Comedian Dan St. Germain, best known for his cultural critiquing on VH1's Best Week Ever [8] and his appearances on the late-night talk show circuit, performs at Syracuse's Funny Bone [9] club tonight at 7:30.
While casual comedy fans may have caught the burly, bearded St. Germain on Comedy Central during a half-hour stand-up special [10], he's also popped up on listicles both on the web and in print -- earning a mention as one of Variety's 10 comics to watch [11] and one of Paste's underrated comics of 2013 [12].
But to St. Germain, the buzz is fleeting.
"The only people who are famous are people who are famous, you know what I mean?" St. Germain said. "I’m just on a couple lists."
That doesn't mean he's not grateful to be mentioned, St. Germain said. But most folks who come out to comedy shows don't necessarily want to hear comedians talking about being comedians or enjoying the spoils of mid-level success. "If I’m doing the Funny Bone in Syracuse in a mall, I don’t think anyone’s gonna wanna hear about my process," St. Germain said.
Instead, Germain focuses his act around the basics of everyday life in the 21st century: cheap whiskey, Twitter bios and attempting to pleasure himself without the saving graces of wireless connectivity [13].
Twitter, he said, is an interesting outlet for keeping his comedy chops sharp. If St. Germain comes up with a one-line joke, he'll often tweet it out, and that will be the end. But if it's something he particularly likes, he might slip it into a larger bit in his act as a "laugh-line," or just a quick quip. Writing comedy in the realm of 140 characters is challenging, St. Germain said, so a tweet is typically just a tweet.
"I find that if you can encapsulate the entire joke, the entire premise in a tweet, it usually means it’s just for a tweet," he said. "It usually means there’s no more legs for it."
The material that makes it to the stage does have legs, St. Germain said. As a general practice, he tries to open with a couple of road-tested strong jokes that consistently get big laughs. This response up front sets the rhythm for his entire set, St. Germain said, and rhythm is one of the most crucial elements a comedian uses on stage. A good laugh from one joke can help set the tone for the following one.
Other times, it's worth diving right in with a completely fresh joke.
"A typical green thing to do, which I still do now, is you start out with something new, and every once in a while it works like gangbusters, especially if it’s really topical," St. Germain said. "Other times, you shoot yourself in the foot that way."
St. Germain is currently developing a multi-camera show for Fox and hopes to hear back about its pilot potential early next year. In the meantime, he's on the road, running through his scatter-brained comedy set and hoping to get laughs where he can.
"I wish I could say I had a modus operandi or something," he said. "But it’s usually just, 'Hey this is funny…I think.'"
Photo from sfsketchfest.com [14].
