Laugh Out Loud: Best Comedy Moments from Four Hilarious Comedians

Today, I am delighted to be in conversation with the dynamic Kenny Rooster. Is there is there a particular scene or venue or experience that you had getting on stage that was very, like, transformative, whether it was, you know, the the trial by fire actually you got burnt Or it was just like, this has gone really well.

Oh, absolutely. Okay. So I, I I now run a lot of shows. And I also am now doing drag. I'm doing burlesque.

I do theater, but separately and more I, like, think of myself as doing theater. I'm not actively participating in that quite as much, because I don't have the time. But before I was doing all of that, I was obviously, like, an open mic comedian. And I have always thought that I was hilarious because if you don't think that you're hilarious even against, you know, certain degrees of your better judgment, then you will fail, at this business because there will always, no matter how good you are, be at least a 100000 people who think you're not shit. And, so I I, like, thought that I was very talented.

I ended up getting this gig, super randomly because this one pal, like, got it for me. It was at a somebody's house. It was, like, very bizarre. But a touring comedian was there, and he saw my set, and he was like, hey. I am on the admissions board for the Seattle International Comedy Competition, and you should apply.

And I was like, absolutely, I should, and I'm gonna win it, and I'm gonna crush it, and I'm gonna kill it. Okay? So I I I get everything ready. I'm so excited, and I really have it in my heart and soul that I am going to blow the competition out of the water. I show up, and we get there the 1st day.

I'm meeting all of the other comedians. I was like, oh my god. Oh my god. This is so cool. Like, I'm, like, doing comedy in a new place.

I'm basically famous, and probably I will have be on Netflix after this. And, the way that they do the competition is every night. It's it's a series of weeks and a series of rounds. So round 1 is Thursday to Sunday. Mhmm.

And you do one show a night in a different part of, Seattle and the surrounding areas, and you get ranked numerically, by a panel of judges. Right? Now also keep in mind that I am I am non binary, but that they're not a And so and you're not a 100% wrong, which makes it more complicated. Are you confused? Because so am I.

But the point is, right, that a woman, if we're going on the binary system, has won, I think, 2 times in, like, 52 years. I I don't have the stats on gay people, but I'm guessing it's no. And so right? I don't let this deter me. I don't think twice of it because I am essentially Jesus.

Come back to to inspire the comedy world to to get on my level. And, so this first night, I get second to last. I was second to last. I have never felt more oh my god. Right.

So I was like, okay. That was super weird. I hated that. I hated every second of that, but it was a fluke. And it was a fluke, and I just went too late in the lineup.

And the person before me killed and, like, it wasn't even my fault. Like, you know, it's totally fine. And, honestly, Seattle come about, like and it was actually crushing because, Seattle, the this that first night was the most gay people we ever had

in the audience.

So it it works from there. But the next night, right, we had to, do a clean show. And I don't know if you're getting this vibe from everything about me, but that is not my forte. So I decide oh, they also have a thing where, if the audience applauds for a full 5 seconds after you get off stage, you get an extra point. And almost everyone always gets it except at this clean show.

Not only do I mostly bomb, I did not get the clap. I truly and I wasn't even bad. That was the thing. I wasn't on par. Like, I was competing with people who have been in this game for a decade, for years years who, like, are so much more seasoned than I am.

I was I am retrospectively very honored to have been allowed on stage with them. Right? But it's not that I was, like, terrible. I just really wasn't these people's cup of tea. And I'm sure also had I, you know, been watching myself as the comedian that I am now, I would have been like, who let that bitch on the but, right, I get off stage, and I am about to have a full mental breakdown.

One of the people running the festival felt so bad because she had watched as, like, I was it was all the gay people didn't get the 5 claps, except one of the ones that was older because the crowd was old, and they were like, solidarity. We see you. You're gay, but you are kind of gay. None of this newfangled nonbinary shit. And so, right, I end up she, like, tried to be like, oh my god.

I'm so sorry. Like, you really like, it like, this is just like, oh my god. I, like, don't even and I was like, it's fine. Like, you've been great, very professional with me. Really kept it in.

And, then I storm out of the community center, thank you, that we're performing in, And, I silently sob as I walk, in the night around all of these pine trees at some weird golf course, and I'm singing I'll make a man out of you from Mulan. Why? I don't know. But it was the only thing between me and the brink and the only thing keeping me from diving into the, like, golf pond or whatever those bodies of water are that they always have there. And I was on the phone.

