Andy Erikson was a member of the University of Minnesota comedy team that took first place at the 2009 Rooftop Comedy National College Comedy Competition, for which she was voted the MVP. She’s that funny. Andy was nice enough to answer a few questions about her experiences at the NCCC.

Rooftop: What have you been up to since your MVP performance?

Andy: Well, I graduated from the University of Minnesota, so I’ve had way less homework, which has been nice. For a few weeks I remember trying to find a job, but that got boring. My degree is in graphic design so I do that every once and a while to help pay the bills. I got a kitten named Mountain Goat, but she also responds to Martin Coat, it’s almost like having two cats. Well actually it’s not my cat, it’s my friend who got the cat. Technically I didn’t get a cat. I’m not really good at taking care of animals. I do have a couple of really life-like stuffed dogs. I hope to someday incorporate my stuffed animals into a really neat youtube video or something. In general I’ve been working on writing sketches and songs to make myself more well-rounded. Recently I realized that a cool way to make friends and meet cool people is to have a podcast, so I starting working on one with some friends called cnsradio. (www.cnsradio.podbean.com) I also help run a comic run comedy club called The Comedy Corner Underground, which keeps me busy, and gives me a sweet venue to put on shows. I’m actually doing a show there tonight that features the U of M comedy team! It’s like a sweet reunion show. I’m really looking forward to it.

Rooftop: Has participating in the NCCC opened any doors for you?

Andy: The contest definitely opened doors for me. The 5 minute set that helped me win MVP also got me into the semi-finals of the Andy Kaufman award in new york last November. Me and my mom went to new york and had so much fun. I got to meet a lot of really cool comedians and perform at Carolines. It was fantastic. I’m really excited I’m going to be performing at a college in Pennsylvania with Erik Allen. Rooftop helped me get that gig. It’s my first headlining gig, should be cool because I like performing for college kids. Whoop whoop! Hopefully I’ll be performing at the first round of the U of M contest this year.

Rooftop: When I think of the University of Minnesota, stellar stand up comedy isn’t the first thing that pops into my head. I associate U of M with ice hockey and having a silly mascot. What makes you U of M kids so damn funny?

Andy: Very good question. Probably a combination of things. I think the funniest people inherently have weird upbringings, and growing up in Minnesota can be pretty odd. My parents for instance never let me eat sandwiches. Also Minneapolis has a great comedy scene. There are open mics that have decent crowds almost every night of the week, and the local comedians are very supportive.

Rooftop: What were your favorite moments from NCCC/Aspen?

Andy: When we found out that the U of M team made it into the final 4 and was going to go to Aspen, it was a frenzy of excitement. And being in aspen and getting to perform at the Wheeler Oprah House was amazing. I remember being so nervous. Ya know that feeling you get right before you’re about to go on stage, and just after you’ve taken a hit of oxygen so that you don’t pass out due to high altitudes? That’s such a fantastic feeling. And then you’re on stage smiling because it’s like some weird defense mechanism you have, and you just can’t help it, that’s so much fun. And then oh my gosh, hanging out with all the other comedy teams, and all the people from rooftop was unbelievably awesome. We partied every night, One morning I woke up in an entryway. Getting to see the professional comics perform was really great too. I don’t think I’ll ever forget Chad Daniels set. He’s frikken awesome.

Rooftop: Have you kept in touch with any of the other comics?

Andy: Luckily facebook makes it easy to keep in touch with comics and people I have met so yeah I have definitely kept in contact. The winning improv team and the filmmakers are some of the coolest people in the whole world. I wish we could have a reunion or something.

Rooftop: Any advice for students competing in this year’s competition?

Andy: Get out to the open mics in and around your town as often as you can. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and definitely don’t just “wing it.” Be nice to everybody and don’t be annoying.

For more information on the 2010 National College Comedy Competition, visit our NCCC page.

Posted: February 26th, 2010 under Ruminations, theorizations and stuff.
Comments: none

Chris Garcia – Snug Life from cleanwhitelines on Vimeo.

Rooftop Comedy’s Chris Garcia stars in “Snug Life”, a music video about Snuggies. Produced by Clean White Lines. Drop it like it’s warm… cuz it’s a Snuggie!

Posted: February 26th, 2010 under Cool stuff from Rooftop Comedy, Video.
Comments: none

Over the course of his twenty-plus year career, Bobby Slayton has been called many things: “shocking,” “distasteful,” and the ever-present standby, “politically incorrect.” Watching him perform, however, I would label him another way: Honest. Not honest because he speaks a certain truth—truth can be malleable, given a person’s bias—but because he speaks from his heart. There is a vast difference between shock and honest comedy; one is done forcefully, the other has a natural flow to it. There is nothing in Bobby’s act that would offend anyone aware of the kind of world we live in. If anything, Bobby’s act could be used to enlighten the masses. They are asleep, and only someone willing to be truly honest can wake them up.

Rooftop Comedy was recently fortunate enough to chat with Bobby about his upcoming Showtime special, “Born To Be Bobby,” and found The Pit-bull of Comedy to be beyond kind, enormously thoughtful, and as intelligent as all get out.

Rooftop: (after a pre-interview chat) I’m going to put you on speakerphone now, so I can record the interview and not misquote you.

Bobby Slayton: So this is where you ask me the first question, how I got my start in stand up comedy.

