just seven years of performing stand-up, he’s gone from hosting variety shows at his church, to opening for Dave Chappelle and hosting parties for Too Short on Treasure Island. His “Lance Woods and Friends” shows are a near-monthly staple of the Sacramento Punch Line and Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco and are regularly packed thanks to his nonstop drive to promote. From Facebook and Instagram selfie posting contests for ticket giveaways, to video sketches based on current events that may have happened less than a day before, he’s easily one of the most consistently funny and recognizable local comedians.

I’ve seen him perform no less than 20 times in the last five years and his material rarely repeats. His early “mistakes” of not repeating jokes, ended up giving him skills to amass a monstrous array of subjects that range from skewering pop culture to helping a friend move. Sometimes it all just goes out the window and he’ll do some of the funniest crowd work I’ve ever seen.

On social media and on stage, he refers to himself as “The International Sex Symbol,” but Woods exudes an over-the-top charm and charisma that lives up to the hype. While sitting with him for the interview at East Sacramento’s Tupelo, there wasn’t a person that walked by that didn’t get a smile and a moment of his time.

Monica S. Photography

I was talking with the editor of Submerge, and we were both agreeing that it’s ridiculous that we haven’t done a story on Lance Woods yet.
I agree! Totally! Wholeheartedly! Every time I see the magazine I wonder why I’m not here!

How long have you been performing stand-up comedy?
My first time on stage was June 2, 2010. I didn’t understand what to do. In my first nine months, I probably got on stage three times, because I thought you could never tell the same joke twice. My first set ever was at the Sacramento Punch Line Showcase.

That’s unusual because it takes some time to get noticed and booked on that.
It’s almost like getting into Submerge! It takes time. You gotta put your work in [Laughs]!
I started comedy in my church, which was directly across the street [from] Punch Line. My pastor created an event for me to host called “The Uprising,” and I would do comedy and we’d get gospel singers, dancers and poets. I told my girlfriend I wanted to do comedy; she started acting like an agent and was looking up places on the computer. She said Punch Line had what she thought was an open mic. So I thought you could just show up there and just do comedy.

I told everyone I worked with and everyone at church that I’m going to perform. The doors open at 7, so I got there at 6:50 and the girl at the door told me to come back in 10 minutes. So I got there at 6:59:59 and I said, “How do you sign up for the show?” The manager said, “Who are you?” That’s the first time I felt this isn’t going to go how I thought it was going to go. The way he said it made me know I couldn’t sound like I was brand new, so I just said, “It’s me, Lance Woods! What do you mean you don’t know who I am? Baby I’m here!” He told me there were no sign-ups for the show.

I felt like the smallest person in the world. I start walking down that hallway and I start hearing that sad Titanic music playing in the background. Then I thought, “I can’t leave, I told everyone I was going to be here!” I remembered D.L. Hughley on the extras of that Kings of Comedy DVD said, “Back in the day, we used to have to fight just to get five minutes!” That stuck with me. I go back inside of the club and started talking to him.

He’s busy getting the club ready, but every time he’d come by and just say something new then walk away and was dismissive. Then at 7:40, I had like 45 people walk in right in front of the bar saying things like “Hey, Lance! Kill it tonight!” So he sees this [and] five minutes before the show he tells me I’m going up first. I didn’t know you were supposed to be nervous about that.

Comics get scared because they think the crowd isn’t warmed up yet.
The reaction was good and the material was good for the level I was at. The comics told me I did a good job, and I thought Hollywood was going to call tomorrow.

A month or two later I performed at A Toucha Class. Two months after that I did Laughs Unlimited. I met a guy named Andre Paradise who did a competition up in Oregon called “The Shades of Laughs.” This is when everything changed. I went out there, and out of 19 comics I placed fifth. These were really good veteran comics. We had six shows.

You weren’t doing any open mics at that point?
No … This was maybe my fifth time performing. I was doing OK, but there’s a level of confidence you feel when you deliver a joke because I wasn’t there yet. These other guys have been in the game 10 to 20 years. They were telling me, “You’re really funny, but you don’t have a clue what you’re doing on stage. We can tell you don’t perform because none of your jokes are finished!” I asked them how often they performed and they told me every day. They told me about open mics. So I got back and did at least 11 mics a week.

So a couple years in doing these mics, what’s different now?
The main thing was that I got the confidence in my jokes. I started delivering jokes with an exclamation point instead of a question mark. The question is no longer if they’re going to laugh, but how big will that laugh be.

Well, it’s like that reluctance to repeat material. Some comics get sick of their jokes. But you’re polishing up a bullet.
When comics ask me questions or run a joke by me, there’s nothing I can tell them. The stage will tell you.

I told a joke to a comedian in the car on the way to a gig at The Throckmorton Theatre [in Mill Valley] and he loved it and asked if he could use it on stage. Nobody laughed … just crickets.
The first time I went to Throckmorton I met Robin Williams. I was at the balcony. I was just going to watch the show, and Kevin Meaney was on stage. I hear to my right this laugh, and I looked and was like, “Is that Robin Williams?” Then he elbowed me and said, “This is funny, right?” We were just speaking about the bits from the background, just comic talk.

