Writing Jokes with Myq Kaplan (Last Comic Standing, CONAN)
The thing I love most about comedy is writing and performing and honing and aiming to perfect new funny ideas; new jokes.
[@myqkaplan on Twitter]
What kind of decisions go into putting together a special? What did you enjoy about the process of creating Small, Dork & Handsome?
The thing I love most about comedy is writing and performing and honing and aiming to perfect new funny ideas; new jokes. Putting together a special is also fun, but it’s on the other end of the spectrum. (It’s) taking jokes that have gone through that process and constructing/presenting them as a final product, a show. I like it all. I like the snowflake and the ice sculpture, or the avalanche. Of ice sculptures.
I don’t know if that really answers your question. If you want to ask more specific questions about it, I’ll be happy to say more. If you mean things like, how did I decide what the backdrop should be, or the lighting, mostly other people offered me options and I said “this one seems good.” I care mostly about the comedy. So, I decided to write jokes years ago, and then years later, a special happened.
What’s your name and where did you grow up?
Legally Michael Kaplan. Illegally Myq Kaplan. I grew up in Livingston, NJ, then Upper Saddle River, NJ; then Allendale, NJ, then college in Waltham, MA; then Boston, MA, now Brooklyn, NY (I’m still growing!).
What’s interesting or uninteresting about your hometown?
I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey! New Jersey is right near New York City! That’s interesting by proxy! Or uninteresting on its face.
What did you parents do for a living when you were a kid?
My parents were both music teachers.
When did you realize you could be a comedian? What was the first joke or bit you tried on stage?
I realize it every day. But also… I realized I could be a comedian after I’d been doing comedy for some time. (I was initially striving to be a singer-songwriter, and I played some funny songs at a comedy club occasionally. In between the songs I would talk, and realized it was fun to make people laugh with words and not music, in addition to words and music. So, I was doing comedy before I realized I could do it.) And I realize it every day.
One of my first jokes was something like this: “Did you know that Philadelphia used to be called Liberty Bell Town, but that didn’t have quite the right ring to it?”
Last Comic Standing seems like a real launching pad for comics. How has the show impacted your career?
Most career advancement in comedy is gradual these days for most people. Last Comic Standing was the biggest non-gradual leap forward in people seeing my comedy and knowing who I am. Millions of people watched every week, and after the season ended, I was able to perform at a higher quantity and quality of comedy venue because I had become more of a draw than I was before. (Before, I was basically not a draw, and after, I was MORE than not.) To this day, there are almost always people at my shows who are there because they first saw me on Last Comic Standing, for sure.
You’re also a veteran of late night performances (CONAN, Letterman, America’s Got Talent, etc.). What advice would you give a comedian that’s going to make his or her first appearance on TV?
Have a good time! Don’t worry about this, or anything, because eventually we are all ash and dust.
(That’s perfect) What’s the origin story behind the Hang Out with Me podcast?
A guy emailed me and said “want to be a part of a new podcast network I’m starting?” and I didn’t know who he was, so I said thanks but no thanks. So I thought about starting a podcast and seeing if I could get it produced by a network I’d heard of, like Nerdist or Earwolf. I looked into it and ultimately determined that to start out, I’d have to do it on my own. Or… with the guy I’d never heard of. So I went back to him and said “sure!” and started making podcasts. Then eventually that guy decided to get out of the podcast producing game, and I reached out to my friends Keith and The Girl, who were expanding their podcast empire into a larger network, and now it’s there. That’s the logistical origin story. The emotional one is this: I’d been a guest on a lot of people’s podcasts, and it was always a blast, just hanging out with friends, talking. I remember a specific day where I had been in a less than great mood pre-podcast, and then after I felt so good, that I was like “I should do this more often! Not just when people invite me to do THEIR podcasts… I could have my own!” And that’s how Hang Out With Me was born.
Do you prefer forming jokes on paper or on stage? Why?
I like forming jokes in any way they form. My process usually begins with an idea that I speak into a digital recorder. After that, I write it down into a notebook, and after that I type it into a computer. All the while, I’m also saying it on stage, adding to it, editing it, tagging it, riffing other ideas, and those ideas go through the same recorder-notebook-computer process. So, if I had to choose JUST writing on stage or writing on paper, I would choose the stage, because that is where standup comedy happens. But I don’t have to choose. I can do everything. (Also sometimes, jokes can arise from writing alone, like if I’m writing an email to a friend and something funny comes out. I’m open to that as well, but the process for me usually begins with speaking out loud.)
What do you like or dislike about the comedy scene in New York?
I love how big and diverse and multi-faceted it is. Any given night, there are so many fun shows going on, so many comedians, so many friends and potential friends, so many audiences… New York has such a large quantity of everything, that it statistically makes sense that it has so much in the way of quality as well. (Of course, a pessimist might say that with so much of everything, there’s also so much more negative as well as positive, and that’s true, but I prefer to focus on the positive. You can’t experience everything all the time, so why not pick and choose what makes you feel better, when possible.)
Who is the funniest person you know?
I can’t name just one funniest person. I know so many wonderfully hilarious comedians and humans and human comedians (and maybe others), that if I were to start naming them, I’d leave some out for sure… so I’ll just say my girlfriend Kasey for now, because she’s here. Okay, you forced my hand… here are SOME candidates for some of the funniest people I know: Henry Phillips, Zach Sherwin, Gaby Dunn, Micah Sherman, Rebecca Drysdale, Aparna Nancherla, Baron Vaughn, Nick Vatterott, Reggie Watts, Gary Gulman, Kate Berlant, Rory Scovel, Ramin Nazer, Ben Seidman, Paul F. Tompkins, Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, Jackie Kashian, Renata Tutko, Shane Mauss, Josh Gondelman, Ken Reid, Baratunde Thurston, Erin Judge, Ryan Singer, Matt Knudsen, Brent Weinbach, Brandon Scott Wolf, Paul Barman, Louis CK, Myka Fox, Wayne Federman, Mehran Khagani, Chris Gethard, Nikki Glaser, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, David Huntsberger, Sabrina Jalees, Joe Karg, Joe List, Robert Mac, Amber Nelson, Adam Wade, Emo Philips, Julian McCullough, Colin Quinn, Giulia Rozzi, Abe Smith, Auggie Smith, Victor Varnado, The Walsh Brothers, and ALL OF MY FUNNY FRIENDS WHO I DIDN’T THINK OF IMMEDIATELY HERE SORRY FRIENDS YOU ARE ALSO THE FUNNIEST!
What’s the dumbest superhero name you can think of?
Dumb Super-Hero Name Person! or Doesn’t Have Any Powers And Isn’t Super Or A Hero Guy!
Why are jokes funny?
1) Because!
2) Why AREN’T jokes funny?
3) They’re not. (Just kidding. They are.)
4) Because the people telling them are funny.
5) Science.
6) Religion?
7) Soup.
8) I’m hungry.
9) It’s lunchtime.
10) List over.
Myq is a stand-up comedian, Twitter user, bio writer, Netflix special haver: http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70298205 … and iTunes album downloadee: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/small-dork-and-handsome/id876635550 …
For more on humor, follow @jokewriting on Twitter.
Interview by Zuri Irvin (@withzuri)