Rooftop: No, we’re gonna skip that one for being too clichéd. I’m lobbing this softball your way, ready? Share how you came up with the title of your latest Showtime special, “Born to be Bobby;” does the show have an autobiographical theme?

Bobby Slayton: The way I came up with the title is that it’s my act, it’s my stand up. I talk about my wife and my daughter, but I don’t really talk about me. It’s not about my life. The reason I called it “Born To Be Bobby,” is that I just liked those old… you know, when you look at these tattoos; “Born to be wild,” “Born to raise hell,” “Born to lose…” those just screamed tattoos. Those are famous old sailor tattoos from the 1940s. So, “Born to be Bobby” I thought would be a great name, and I had it actually tattooed on my back for the opening of the show. Getting the tattoo actually took two-and-a-half hours, but they narrowed it down to about thirty seconds for the special. I think that’s a commitment to my art, getting the name of my special tattooed on my back; you don’t see many comedians do that. You don’t see anyone at Showtime doing that; you don’t see Dexter do that, you don’t see the cast of Weeds do that. You don’t see anyone get their show tattooed on their back.

Rooftop: Where was it recorded?

Bobby Slayton: A beautiful little theater called The O.C. Pavilion, the Orange County Pavilion in Santa Anna California. It was a beautiful theater that was about six hundred seats, so it wasn’t too big. It was intimate enough, where it was just nice, not too big or too small, just the right size.

Rooftop: Do you have a preference when it comes to comedy venues; theater vs. club?

Bobby Slayton: I’d rather work a theater.

(Bobby takes a moment to acknowledge his dog, Gizmo, currently begging for a treat. Though known himself as The Pit-bull of Comedy, Bobby Slayton has a mini-pinscher. On his MySpace page, he ashamedly has pictures of him with the “tiny little brave bastard, who doesn’t even know how small he really is. He thinks he’s a big dog.”)

People are generally better behaved in a theater. They listen better, and there’s no cocktail waitress, and they’re not as drunk. They’re not at tables, which tends to make people want to chat a little. When they’re sitting in a theater, they can’t turn their chairs away from you to talk, so they pay attention.

Rooftop: How long does it take you to come up with a fresh hour of material?

Bobby Slayton: Well, you know what? Now that my Showtime special is coming out next week, and I’m going back out on the road, and I’m really trying to write new material. I’m really concentrating on doing stuff I didn’t do in the special, because when people come to see you, they don’t want to see what they just watched on TV.

I have a lot of material I didn’t do on the special, so there’s a good half an hour that I have put together right there, and there’s probably have another hour from my first couple CDs, so I might pick and choose from that stuff. And in the past month or so, the two months since I recorded the special, I’ve put together about another fifteen or twenty minutes, so there should be a fresh hour out there when people come see me live now.

Rooftop: Today you’re a name comic, so people should know what to expect from a Bobby Slayton show, but how difficult was it starting out, given your point of view and comedic style?

Bobby Slayton: Oh, it’s still difficult sometimes. There are still people that come to clubs who don’t know what to expect. You never know what someone is going to get offended by or upset about, and I can’t worry about everybody. Its just comedy, but people still get upset over absolutely nothing. So in a way, [when I was starting] I kind of went out of the way to push the envelope to piss people off a little bit, because there are so many overly sensitive people out there. But the better my jokes became, and the better the material became, I just let it all speak for itself.

Rooftop: Did you ever think to yourself, “It would be so much easier to just tell safe jokes, like all the other comics do?”

Bobby Slayton: Yeah, I’ve thought about that. I always thought it would be so much easier route to work clean and nice and simple. And you wanna know something? It worked for Jerry Seinfeld. If I were able to wake up every morning and say, “Hey, I had a great TV series like Jerry, and I have a couple of great hours of stand up comedy like Jerry,” I could easily look in the mirror and be proud of myself. But it’s not just about money, it’s about what you love doing, and I have to say what I feel.

Rooftop: Speaking of material, is that something you write out meticulously, or do you go on stage with an idea and work it out in front of various audiences?

Bobby Slayton: Both. I generally don’t sit and write, and since I’m talking about Jerry Seinfeld, I’ll use him as an example. I know that he had a legendary work ethic where he would sit and write every day. We once played a club together and shared a condo twenty-five years ago, and he would lock himself in his room and write, and that’s a great way to come up with stuff. But you know what, I don’t really do that. I just come up with stuff.

When I’m sitting on a plane, or in my hotel room or when I’m out to dinner I’ll take out a notebook and jot ideas down, but generally I just walk around. I don’t sit down and think about it, I just let material come to me. It’s kind of like writing a song; some songwriters sit down and try to write a song, and others just walk around and the songs just come to them. That’s how I like to work, just letting the material come to me.

Rooftop: Do you think technology—Twitter, YouTube, etc—helps or hinders today’s comedians? Meaning: do you think they spend time marketing themselves they could spend writing material?

Bobby Slayton: It’s helped a lot of people, but I don’t think one cancels out the other, I think both is fine. It’s like going on television, like Last Comic Standing. It’s great, people know who you are, but if you don’t have the material to back it up, which a lot of guys don’t… you just have to have the material behind you, and I think it takes a good twenty years to get together a solid, solid act.

Bobby Slayton’s latest special, “Born To Be Bobby,” will air on Showtime, March 4th, at 9PM.