You’ve been producing your “Lance Woods and Friends” shows at Punch Line for about four years now. You always have a great draw and a great following.
I’m a special guy [Laughs]! Whenever you produce something, they are coming to see you. Some people just try and grab people that’ll get a bunch of people to come to the show, but they’ll never come back.

But it’s also a different show each time with you, too. You don’t have an hour-long set that I can nail down. If you had to from start to finish, you’d probably have hours and hours of stuff.
It’s a gift and a curse. I think what I do is good for live performance. I don’t know how it translates to television right now. That’s just another step that I have to look into. If I got a call to get on late night and do seven minutes, I don’t know what that seven minutes would be.

How would you describe your comedy to someone that’s going to see a Lance Woods show?
It’s honest and funny. I noticed that I had points where I was thinking something wasn’t funny enough because it was too wordy. I had to find the jokes in the funny things I was talking about.

You probably have one of the more broad material bases I’ve seen. It’s like there’s nothing that’s off limits.
The toughest transition I made was to be in front of “the hood” crowds. I was always just getting by in those rooms. It took me the longest to get good there. I had to up my level of aggression. My natural state is really chill. Sometimes you go to certain rooms, and you have to grab their attention. When I say “hood,” I’m talking about bar crowds. There’s black hood crowds and white hood crowds. Neither one of them want to hear what you’re talking about. You have to make them listen to you.

Your sketch humor and memes kill on Instagram. They’re really funny. So much different than stand-up. When did you start getting interested in that?
The higher you go, the more you see people ahead of you, so I saw a lot of guys with a million-plus followers, so I’m looking at my 21,000 as measly and pathetic. Every day they do a new sketch … every single day. They’re really good at promoting themselves.

You’ve had a lot of crazy experiences with fans.
I remember once at Punch Line I was on stage and some guy in the audience had a high-pitched voice. I couldn’t see what was going on … [mimics his voice] and he said, “All right, I’ll see you after the show.” I walk out and he’s there. He has a fresh out of jail look. He had a big upper body and his legs were weak like he’s just been doing push-ups and pull-ups for years. He had a style that looked like maybe he’d been away for eight years and he doesn’t know people don’t wear that no more.

Like a FUBU jacket?
Yeah! A FUBU jacket with one pants leg up. And he walked up and said, “If someone tells you they’re gonna be waiting for you, they really might be,” and just walked away. That was it!

Lance Woods will be bringing his “Lance Woods and Friends” show to Punch Line in Sacramento on Aug. 27 and Sept. 26, 2017. You can become one of his 21,000+ followers on Instagram at @lancewoods.

Seeing the name for the first time, it seems like 99 percent of people would read it HAM-BUR-GER. But when the host read Daniel Humbarger’s name correctly, it wasn’t a huge shock, because he performs a lot.

The room at Comedy Spot was pretty full that night. It was easy to grab a seat in the back with everyone else who came by themselves; sitting one empty seat apart from one another.

Humbarger did about 10 minutes, maybe a little less. He was funny and entertaining, and the crowd was responding to that. He propped his arm up on the empty mic stand from time to time, as other comics do, and it felt casual, it didn’t even look uncomfortable, like I know it must be.

He did a bit recounting a specific N.W.A. song and their feelings toward the police … you know the one. He really got into it, and the crowd was watching intently. People venturing to the garbage can with empty bottles were putting their hands in the actual garbage can, just so they could set the bottle down quietly. As he finished, the room erupted in unanimous applause.

Now, I don’t know if that is common etiquette, but more than one person did it during his set. This writer was moved by the level of appreciation and unspoken etiquette.

Humbarger is recording an album on Aug. 26 and 27 at the Comedy Spot. The album is going to be released on Stand Up! Records, out of Minneapolis. He was also just added to the San Francisco Comedy Competition, kicking off Sept. 8–Oct. 2, 2016. Past contestants include Ellen DeGeneres, Louis C.K. and Robin Williams.

For the following interview, I met with Humbarger at Dad’s on J Street to talk and maybe order a burger, but I never ended up ordering a burger, and we both just drank water that we brought with us. (Thanks, Dad’s!)

Has anyone ever introduced you as Daniel Hamburger?
No … [Laughs] Yeah, totally, every day since kindergarten.

What do you feel draws people to stand-up comedy on any given night, over something like a concert or a show?
I feel like in comedy, the things that are going to connect with people are more honest. And a lot of that is vulnerability, which was hard for me at first. My father passed away when I was 13, and it was like, my mom said it was like a switch, you know, I was like a really happy kid, and then it was like someone flipped a switch, and I was just on robot-status. So that was tough for me at first, I would do esoteric material. I didn’t really like talking about myself that much, but the more I did it, I felt much more comfortable with it, and I also realized that people crave that vulnerability. They like to connect with you, and I think that’s what’s cool about comedy.

