Alright everybody, this week I am just going to jump right into it and skip that long opening I had last week. If you want to know about my views on comedy and laughter you can go back and read my first article about Louis C.K.
The second comedian I am going to talk about is Brian Regan.
Brian Regan grew up with seven brothers and sisters in Miami, Florida. He went to Heidelberg College in Ohio to be an accountant, but a football coach told him he should consider theater and communications. In 1980, he dropped out of school to pursue stand-up comedy. He went back and finished his degree in 1997 though.
Regan’s biggest influences in comedy were Steve Martin, The Smothers Brothers, and Johnny Carson. After leaving college he moved back to Florida and worked as a cook in a comedy club called Comic Strip in Ft. Lauderdale. He performed regularly at the club, working on his material and delivery, for five years. In 1986, he moved to New York to pursue comedy in a more serious fashion. He made a name for himself over the next two
years and by 1988 he won K-Rock Radio’s “Funniest Person in New York” contest. By the early ‘90s Regan had become more popular and appeared on several late night talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1991. He also starred in two Showtime stand-up specials.Regan won the American Comedy Award for Best Club Comic in 1995 and 1996. He released his first stand-up album in 1997 called Brian Regan Live which has sold 150,000 to date. He filmed his own Comedy Central Presents special in 2000. In 2004, he released his own comedy DVD called I Walked on the Moon. By 2005, Regan was performing in 40 cities and it expanded to 70 cities in 2006. In 2007, Regan signed a deal to record two hour-long stand-up specials to air on the channel. The first one was called Brian Regan: Standing Up and debuted in 2007. The second one was called The Epitome of Hyperbole and debuted in 2008. Both of them are available on DVD.
Now I’ll get into why I love him.
Reason number one: He is funny without being vulgar/inappropriate. Now you may call me a hypocrite for this one because I just got done telling you how much I loved Louis C.K. despite how offensive he can be. If you think that, you are misunderstanding me. I like a lot of comedians that are inappropriate, BUT I think it is impressive when someone can consistently be funny without swearing or doing dirty jokes. That is rare in today’s society and it is refreshing. He also takes everyday things that we see and do all the time and points out the ridiculousness in them or exaggerates it to the point where it’s not realistic anymore.
Reason number two: He is just ridiculous. The faces he makes and the voices he does really sell his jokes.
I mean, he does a whole bit about how it’s stupid that the serving sizes of things are so small and it's hilarious mostly because of the way he delivers it.
Comedy">http://www.cc.com/shows/comedy-central-presents">C... Central Presents
Get More: Watch">http://www.cc.com/stand-up">Watch More Stand-Up.
I quote that bit all the time around my house which brings me to my third reason for loving him.
Reason number three: I discovered him with my dad. My dad and I were flipping through channels one night and I came across Comedy Central Presents: Brian Regan. We had never heard of him before, but we both like comedians so we decided to watch it. I have never seen my dad laugh as hard as he laughed that night. We were both on the verge of passing out because we couldn’t breathe.
It’s a combination of being clean, ridiculous, and my personal association between my dad’s laughter and his comedy that make Brian Regan a special comedian for me. I strongly advise anybody who enjoys comedy to find his specials and watch them. You can watch clips of his Comedy Central Presents special on Comedy Central’s official site and you can buy his other two specials Brian Regan: Standing Up and The Epitome of Hyperbole on DVD. Do yourself a favor and laugh a little today. I'll leave you with this to help you along...
Comedy">http://www.cc.com/shows/comedy-central-presents">C... Central Presents
Get More: Watch">http://www.cc.com/stand-up">Watch More Stand-Up.
All facts came from http://comedians.about.com/od/currentcomedians/p/b...