I ended up calling one of my partners, and I was like, honestly, I think I'm gonna quit comedy. I was like, this is the most horrific experience I have ever had. I have never felt worse about myself. I have never felt less talented. I, like, I don't know what is happening, but, like, I think that this is genuine.

I'm not even religious, but, like, this is God. God came for me. He I am being smoked right now, but it's me. I'm doing it. I'm just bad.

The smoting happened with the talent he didn't give me. And my partner was like, this is super not how I thought this experience was gonna go for you. But it's okay. Like, you're fine. Take some deep breaths.

Do whatever. Now I did, and I I don't even remember exactly no. I do remember what it was. The next day, we had to travel. We had to travel to get to our next location down this mountainous road, and I was in a car with 3 other people.

1 of them was the head of the festival who had invited me there, and he is whipping it at, like, 80 miles an hour. We are true like, true like, we are on the mountain. I have the guy next to me who's like, yeah. My friend just died. I watched him die in a horrific car crash on a night much like this when we were also late to go to a show.

He, like, lost it. Like and then my other friend didn't die, but, like, had such severe brain damage that he just, like, started, like, saying racial slurs all the time. Like, he wasn't even himself anymore. I am listening to this, like, oh my god. But it has already been made clear.

Like, there there was a lot of, like, casual misogyny happening that was like, oh my god. I just, like, don't understand why, like, women can't give critique and, like, oh my god. Like, well, all of this stuff. So I was like, why can't he, like, a critique y woman that's like, please don't murder us on this mountainside by going 85 miles per hour. So, right, I am just in the back, like every part of me was clenched.

The guy next to me who'd who'd just experienced a car crash, you know, like, a year or 2 years ago was also just like, oh my god. Both of us for this entire, like, 2 hour drive are just I I was like, I I don't even do witchcraft, but I was like, I I I will Google it. I'm googling on my phone protection stuff. I was like, I just need to I was praying. I was like, Jesus, we can be friends again.

Please come back into my heart. Like, oh my god. We make it. We get out of this car. And I went on stage that night, and I had never cared less in my entire life about how I did because I was so happy that I had survived the drive, and I killed.

I still ranked bottom mid, but I did. For my track record in that competition, I like, knowing that Idris was not the judge's cup of tea, I killed. And everybody came up to me afterwards and was like, oh my god. Like, you did really good. And I was like, thank god you know I'm funny now.

This has been devastating. And then for the last and I was like a phoenix reborn from the ashes between those two experiences. I was just like, oh my god. It doesn't matter. Like, nothing matters.

And all you can do is, like, do your best, especially when it comes to comedy. Like, any sort of comedy competition is, you know, wicked fun, but is so stupid because comedy is so subjective. And I could watch somebody do a set that I think is so deeply horrific, and then I see them getting booked on a show the next week. It's like at the you know, it's there's no rhyme or I mean, there is some rhyme and reason, but they, you know, not not at at certain levels. And the finals I the finals of that first round, would you believe didn't make it through to the 2nd round?

But I watched all of these comedians who had been killing it this entire time, who were so talented, who were, like, making me a better comedian just by letting me hear their same 5 minute set over and over and over again have psychological meltdowns about this competition and about how horrible it is to have a number ranking attached to what you do, especially when it is so personal and it is so intrinsic to, like, who you are. And when you are sharing yourself with people and then everyone's like, 5.7.

We're joined by a Baltimore based comedian and improviser. Please welcome the very funny and talented, Roberto Reed. Tell me about that first time you, like, stepped on a stage, like, the legit, like because in theory, we're always on a stage. But in that real sort of was it an open mic situation? Was it, improv?

Was it like, yeah, I'm at school. I'm just gonna run this bit right now. I'm gonna do these jokes. What was that first time on stage to set the stage for us, if you will.

I the first time I'm gonna describe 2 instances because one was I think, the first time that I was I was stepping onto a stage alone with the purpose of speaking to make people laugh or doing whatever it was. And at at a time where I where I knew that this was, like, the career path that I was going on, but I had not it wouldn't be for another couple years that I would start it, was in my freshman year of college. I was 17. There was, I was so I was in the marching band, and there was a at the end of what they call band camp, we the, marching band spends 2 weeks before anybody else arrives at the school. Same football team is there also, but we're we're running drill and we're we're, you know, preparing for the 1st season.

