Large truths, greater laughs with Christopher Titus on the Comea Comedy Awards
Dec. 9—Getting on stage as a slapstick comedian might be like going through a firing squad.
However not for comic Christopher Titus — he is all the time had a knack for locating humor within the darkest locations.
If something, he is leaned additional into his darker facet together with his latest set of fabric, “Carrying Monsters,” which he is bringing to the Comea Comedy Awards tonight on the The Lincoln Theatre.
It is the fitting occasion to supply his latest set of fabric, provided that it even stunned him the primary go-round.
“I heard my life once more (after I first began this present), and was like, ‘Rattling, dude,'” Titus mentioned in a telephone interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on Wednesday.
With eight standup specials beneath his belt, together with a podcast and his personal tv present, “Titus,” which broadcast on FOX from 2000-2002, he in the end made his identify all through the 2000s by unapologetically spinning the traumatic recollections of his dysfunctional household.
He is much more sincere in his stand-up right this moment than he was again when he acquired approval for his first particular, “Norman Rockwell is Bleeding.”
“My mom and my sister each dedicated suicide,” he mentioned. “Suicide is the second main explanation for dying between 14 and 24-year-olds. Younger folks, don’t kill your self. Do not do it. I imply, in addition to, there’s a lot extra to kill your self about whenever you get to 40.”
Probably the most regular facet of his childhood was his urge to remain up late and catch comedians throughout their late evening spots on TV earlier than sneaking again to mattress. It was then that he determined he would pursue a profession as a comic.
This present, nonetheless, will concentrate on the remainder of his life — his mom’s extreme psychological sickness, getting evicted 3 times as a baby, having to testify towards his father in courtroom, his try and run away from house at 11 years outdated and being kidnapped by his father when he was simply 5. Extra not too long ago, he is been by a troublesome divorce and the lack of custody of his kids.
Titus will not stray away from any subject just because it makes the viewers uncomfortable, although he does keep away from politics. His skill to share the heaviest of topics with out coming throughout as pitiful leads to a present that folks can relate — and even loosen up — to.
Nonetheless, there’s one rule that Titus does comply with — the viewers’s response.
“The viewers is all the time proper. When you say one thing they usually do not chuckle — they’re proper, you are not humorous,” he mentioned.
It takes being “serial killer-level loopy,” as he places it, to get in entrance of a crowd and consider you are the funniest, most charismatic and likable particular person within the room.
It would not matter what subject he decides to cowl within the subsequent bit. He will not be getting “canceled”, so long as he could make the viewers chuckle.
The factor is, the viewers is laughing, even after they aren’t certain if they need to. In actuality, everybody carries their very own monsters, and generally the antidote is to step again, chuckle and recover from it.
“If you will get them to see it otherwise and to chuckle at it, you then remedy the issue,” he mentioned. “We’re all collectively. That is what I like about comedy is that neighborhood will get collectively. 355 persons are laughing, which suggests they agree with you.
“If they do not chuckle, meaning they do not agree with you.”
Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s Arts and Leisure/Options Reporter. He might be reached by e mail at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by telephone at 307-633-3135. Comply with him on Twitter @will_carp_.
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