Writing Jokes with Nick Naney
This series is designed to peek inside the lives of comedians & writers. Below is a conversation with a very funny person.
What’s your name and where did you grow up?
Nicholas Samuel Naney, I grew up in Oceanside, New York
What’s interesting or uninteresting about Oceanside?
There was this story I heard growing up that Oceanside was originally called “Christian Hook” but it was changed when a serial killer in town called himself that and killed children with a hook. However just now I read on wikipedia that’s not true, the people just thought “Oceanside” sounded better than “Christian Hook” and once again another great story is ruined by wikipedia.
What did your parents do for a living?
My dad was a CPA, my mom worked in human resources for a psychiatric hospital
Where did you first perform stand-up comedy?
A hippie coffee shop open mic in New Paltz, New York
Why did you first perform stand-up comedy? (to get laid?)
My girlfriend at the time pushed me to try it, I still have never been laid ever.
What was the first joke or bit you thought of that you tried onstage?
I had this bit about my dad friending me on Facebook and how he’d write on my wall about having sex with my mom, it was very crude and awful but I learned my lesson and now I only tell clean jokes about chewing gum
What projects are you working on now?
I am acting more which is great, if you have a movie or sketch or tv show put me in it please, somebody once said I’m the “Philip Seymour Hoffman” of web videos because I elevate material and I’ll probably be dead soon
Do you prefer writing jokes or improvising onstage? Neither? Both?
improvising onstage for sure, I’ve gotten lazier and lazier about actually writing jokes out as I’ve been doing comedy longer and longer to the point where now I will just think of something funny to talk about, write the keywords in my phone and try to figure out the beats of a joke on stage at an open mic.
What do you like or dislike about the New York comedy scene?
There is a wide variety of the best comedy available in this city. You meet all types of hilarious people and 95% of them are fun to be around & hang out with.
What’s the dumbest superhero name you can think of?
poopdog
How do you know when you’re going to have a good set?
When I go on stage and say “Hi I’m Nick” and the audience bursts out laughing hysterically and i try to get into my first joke but they won’t stop laughing for like 15 minutes and I just relax on stage in a hammock waiting.
How do you know when you’re going to bomb?
I have this bit about how the government is lying about 9/11, it doesn’t have any jokes and includes a very long Powerpoint with graphic photos, the bits before and after it are very funny and are about online dating but for some reason it really bums people out when I do it.
Is there anything you shy away from Tweeting or talking about on stage?
I don’t want to cause any controversy about race ever so I write every joke as if only white people exist
What’s the difference between writing jokes for the Internet and writing jokes for a live performance?
writing jokes for the internet is a stupid activity where you submit limited ideas to a cloud of nothingness and are rewarded by people “liking” them which means absolutely nothing but is incredibly refreshing to see happen and will send me into a downward spiral if I’m not rewarded appropriately. It’s an artform.
Live performance is the real cheese, if i write a joke that ends with me taking off the stage to hump the air and then crash landing into the front row, that doesn’t always work as a tweet because you can’t always rely on people’s imaginations.
Why do some jokes work on Twitter and others don’t?
I like the style of the personally absurd. A heightened sense of self but to its illogical extreme. right now my favorite kind of jokes to write for stage are about my penis being broken and how to deal with that. On Twitter I like talking about satan a lot and Tweeting like I’m some dumb-dumb who’s really into drugs and the devil but ultimately means well.
What are your three favorite TV shows currently on the air?
Game of Thrones, Mind of a Chef & Louie
Who is the funniest person you know?
My roommate & good friend Sean Billings. He doesn’t pursue comedy but he has a very sharp deadpan wit and he has the looks & temperament of a housecat
Why are jokes funny?
because if we couldn’t laugh, the world would just be a giant Russian prison, you’d have to fend for your life daily and risk incurring the wrath of men with tattooed faces ready to skin you alive with their knives they’ve culled in their cells. You’d hear whispers of a beautiful place somewhere hidden in this prison world only seen by the dead. You’d fight, you’d get strong, you’d learn to lose the ones you briefly loved and then by some miracle you’d reach this beautiful place that you started to believe was nothing more than a myth. And it turns out to be an Olive Garden restaurant, you sit down and eat and it’s…fine. The endless breadsticks are stale, the pasta dish you order is watery, the bill has a gratuity added which you think is too high for the mediocre service, you pay your bill and leave and head back to your cell on this Russian prison planet.
That is a world where jokes aren’t funny
Nick Naney is the only comedian in New York City. For more, follow him at @nicknaney
Visit @jokewriting on Twitter
Interview by Zuri Irvin (@withzuri)