At the end of, you know, the long 2 weeks, there's a social gathering where it's a it's a talent show. Each section of the band has to give a talent, and it's mostly just an opportunity to do whatever you want. Like, really do whatever you want and be creative as a team or whatever. And I was really I I I don't even remember what our my section did, but I was really pushing for me to be able to go up onto the stage before everybody and introduce this introduce us and introduce the set and just say a few things. And, like, I remember trying to, like, like, you know, talking with them about, like, what might be funny for me to say or what what's a funny way for me to set it up.

And I don't know if it was just because I had a I was really strong about it or what it was, but they just allowed me to do that without really much explanation of what I was gonna say or do. And and I did it. And it was and I didn't get I I remember not getting a terrible amount of laughs, but I do remember saying a few things that that were the correct thing to say and, you know, made everybody laugh in the moment and set it up.

And I

was like, oh, that so that was that was the first time that I forcefully gave myself an opportunity to do so that that wasn't by accident or wasn't just, like, me performing just because that's something I do. It was, like, an on purpose. And then it wasn't until maybe a year later it was actually I can I know the exact date because it was the 2 it was 2 days after COVID dropped? It was so March 15th or something, 2020, there was a, a show that was kind of a glorified open mic, but it was on the college campus. A buddy of mine was doing it with his acapella group.

There was a small band. There was, like, poetry reading and and singers and whatever else. And I signed up to do it as a stand up. Yeah. And they immediately were like, oh, heck.

Yeah. We didn't expect anybody to do anything like that. That's awesome. And that was gonna be my first time on stage, and I was writing jokes for it. I I I had this little leather book that I kept around, and I still have it.

But then I was keeping on me walking around campus for, like, a year before that just writing things down.

Yeah.

So I spent maybe 2 months before this, thinking about what I'm gonna wear and, you know, writing out all these like, writing out these jokes. And I remember really enjoying, like, that opportunity because I was I was thinking about, like, pace. I was thinking about things that I I didn't even realize until much later that I was doing, which was you know, I was like, for the like, how the pacing of a joke and and the tone and how my delivery and stuff like that. And then I we, the school, they said, okay. You know, you're going on spring break early, and you're also gonna not gonna come back until a week after.

We're like, great. Extra long spring break. Was we had a COVID party. Yep. Shout out shout out 2020 before anybody really knew.

We had a we had a a corona party, actually. We got a 24, we got a 24 case of corona. Went to my buddy's apartment. We just had a party. And, and I and all my friends were there, and I was like and it came up that I wasn't able to Everybody knew that I was gonna do this, and and it wasn't gonna be and I wasn't going to be able to do it.

So they gave me the chance right there, and I performed I did my set for them,

Nice.

And it killed. And it was like, oh, that's the that was it. That's all I needed. It was, like, just to pick you know, it wasn't it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was the it was I worked on something, and it and the payoff, kind of, you know, then a year and a half later, I was I was actually starting stand up. But it was like that it was that moment that I was like, okay.

I there if I work on something, I can it there is a payoff, and I can keep trying whatever that is.

My next guest is a dynamic personality from the Baltimore, Washington Metropolitan area. He's an actor, comedian, model, radio show host, just all of the jobs. He just has all of the jobs. Please welcome the very funny Larry Lancaster. Who are some of those those influences that come to mind?

It could be big names, local names, like names that you really want to shout out because they didn't get their due because I know.

Right.

It's one of those things where it's like, this person's popping right now. No one else gets to do anything. So so they and how they help, like, you along your path?

Well, before I started doing comedy, I used to study comedy. So, of course, you know, you allow the big names when you're just watching TV. Well, I used to rent, VHS tapes just to show you how long it goes back. And, you know, of course, Eddie Murphy in his prime, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, Damon Wayans, even, George calling. I was a big fan of his.

I liked a lot of whoopie stuff. She used to do a lot of one woman show type of stuff, a little bit Tomlin, Dawn Rickles, no respect at all. Rodney Dangerfield, Sam Kennison, like Gary Shandling, like the list goes on as far as those guys are concerned. But then when I started doing comedy, I started realizing that there are people who people don't even know. You never heard of these guys, and they're 10 times funnier than some of the people that I've named.

Yeah. So, yeah. My my personal comedy mentors are guys like Joe Recker, who's, not with us any longer. Stacy Carver, one of my early

influences, Jay Phillips.

He had a comedy ease. He was just so funny with very little effort. And so I always liked guys like that, like, Tony Woods, who actually meant was a mentor to Dave Chappelle. He's out of the DC area. Let me see because, there's so many influences and I don't wanna leave anybody out.