How would you describe your experience as a comedian?
People ask me to sum up the experience of doing stand-up comedy, in a nutshell, so what I like to tell them then is a tale of two nights: So one night, I’m at the Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, and my hero Robin Williams is there. I meet Robin Williams, he’s super nice and I’m talking with him. I’m so giddy … So I go out and have a good set, and I get off stage and he’s like [In Robin Williams’ voice], “Great set, well done, well done,” and I’m like, “Oh my God!” It meant so much to me; my hero just told me I did a good job.

And then the very next night, me and Johnny Taylor drive down to Lodi for a bar gig, and we bomb our dicks off. Like, there’s people staring at me like I have a third eye, and I get off the stage, and some guy’s like, [in a tough Southern accent] “I don’t think this is for you, buddy.”

So you know one night your hero is telling you, “You had a great set,” and then the next night, some hillbilly in a bar is telling you, “You should hang up your gloves [laughs].”

Is there a moment when you decided that you wanted to become a comedian?
There’s this story that my mom tells me, I don’t remember it, but we were watching The Tonight Show, and there was this comedian on there, and he wasn’t that funny, and I told my mom she should call The Tonight Show, and I went on about it for like a week, you know? “Did you call The Tonight Show? Did you call The Tonight Show?” She never called … and I haven’t spoken to her since [laughs].

My parents loved comedy, they were always watching it on TV. I used to steal my dad’s Richard Pryor Live! cassette and listen to it all the time.

What comedians inspired you before you wanted to be a comedian?
That Richard Pryor cassette that my dad had, I absolutely adored. Robin Williams, then Def Jam, Martin Lawrence and his first album Talkin’ Shit.

What about stuff you’ve been listening to of more recent times?
Doug Stanhope’s Beer Hall Putsch, Bill Burr’s Let it Go and also Sarah Silverman’s Jesus is Magic. I really like Maria Bamford. She’s so weird and does all these weird voices; I dig that.

If there was something that you would want people to take away from seeing you perform, what would it be?
I feel like I did everything I was supposed to, you know? I came from a poor background … My parents never finished high school, and I went to law school, even though that was something that people from other families do, not somebody like me, and I graduated in 2009, right when the economy … just when shit just hit the fan.

At the end of the day, with my dad dying at such an early age, it taught me that all of this is just kind of temporary and just to be happy, and if you feel that right now you’re not doing what you want to do, then you might want to re-evaluate things.

That’s kind of what the theme of my album is, it’s basically about me being over-educated.

I mean I’m glad I got an education … Obviously, it’s useful and all that, but it’s like, we’re kind of in a system where it’s more of a racket for banks and institutions to make money.

I think more than anything, I just want people to have a good time and be happy, you know, because it seems fleeting. I deal with anxiety and depression sometimes, but you know what, when people are happy, you can tell, and I think that resonates. So, that’s what I want.

Was there a point when you were a lawyer when you were like, “Damn, I gotta pursue comedy instead?”
The main thing is, whatever I do, I want to do it well. Being a lawyer is a huge lifestyle investment, and I don’t like to half-ass things. I want to be good at it, and I figured comedy is what I really want to do, so why not go for it? I mean, I’m not saying I’m right, and that I’m not crazy, but that’s my philosophy.

Daniel Humbarger will be recording his upcoming album live at Sacramento Comedy Spot on Aug. 26 and 27, 2016. This is your chance to have your laughter immortalized on tape (or the digital equivalent thereof). Showtimes will begin at 8 p.m. on Aug. 26, and 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. Be sure to check out Saccomedyspot.com as more info becomes available. You can also Follow Humbarger on Twitter @humbargerdaniel.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in issue #152 (December 2013) in advance of Michael O’Connell’s Comedians with Disabilities Act performance at Sacramento Comedy Spot. O’Connell passed away on June 29, 2016, so we wanted to re-visit this interview to remember one of the brightest stars of the local comedy scene. RIP Michael! You will be missed.

Comedian Michael O’Connell has a simple formula for local comedic domination. “I’m not really making fun of myself, I’m really just making fun of you,” he says. The good ol’ reverse last laugh.

Michael has been fighting Muscular Dystrophy (MD), a disease that weakens muscular fibers and slows locomotion, most of his life. About four years ago, his symptoms became increasingly worse, and he had to rely on a wheelchair for mobility. After losing his job as an auto claims adjuster, Michael sought a renewed endeavor in comedy. He performed at an open mic, absolutely killed it and felt like his true purpose had been found: To use his disability as the base of his shtick, but to also use the podium to educate. “When that first performance was all done, I just was wondering why I had been missing out on this my entire life,” he says.

In the last few years, O’Connell has performed at colleges and universities around the nation, The Laugh Factory in Hollywood, and of course the Comedy Spot and Luna’s Cafe either solo or with one of his comedy troupes. With the help of fellow comedian Keith Lowell Jensen, Michael helped build the wildly popular “Comedians with Disabilities Act” comedy troupe—a group of disabled comedians who travel venues, poking fun not only at their own disabilities but at the people around them who act weird because of their disabilities. “I’ve had people think I’m homeless and throw dollars on my lap because I was just sitting in my wheelchair trying to enjoy the sun and eat a bag of M&Ms!” the soft-spoken comedian says right before indulging me in a stripper joke.

