Dan Telfer is a comedian currently hanging out in the Midwest riding a wave of some very successful Youtube videos that have allowed him to record shows for BBC and the Science Channel. He’s been named a best comedian of the year and earned a best album of the year recognition by The Onion A.V. Club in 2010.
HWe got the chance to catch up with Telfer to talk about comedy differences on the Coasts. The science behind comedy and his latest stand-up album
<p> Tendrils of Ruin </p>
which he just released this summer.
<p> What’s going on here tonight, Dan? </p>
We just recorded a set for a show on BBC 2 that airs in America on the Science Channel called
<p> Horizons </p>
. They’re studying lateral thinking and how comedy affects people’s ability to process from one side of the brain to the other. They knew I did a lot of science material and they liked me already over there, so they flew out here to film a couple of segments and asked if I would perform for a doctor of neuroscience at Northwestern University.
<p> How did they find out about you you overseas? </p>
From my viral video clips that I had. My video clips have more hits than some television stations which has been good because then you can see me *laughs*. My wife is British and I’ve never performed in the UK but I’ve been recognized on the street there which is weird.
<p> I studied stand-up with you at Second City. Your first time actually I think was about two or two and half years ago. </p>
Oh was that really the first round?
<p> Yeah, I mean it was great. Fantastic as a supervisor. </p>
Yeah, do you still do stand up?
<p> Yeah, I’ve been doing some open mics throughout the city. </p>
Awesome! Because that’s really all class was. I made a big deal but I didn’t want my class to be like it was about the business of stand-up. I think I told you guys right away the reason I’m doing this at Second City at an improve theater and not a comedy club or out of my garage is because I will not make you funny. I refuse to help you buy into that delusion. You’re funny or you’re not, we’ll just workshop like it’s an open mic and support each other.
<p>
<p> </p>
<p> Your feedback was huge, too. </p>
Yeah, I just want there to be a bigger variety. We have so many open mics in Chicago and it’s nuts! I feel like we have more than anywhere and it’d be great to keep pushing people to them.
<p> You opened my eyes to Schubas and some other places, too. </p>
Oh Schubas was the best! That was such a great open mic because it was an established music venue with this huge upstairs room that nobody was using.
<p> What difference do you see in Chicago compared to the coasts, New York and LA? Rougher? Easier? </p>
There’s some industry here, but almost none. A lot of Chicago comedians have a saying. I like to think I came up with a spin on it but I think this has been here for decades. 90% of America’s entertainment industry is in LA, 8% is in New York, and the other 2% is just spread across everywhere else. And so that 2% when it gets to Chicago, there’s barely even a million. We perform to each other, we perform to make people of a huge spectrum laugh. Our target audiences here are so different every time. So what you get are people who really want to make everyone laugh. Even if it’s for a certain crowd especially, you can’t grow in Chicago unless you appeal to everyone. If you go onstage with an attitude or a chip on your shoulder, you die. You just die fast and often until you quit, so you gotta be real humble here and you gotta fail a lot. But once you get over that hump here, it’s great. It’s a great big community here.
<p> I think that’s great advice for those trying to step up into the comedy world. </p>
That’s what Del Close always said! His whole thing is you gotta fail horribly or you don’t learn anything.
<p> You just had a new album come out right? </p>
I had it come out in July and that was a lot of fun because I was reaching a point where I was headlining enough venues where I was doing an hour for a couple of years and I had a lot of material that I felt really good about but was like “I wouldn’t mind if I stopped doing it.” So I had the nice luxury of going to a big theater that had a built in sound system and recorded an album.
We had to wait for the film crew and the guy from Northwestern. I anticipated that and I brought my DVD,
<p> The Comedians of Comedy </p>
and he brought up a good point: we don’t need the industry anymore. So it’s kind of funny that we screened that before industry shows up. There’s so many digital cameras in Chicago that we don’t need to wait for somebody at a corporation to roll into town and “Music Man” us as it were. We could be doing so much on our own.
<p> What’s coming up for you next? What on the horizon? I heard there was something on Nickelodeon. </p>
Yeah, I’ve got a set that’s going to be on “Nick Mom Night Out” in October and I think it’s going to be on television in January. I don’t know what the deal is. I haven’t gotten the email with the official press release yet. If you Google “Nick Mom Night Out” it has its o wn webpage it just doesn’t have the comics line-ups on it yet. It’s Nick Jr. which is interesting. I’m curious to see how this will go.
Dan Telfer’s latest comedy album
<p> Tendrils of Ruin </p>
is in stores now. You can follow him on Twitter @
DanTelfer
.