There's a guy named, Jay Lamont, And I remember him telling me something very profound. We did a show together and I didn't do very well. And he pulled me to the side afterwards and he said, Hey, man, I'm no funnier than you. I'm just more experienced. And this was that.

He just went out and killed the spot. Yeah. So that gave me a different perspective about how to approach comedy and how you have to prepare. And even when you mentioned about drinking, I did that early on in my career too, you know, trying to get that liquid carriage and then you get drunk and you can't remember. None of your set has your impact.

So I had to I had to, it it reminded me about not developing bad habits.

Yeah.

So, you know, there's a lot of people that I can name in that are very funny, that have influenced me.

That's that's great. And that's it's it's really one too.

Oh, I I I gotta mention these guys. Howard g, Ricky Shackleford, Coco Brown, Queen Ayesha, Lottie Davis, laughing Lenny, you know, all these guys have helped me, man. King Kedar, another bro I can't remember the brother's name. The fat doctor, like, these are legendary comics in the DMV area, and they know them all over the place. So, you know, just people who who always helped me out and gave me words of encouraging encouragement.

Today, we have a good one. We're exploring Baltimore's comedy scene with a guest known for production work, his wit, his charm, being a performer, just around the scene, just really, really great stuff. Join us for a dialogue on creativity and connectivity with the great Michael Furr. What is it like being sort of a well, being a public persona in small tomorrow? That's that's the thing.

You know, it's like you're on stage.

Yeah. Exactly.

This city.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot you know, I, you know, I I don't think I'd ever call myself famous, but I get recognized a lot. And, and I think it's because I, you know, I mean, I've been producing and hosting about a 150 shows a year for the past few years. And I was at one venue for many years where I hosted multiple shows a week, sometimes 2 or 3 at night.

So, you know, you see a lot of the same people and you see a lot and, you know, people know you. And I you know, I've got specials and stuff, and I do a lot of, you know, promotion of of stuff when it happens. So so I do get recognized sometimes. And, you know, it's usually just like, oh, hey. You're the guy from the thing.

That's cool. Oh, we went we had a good time. You're funny or whatever. But, you know, sometimes it's more than that. You know, I've I've had people very earnestly tell me about, you know, how they sat down.

You know, same sex couple sat down with their kid, and, you know, they showed them my special, and they wanted to talk about their gay experience. And, you know, and then I I met a woman at a comedy show, and she had a queer child who was 15 and in high school in the same community that I went to high school in. And he was having a really hard time. And they sat down and watched my first special together and talked about it because that's a a theme of the first special was, you know, growing up as a gay kid in the in the dumb ages. And, you know, pre Internet era, we're doing was culpable for anything.

And, yeah. So so it's it's an interesting thing. You know? It's I I very much treat comedy like it's my job. You know?

It's very much the thing I do. I host. I produce. I run shows, and I perform. And those are all just different facets of the job that I do every hopefully every week.

And, you know, that's a weird thing to get recognized for because it's a job you do on stage. And I'm sometimes in so much tunnel vision. I don't even think about how it's going or if people are watching. I I've people say, oh, I, you're I I follow you on social media, and I'm like, I don't know what. You know?

I don't you know? You're one of my favorite TikTok creators, and I'm like, I'm a what the hell? You know? Like, I don't think about it as, like, oh, everybody's gonna see this, and they're gonna like it, you know, and I just kind of put it out there and that's just a part of what I do. So it is it is cool to be recognized and it's fun, but, you know, I I feel that it's my responsibility as a producer and a host and as a showrunner and, just a booker and everything is about making a space for other performers.

And that's the whole reason I started doing it was to get as many people who wanna be on stage on stage to do the thing they wanna do and hopefully get paid to do it. And so that's a great thing to get recognized for. Feels like, oh, you run the you you, produce the all women's night and non binary night, and you host the queer comedy show, and you run the place where they do this. And so that's a great thing to be known for because part of the reason I started producing shows is because there was nobody producing queer comedy in this city. And, you know, I was like, well, someone should do that.

And I'm like, well, I guess it's gonna have have to be me. And, you know, and it has been me the whole time. So you know, since then. So I I'm very happy when that's the thing I get recognized for. But, you know, it's always nice too.

I I always screenshot anytime anyone recognize me on one of the apps, because that's my favorite thing is somebody who wants to see

my naked pictures and then they say,

oh, I think I know you. And I'm like, okay, well, you should have told me that before.