Submerge sat down with Michael near the Comedy Spot to talk about the past four years, the present and why we should all just laugh and find the will to find a way.

Photo by Walter Hopkins

Can you remember the joke that broke the ice at your very first performance?
It was definitely the wheelchair lap dance joke. Sometimes people who work at businesses are a little patronizing to you, like they say, “Is there anything else I can do to help you?” in a really condescending way. And I look up at them and say, “Will you just finish the damn lap dance?”

You have MD. What are some of the major symptoms you have?
I was diagnosed at 2 years old, and there are a ton of different types of MD. Doctors didn’t expect me to be around longer than 12 years old and I’m 45 now. It’s a slow progression; I walked regular, then with a cane for a few years before the wheelchair. I have a bad heart, a pacemaker and only about 30-percent lung capacity. Of course it makes stuff I used to do way more difficult.

You have a 30 percent lung capacity and a show called Smokes and Jokes?
It’s a show where I tell jokes over cigars…and I do smoke cigars. You don’t inhale those, but I realize they’re probably still not that great for you. It’s just the last of my vices that I haven’t given up yet. It’s just my thing and let me have it!

How has MD changed your comedy performances?
In the past few years, things have been going downhill pretty quickly and started getting pretty bad. I can’t get out of the house as often or hit open mics like I used to. That sucks because I cannot get out there and connect like I want to, or see all of the amazing new talent I admire from Facebook. I can’t travel, which makes me miss some shows; but I do what I can and try to save my strength for the bigger shows.

Tell me about The Comedians with Disabilities Act.
The Comedians with Disabilities Act has gone national and was raved about in the SF Examiner recently. A lot of the time they have to perform without me. I’m getting a big surgery soon that will enable me to travel more with them and it has to do with bodily discharge…because I’m that dedicated to comedy. I have learned a lot from them, like what to say and what not to say. On the troupe, we have a little person, a blind man and a woman who stutters. We were on Laugh Factory live on the Playstation network for a while, and our shows usually sell out. Each one of the members are unique and hilarious; there is no other comedy experience like it.

How do you want your audience to see you?
I have a unique niche in comedy as someone in a wheelchair with big motor skills. I’ve gone through a few different phases of how I want to present myself. I’ve gone through dark humor, which was completely not me. I found a comfortable place in finding humor in the little things I go through and the people who are around me when they happen. My goal is to have people laugh along with me rather than to feel sympathy.

How do you poke fun at other people using your disability?
Well, people always want to do weird stuff like tie your shoes. I stopped wearing shoes with shoelaces because people would just randomly kneel down and try to tie my shoes. People often think I’m homeless, which is also a little awkward because I’m usually just trying to sit there and enjoy my surroundings. Also, people like to come up to me just to tell me they know someone in a wheelchair; I suppose it’s their attempt to empathize, and I totally see that.

Does stuff like that ever make you upset?
No! Some people are just too darn sensitive. As a disabled person, I know all of that stuff comes from a good place. I may make fun of all those people, but I definitely see where they are coming from and I appreciate it. There are some angry disabled people out there. I just see a lot of stuff as funny.

How has your experience been working with the Sacramento comedy scene?
Absolutely fantastic. Other cities are just not as funny as Sacramento. I have had amazing mentors and the comedians here are just close-knit and understanding.

How was performing at the Laugh Factory?
I got to perform in Hollywood for several celebrities in the audience whom I will not name drop here, but I will say that they are awesome. After my performance at the Laugh Factory, Dane Cook was supposed to come on. Instead of staying for that performance, I ended up at a place across the street smoking cigars with these celebrities and bonding. Nights were made.

What is the main message of your performance?
My MD is getting worse every day. I want people to know that they have a choice. They can focus on the crap or focus on the awesome. If you can’t do certain things anymore, then find a way around the obstacle; For example, I couldn’t use the shower like I used to, so I installed bars. I have problems in my life, but I could choose to let that define my life or not. No one ever found happiness focusing on the bad things, so just laugh and always find a way.

Rising Local Comedian Johnny Taylor on How Life Informs His Comedy and Why Sacramento Doesn’t Suck as Much as It Thinks It Does

Last Christmas, comedian Johnny Taylor woke up to receive one of the best presents of his life. It wasn’t a big screen TV or a new car, but a record deal. During the wee hours of Christmas morning he received a text message from Dan Schlissel, the president of Stand Up! Records that read, “I’m about 20 minutes into your album and I want to release it.”

“So he faxed me a record contract, I signed, and I was like fucking Merry Christmas,” explained the stand-up comedian.

At first Taylor’s only reason to even record a comedy album was to have merchandise and make some extra cash after his stand-up gigs. But after taking a chance and sending the president of a huge record company his raw comedy recording he thought, “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Taylor has now turned his small chance into a huge opportunity. His debut album, Tangled Up in Plaid can now be heard worldwide on iTunes, Spotify and Rhapsody.

Taylor turns what should be mundane observations in his life into hilarious comedy bits. His new album is full of his life stories that are brilliantly turned into jokes. At times you can even call it dark comedy, but it will still make you laugh. On the album, he pokes fun at his lazy eye, finding his mom’s sex toys as a kid and hating his day job.

