Colbert Audiences are "So Smart"
From his Sirius satellite radio show to his job as warm-up comic for The Colbert Report, Pete Dominick is one of the hardest working people in comedy. Punchline recently posted an interview with the standup where he talked about tailoring his material for different audiences:
I think the best comics are both relatable and innovative. Which of those things are more important?
I
think being relatable is most important in comedy. Chris Rock said if
you see something that you think other people have seen, or hear
something that you think other people have heard, or do something that
you think other people have done, there’s the comedy, there’s the joke.
Everybody has had sex, hopefully. Or have been in a relationship, or
knows who President Bush is. So relatable is important.And if you can be innovative with relatable material, it’s a plus?
If by innovative you mean original and provocative–Yeah.
You always want to be original. But sometimes a guy is trying to be too original, and nobody even gets the joke.It’s funny. I’ve got a joke where the premise is, ‘Here are some things Dick Cheney has never said.’ It kills when I warm up The Colbert Report
audience, because they’re so smart about politics. But if I do a club
in Cleveland, I get nothing— just crickets. Within the joke I refer to
the Geneva Conventions, which I thought everybody kind of knew about.
But people don’t. And that’s a problem.
For more, head over to Pete Dominick: Comedy's Utility Player.
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