Brian Farrell is a writer, actor and stand-up comedian based in Los Angeles. Aside from his commercial and voice-over work, Farrell has scored parts in many television series including “Entourage” and “New Girl”. Most Thursday nights you can find Brian live-tweeting a stand-up open mic under the hashtag #UnurbanTweetCast.
Recently we sat down with Farrell at the Comedy Spot Nation Virtual Offices to get to know him a little better.
Comedy Spot Nation: So great to have you here, Brian. Tell the good people how you became interested in stand-up comedy.
Brian Farrell: I became interested in stand-up comedy when my friend Carol Turner, who I went through the Second City Conservatory with (here in L.A.), told me I should do it and that I might be good at it. She was taking a class from this guy named Gerry Katzman who is a master stand-up teacher.
I decided to take his class and the next thing I know, I’m doing bringer shows at The Comedy Store and getting a bunch of laughs from my co-workers at the restaurant I worked at. I had convinced my co-workers to come see me perform and they thought I was funny that night. That’s how the stand-up comedy virus was implanted.
CSN: Do you have a particular comedic style, if you will? Any specific influences?
BF: My comedy is Storiented or Story Oriented. I tell stories in my act mostly. I have a few jokey jokes that I like to tell, but they usually find themselves plopped in the middle of a long-winded story. My influences…Jen Kirkman, Brody Stevens, Louis C.K. They’re the best in my book.
CSN: There is this stereotype that most comedians are angry or emotionally damaged in some way. I’ve spoken to you on several occasions and you always seem very upbeat and positive. Are you the exception or is stereotype a myth?
BF: I have noticed in life that if you’re a curmudgeon, you won’t have many friends. I think you can choose to focus on the positive things in life and I do that perhaps too much. To answer your question, I am no exception. I am emotionally damaged and I use comedy and positivity as a defense mechanism. Life and reality is scary.
CSN: I want to ask you about Unurban Tweet Cast. It’s so cool and such a novel idea. Basically you live tweet an open mic night every Thursday. Now, I’ve been to a few open mics, and the overall experience really is one of those, “You’d have to go to one to understand” things. But you capture the scene perfectly. Where did that idea come from?
BF: Wow. Thank you. The idea was spawned from me being very bored at open mics and Twitter alleviated that boredom, so I just started “live-tweeting” the open mic I was at.
I remember during my first #UnurbanTweetCast…I tweeted, “I don’t think I should be doing this. #UnurbanTweetCast” and the very funny @ThaiRivera tweeted me saying something to the effect of, “You’re right, you shouldn’t be doing this.” He was joking of course…I think. I love Thai, he’s hilarious and that was the moment I thought I might be onto something interesting…to some people anyway.
CSN: Does doing the live tweet every night get in the way of your own material? A lot of comedians at open mics spend their time before getting on stage memorizing and editing their performance. I mean, what would happen if during your live-tweet, a comic did a set similar joke to the one you had planned? Then you’re scrambling.
BF: No. It never effects my material. It kinda is my material in a way. The sets at Unurban are so short, it doesn’t really matter if you go up unprepared. It takes me only a minute or two to figure out which story I’m going to tell or which premises I want to explore. The #UnurbanTweetCast never interferes as far as I know.
CSN: To switch gears a bit, you have a great routing about when you worked as a waiter. One of your regular customers was the great writer/producer David Milch. Apparently he would heckle you during service?
BF: Yes, and deservedly so. I was a really terrible waiter when I was first waiting on Milch. He didn’t know I was going to open mics every night and shamelessly repeating what he would say to me.
One of my favorites was, “YOU GET SOME SICK MANIACAL PLEASURE OUT OF MAKING US WAIT, DON’T YOU?!” (He was heckling me about how long the food was taking to come out). That shattered me because I was truly trying to give him the best service I could, but I wasn’t very efficient. I learned to be so after much trial and error…mostly error. My only way of dealing with being terrible at my job was to do stand-up about it.
CSN: Then you put that in your stand-up act. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal. That’s what comedians do. But you are also an actor. Did it ever cross your mind that, “Hey, I may audition for this guy someday, do I really want to risk alienating him by including him in the act?”
BF: Oh, yeah…it’s not a smart thing to do at all. I actually, in my sick head, thought it might help me get a part in one of his projects if he thought I was funny. His son, Ben Milch, showed him a YouTube video of me doing stand-up about him and he stormed into the restaurant and said to me, “My boy showed me a stand-up video of you making fun of me!” I was mortified! I said I would take it down from the Internet and he then said, “Nah, leave it up, it’s kinda funny.” So who knows? I made fun out of love. I just hope that shined through. I am a huge fan of David Milch.
CSN: What do you enjoy more, acting or stand-up? Or something else entirely?
BF: I enjoy acting more than stand-up because you get to play. Acting is easier and it pays more. Actors would hate that I said that, but it’s true. I’m not saying I’m the most brilliant actor, I’m not, I’m not that good at it actually…but I can stand over there or over here, emote and say a few lines truthfully. Stand-up, on the other hand, is a battle, a sickness, a compulsion, and extremely difficult. I think that’s why I’m drawn to it, because I’m a masochist.
CSN: Is it true that one of your passions is playing bass in a Guns N Roses tribute band?
BF: Yeah, I’m retired from that. Those were my glory days. I portrayed Duff McKagan for three years of my life and it was epic.
CSN: Did you ever dream that, like in the movie “Rock Star,” Axl Rose is going to walk in and pick you as his new bass player?
BF: No, but I did have the fantasy that a big time director would see me as Duff McKagan dancing on the bar of the Cat Club getting lit on fire by the bartender and have him/her think, “That bassist! Such charisma! I need him to star in my next blockbuster film!” That never happened unfortunately.
CSN: Well thanks for taking the time to speak with me tonight. I can’t ask you another question because if I did I would have to change the title of the column.
BF: Thanks for the interview. That was fun talking about myself.
Check out Brian Farrell on the web here and follow him on Twitter @boopityba