After performing in the Sacramento comedy scene for five years, Taylor has a lot of love for this town. Not only did he record his live album at Punch Line, but he will be holding his album debut party at The Sacramento Comedy Spot on Nov. 15, 2014.

Submerge caught up with Johnny outside of The Mill to talk about his new album, the hipster lifestyle and spreading the wealth of Sacramento’s underappreciated art scene.

Tell me about your new album, Tangled Up in Plaid.
It’s a live recording of my stand-up comedy as it was a year ago. It took longer than I thought it was going to come out, but it’s because I wasn’t anticipating being signed by a label, which is great. I signed a three-record deal with Stand Up! Records. But they had a lot more important people to get out than me, so it took a while for it to come out. Understandably, they had bigger fish to fry, but I’m really happy with how it turned out and proud of it.

Why did you name it Tangled Up in Plaid?
Tangled Up in Plaid is a side effect of living in any sort of hipster-ish part of town. People talk about Midtown Sac having this hipster culture but there is a Midtown Sac in every single town that you go to in America. And that’s where the people wear plaid shirts and skinny jeans, they drink cold brew coffee…you know what I mean? So it’s a matter of being surrounded by that part of the culture. People call me a hipster and a lot of my friends are… Keith Lowell Jensen is the prototypical aging hipster. It’s just about being in the middle of kind of that hipsterocracy. But it’s also a take on Bob Dylan’s, Tangled Up in Blue.

Where do you fit in in the whole hipster scene?
Just like the older uncle. Hipsters are called hipsters because they like what’s cool before anybody else does, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. So if people want to call me a hipster, that’s fine. I don’t claim to be one. I think I’m too old to claim that. If being cool is being a hipster, then fuck yeah I want to be hipster because I think I’m pretty fucking cool.

On the live recording of the album, it sounded like the audience was really enjoying your comedy.
Yeah I lucked out, it would have sucked to do my album recording and the audience just be flat but they weren’t. They were totally into from the get-go. I knew when I was watching the openers, I knew this was going to be good. So the only factor was me performing well. It was the perfect coming together, I had a good set and the crowd was hot. And it turned out being a really good record.

It seems like your comedy is based on your personal life stories, is that where you get a lot of your material from?
That’s where I get all of it from. Most of it are things that have happened or things that I was directly or indirectly involved in or just a thought I had. Anything involving work or my personal relationships, it’s not secret. I get a lot of material out of the fact that I have been married and divorced, more than I’d like to admit. But all of it is real personal. I think that’s the only way I know how to write. A lot of people are very good joke crafters and one-liner comics but mine are basically, “This is my life story.” I try to make it as entertaining as possible but they are based on things I would probably tell at a party. When it’s personal there is a passion behind telling it because it happened to them.

Is it ever nerve-wracking revealing yourself to a group of strangers?
It’s weird in general just doing stand-up. But having it recorded on a record that is now being consumed by people that I don’t know, in other parts of the world. I have a Twitter following and I get these weird replies from material from my record and I’m like, “Oh, that’s weird some dude in New Zealand listened to a story about me shitting on a steam cleaner.” It’s hard to wrap your fucking head around it. So yeah, it’s weird.

Did you start performing comedy in Sacramento?
Yeah, I think Sacramento is a good place to start. Sac has such a great art scene and people don’t appreciate it, they have amazing bands and really incredible comics. I can name five right off the bat that I would put up against everybody.

When I think of the Sacramento comedy scene, I think of everyone on it being a big family.
It’s very much like a family. We fight just like a family, but I think you have that in every scene. When my record went no. 7 on iTunes, I was getting messages from people I haven’t talked to in two years. They were like, “Anything you do that brings up Sacramento comedy is a win for all of us.” And that’s so true. I want all of my friends to succeed because I want people to go, “Oh man Sacramento has a good art scene.” I think it’s important and people don’t realize it, then they come here and go, “I didn’t know you guys were so great.” The logo should be, “Sacramento you don’t suck as much as I thought you did.”

Where is your favorite place to perform in Sac?
I have a weekly show [The Infirmary] with five friends of mine. It’s at the Ooley Theatre. And that’s like home base. Its every Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Ooley. It’s a small theater that only seats 40 people. It can be weird and uncomfortable; some of the best comics are trying out new material, playing ideas. It’s the ultimate workout room. But certain nights you go there, it can be magic and somebody will have a brand new story that they have never told before and it’s just incredible. It creates a whole energy in the room. That’s what I’m about right now… I think part of it is people don’t know about it. You can only flyer and talk about it on podcasts so many times and try to promote it with social media. I think once the word fully gets out that we are doing it, it’s going to be packed and it should be because they are really great shows.

Describe some of the relationships you have with other comedians in town.
There are people that are your best friends, there are people that you work with and get along with and there are people that you don’t really like that much. Some of my best friends I talk to every day, whether it’s bouncing a joke idea or asking, “How’s your day been?” Once you become a comedian you end up hanging out with all these comedians, which can be good and can be bad. Because I think if you hang about too many comedians too much, your whole life revolves around talking with comedians and doing sets, and doing as many sets as possible. And you become so obsessed with it that you stop living a life worth commenting on. What are you going to write about? So I try and hang out with non-comedians a lot, try and do non-comedy-related stuff. I need stuff to happen in my life so I can write jokes about it.

Check out Johnny Taylor live at the Sacramento Comedy Spot on Nov. 15, 2014, and help him celebrate the release of his CD, Tangled Up in Plaid. Tickets are just $8, and the show starts at 10:30 p.m. You can purchase Taylor’s album through his website, Johnnyisntfunny.com.

Sacramento Comedian Mike E. Winfield gets ready for the premiere of his new comedy/music mashup on FUSE TV

Words by Andru Bell

The first thing you notice about comedian Mike E. Winfield before he ever tells a joke is his smile. He has the kind of contagious, ear-to-ear grin that you can hear over the phone.

These days that smile might have a lot to do with the fact Winfield is counting down to the premiere of his new TV show, Off Beat, on the FUSE network Sept. 14, 2012, a dream he has been working toward his entire career. Winfield will host the weekly viral video music/comedy mash up with sidekick Mal Hall dissecting and analyzing the most outrageous music themed videos and viewer submitted clips (think “Chocolate Rain” and “Hot Cheetos and Takis”).

Off Beat features a heavy hitting production team including the legendary Vin Di Bona as one of the executive producers as well as creative consultant Mike Gibbons who worked on Tosh.0. “It’s viral videos that have a connection to music,” describes Winfield. “There could be someone at church dancing and they fall out the cathedral window. That could make the show.”

With the first season wrapped, and Hollywood notoriety around the corner, Winfield is still incredibly humble when speaking about his comedic roots and the path to his current success.

“In school I was hilarious to about three people only,” Winfield says when asked if he was the class clown. “I feel that everyone else knew me as Michael, the dude chillin’, trying to make the team.”

At points, growing up in East Baltimore, Md., was anything but comedic for Winfield. “I didn’t know how bad areas were where I lived until I got older,” he reflects back. “By eighth grade I was able to recognize that people were selling drugs on the block where I lived. I knew where not to get shot. I even knew how to spot an undercover vehicle.”

It wasn’t until moving to Sacramento after high school that Winfield would even step on stage for the first time to try his hand at stand-up comedy. His sophomore year at American River College, a small audience caught the first glimmer of greatness. Or something like that.

“I get on stage at this open mic believing I have the skills to freestyle a five minute set,” Winfield recalls. “I can barely freestyle a five minute set now, so it goes awry. I’m not booed, but it’s silence and stares–very awkward and uncomfortable. I figure that live comedy is not for me…and I focus on finishing college.”

Three years later, after graduating from Sacramento State with a bachelor’s degree in English he is faced with the decision to enter the teaching profession or attempt stand-up comedy again.

“I built the courage to return to the beast,” Winfield says. “But this time, I actually write material, which is the difference.”

The rest is Sacramento comedy history.

“I just started going to open mics and hitting them every week until more shows and doors started opening.” This was 2004.

It feels lightweight cliché to draw a comedic style comparison between Mike E. Winfield and Chris Rock, but the same charisma, originality and ability to relate to a crowd that made the latter a household name has propelled Winfield to where he is today. There is a definitive everyday feel to Winfield’s stand-up that he has maintained throughout all of his mainstream successes.

Since dedicating his life to the art of making a crowd laugh Winfield has been featured on BET’s Comic View, Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, Showtime’s Comics Without Borders, Comics Unleashed, The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s The Office before being selected for his latest role as host of Off Beat.

The audition process for Off Beat started last year in Los Angeles when Mike E. Winfield and thousands of other comedians and on-air personalities of all kinds auditioned for the gig. It wasn’t until this past February that Winfield got word that he had beat out the competition and was Hollywood bound.

“It’s funny because I said, ‘I want my own TV show,’ but something like Off Beat I would’ve never planned,” Winfield says. “It’s weird because I don’t know what else I would be more fit for.”

Though he is the figurehead for a team of writers now, Winfield promises the same personal connection with the audience that has fueled his stand-up success.

“With Off Beat it feels so much like it is mine and people will really get to know me. They see so much of me just being myself so it’s more fitting than anything else I could even imagine.”

Now living back and forth between Los Angeles and Sacramento, Winfield is touring to promote Off Beat’s upcoming premiere. A comedian’s comedian, Winfield isn’t spending all of his time talking to morning news shows though. In fact, he is known for making impromptu appearances at local open mics from Sacramento to New York City. He explains, “Whatever town I find myself in, I’m trying to hit the stage.”

If you don’t Google him, you might spend an entire night hanging out with Mike before you realize that he’s sort of famous.

A few weeks ago, while back home visiting, Winfield dropped by a showcase at Luna’s Cafe, hosted by comedian Johnny Taylor, to do a set completely unannounced. “Mike E. is on the verge,” described Taylor, “but he’s different, because you know he’s one of those guys that really wants to bring the city with him.”

When asked how he plans to deal with the fame monster, Winfield jokingly responds that he has already scouted out a place to buy afro wigs to outfit his army of imposter drones in true pop star fashion.

“Britney Spears has to leave her house through some hidden chamber in the basement and has imposters that look like her,” he explains. “I have this place where I go get afros, throw them on people, and then have them leave before me.”

In reality, the gradual climb up the ladder of success has readied Winfield for the upcoming wave of (much deserved) recognition. “I feel like there was a set up for this,” he explains, “It’s a slow, gradual… BOOM.”

When asked his advice to aspiring comedians, there is no hesitation. His answer is immediate and fires off like a mantra. “Everything is about the work you put in,” he says, “I believe when you work hard at anything you see results even if it comes back to you another way. So it’s not talking about it. It’s doing the actual work. I’ll perform anywhere. I’ve performed at poetry shows, open mics and cafes. I’ve performed in the back of a vegan restaurant. If there is a microphone, I’ve been on it.”

It would be remiss to credit Winfield’s relentless work ethic and fail to mention his secret weapon, wife Kisha, who has stood by the comic’s side every step of the way and played the most important role behind the scenes. “September we’ve been married 10 years,” says Winfield. “The thing is we’re stronger than ever. She’s the one behind the scenes getting stuff done.”

Though his marriage is not off limits as fodder for his stand-up, it is clear that she is another reason for that famous smile. You have to respect and admire a wife that can truly support a struggling comic with showbiz dreams. And clearly Winfield does.

Mike E. Winfield will be back in Sacramento headlining at The Punchline on Oct. 4, 2012 as well as multiple shows over Thanksgiving weekend, also at Punchline. …And you never know where he’ll show up between now and then.

Keep up with Mike E. Winfield as Off Beat hits the airwaves and set your DVRs for the premiere Sept. 14th at 7 p.m. on the FUSE network. You can also follow his misadventures in viral video via his Twitter, @MikeEWinfield, and his website http://mikewinfield.com/. You can see Winfield live at the Punchline in Sacramento on Oct. 4. For tickets and more info, go to http://punchlinesac.com/

Sacramento comedian Johnny Taylor’s recurring gig “Comedy Kill,” which goes down every fourth Friday at Sacramento Comedy Spot, is quickly becoming one of the city’s premiere stand-up nights. Taylor started Comedy Kill to give him and his friends somewhere to highlight the type of stand-up they’ve been doing. “I thought it would be really rad to showcase smart, offbeat comedy on a consistent basis,” Taylor recently told Submerge. “It’s grown to a point that I get to bring some really talented friends up from the bay area as well,” he said. Taylor has been doing stand-up comedy for just over a year, but has already performed a number of times at 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, Calif., a highly sought after venue. “You never know when you’re gonna be sitting in the green room and Robin Williams or Dana Carvey stroll in,” Taylor said. “I always leave that place feeling starstruck at least once.” Taylor also recently had his set from a gig at Pasadena Ice House recorded for Comedytime.tv. Catch him hosting and cracking jokes at the next installment of Comedy Kill on Friday, April 27 at 9 p.m. at Sacramento Comedy Spot (1050 20th Street, Suite 130) alongside headliner John Ross and featured performers Nick Aragon and Kiry Shabazz. “There are so many talented comics in Sacramento,” Taylor said. “People sleep on this city, but I’d put the top guys in our scene against any other city out there in a stand-up comedy battle royale and feel pretty comfortable with our chances.” Get your tickets for Comedy Kill for just $10 at Saccomedyspot.com.

-J.Carabba

Sacramento comedian Keith Lowell Jensen Releases New CD/DVD and Preps His First Solo Tour

A drawing of four naked human female torsos with rabbit heads is not the definition of marketing genius, but it could be. At the bottom of the DVD box it reads, “How great is this DVD? You haven’t even opened the box and you’ve seen a bunny rabbit with boobs.”

Keith Lowell Jensen’s comedy CD/DVD Cats Made of Rabbits was recorded at the Sacramento Comedy Spot two years ago, but its content remains timeless, save for a Jonas Brothers reference. I want to tell you the juvenile humor ends on the box and that Jensen is a thoughtful comedian, pushing the envelope of correctness (which he does) and subversively challenging our values with humor, but then I think about his duck vagina bit and think better of such grandiose statements.

He’s an atheist (and has a wife and child–guffaw), so he is often referred to as the Atheist Comedian, mostly on the Coexist? Comedy Tour, but Jensen’s compulsive interest in all things worthy of critique keeps the nasty “pigeonhole” effect off his back. In discussing his next album, Jensen said he had 45 minutes of material on things he’s been arrested for and jobs he’s been fired from, as well as over an hour of observational comedy. Once in San Francisco he threatened to do an entire set of racist jokes strictly based upon the characters in Lord of the Rings, which is possibly the finest testament to his multi-dimensional talent. “I didn’t intend to be the Atheist Comedian, but that’s what I am on the tour,” he said. “It just sort of happened. It feels very true and feels like I’m talking about very important shit, so that’s cool.”

Jensen knows there are gigs he won’t book due to his atheism, but he casually sidesteps the haters with a “fuck that bigot” attitude. “The gay comics or a black comic, they don’t have the choice of not being that,” he said. “It’s who they are. This is who I am. Even if I wasn’t doing my atheist material, those same people wouldn’t appreciate what a liberal I am or what a geek I am. Those things all kind of go together.”

Did having a daughter shake up your atheism at all?
Not even a little bit. In fact, having a daughter has not impacted my life as much as it has impacted every other parent I’ve ever known. I suspect that part of that is because I’m in my late 30s. My wife and I have been together for 14 years. We’ve settled into our lives a little more than most people who are having babies.

Some comedians have said that happiness is the worst thing that can happen to your career.
I think that’s bullshit. You know, when me and my wife met, my romantic first words to her were, “How can you say something so fucking stupid?” I still remember the debate we had. We argued for two hours straight and were best friends by the time we were done.

Any artist that can express their poverty and sorrow well can express their joy. [Yamantaka] Eye of the Boredoms talked about audiences being disappointed when they come to see him because he’s happy now and they want his old stuff when he was miserable. But he said that stuff was successful and that gave me this family. It gave me the Boredoms and I’m happy.

Political humor can be alienating and risky. Outside of comedy you’re a very opinionated person, particularly in your blog and Facebook posts. Have you come to any conclusions on whether it has a place in your material?
On Cats Made of Rabbits there is politics in there, but it’s hidden. On the actual joke “Cats Made of Rabbits” I tie “shock and awe” and the Trail of Tears to the Holocaust, and people who would be offended by it don’t even catch it, it’s said so matter of fact. I just give a list and those three are on it. It’s not making a big production out of the political statement that’s within that joke. And of course there’s a vegan joke within it, regarding how we base which animals are OK to kill based on cuteness.

Is your writing process thought out, in that you intentionally weave that many political statements into one bit?
It happens subconsciously out of me being insecure. A lot of writing happens on stage where I am surprised something came out of my mouth.

You strike me as an obsessive consumer whether it comes to comedy or music, but that collector side of your personality does not translate to the stage. Have you ever considered letting the nerd flag fly more in your material?
I have a lot of material about Lord of the Rings right now. I don’t know why now. I think maybe excitement about The Hobbit. I just re-read the books. I’m also telling my daughter the Lord of the Rings story, only in our version the Orc “scratched” instead of “stabbed”–she’s 2.

I geeked out on Elf Quest recently, and I’ve been geeking out on porn lately. The creators of Elf Quest contacted me recently and two progressive porn actresses have contacted me wanting to blog about my material, so maybe I should do more pop culture stuff.

Then again, I was talking to the audience about [Doug E. Fresh] at the Comedy Spot a few weeks ago and nobody knew what I was talking about. I said you have to be kidding me. That’s ridiculous you guys don’t know Doug E. Fresh.

It would seem that Sacramento’s comedy scene is stirring with talent right now; much like our music scene has had little pockets of glory. Given that Mike E. Winfield will be on the next season of The Office, does it feel like an opportune time to be a comedian in Sacramento?
Yeah. It could be. There were periods with music when the Deftones and Cake and Papa Roach and all these bands in a short span of time all took off out of Sacramento. It sort of put Sacramento on the map. I feel like that could be happening with comedy mostly from the perspective of, boy, we have an awful lot of really good comics here. We just have a phenomenal bank of talent in this little town.

It’s interesting that Mike E. is staying. He’s on The Office! I was thinking well, there he goes. Bye Mike. But, nope, he’s keeping his place in Sac. He’s in Los Angeles a lot, but he’s keeping his place here. I like that a lot. Ian MacKaye from Minor Threat is one of my heroes, and I like that sense of your own community, and you don’t have to betray it to be famous.

Will the next string of dates in the fall be your first time out on tour alone?
This is the first time I’ve gone out and every day it’s just me and I’m the headliner.

How are you internalizing that?
I have shingles. You don’t normally get that as young as me.

Yeah, my grandma has shingles.
I wonder if I’m more nervous than I realize. I feel all right, but then again I did get shingles.

Have you found the humor in that yet?
Just now [laughs]. I’ve broken my collarbone before and so I know it’s going to stop hurting eventually. It’s not like the first heartbreak you get when you’re a kid, and you don’t know if it’s ever going to end. Now it’s like, “Ah, I’ve got to wait this out. Didn’t want to do this right now, but…”

I don’t get nerves that bad anymore. I got stage fright for the first eight years and didn’t think it would ever go away. If there’s anything I think you should say to comedians before they go on stage that might help it’s, “You know there’s not really that much at risk.” You’re going to get up and do what you’re going to do and then later you’ll get up again.

Keith Lowell Jensen’s Cats Made of Rabbits CD is out now and available to own on Amazon.com. It can also be purchased digitally on iTunes. His DVD of the same name will be available Sept. 27. Jensen will perform a CD/DVD release show at the Sac Comedy Spot on Sept. 23 at 8 p.m. (tickets are $18). You can also catch Jensen do his thing the following Thursday, Sept. 29, as part of the Sacramento Comedy Festival, once again at the Sac Comedy Spot. More info and tickets for both these performances can be found at Saccomedyspot.com.