LOL WITH IT: Q&A with Philly comedian David James

Every Friday, Ryan Carey covers the people and events that are giving Philly the giggles. This week, he talks to Philly comedy vet David James about eating shit, smooth-talking Newt ... and pussy and cigarettes.

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LOL WITH IT: Q&A with Philly comedian David James

POSTED: Friday, February 10, 2012, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Comedy LOL With It

Every Friday, Ryan Carey covers the people and events that are giving Philly the giggles.

David James has been entertaining Philly for seven years. He was Helium Comedy Club’s first-ever Philly's Phunniest in 2006, and today he frequents standup stages all over town.

City Paper: What's the difference between working Helium and working Laff House?

David James: At Helium, the audience is usually there to see a specific comic. They'll go out to see someone they recognize from TV or a movie. Or maybe they heard someone funny promoting on the radio. Either that or big name comics like DL Hughley or Bill Burr. The Laff House, it's not no-names, but it's not A-list names. So when [people go there], they go to see a comedy show.

CP: Is there any good way to promote the idea of just going out to see a comedy show when the comedians aren't famous?

DJ: Not really, the thing about comedy clubs is that they don't have to give a shit about you as a comic until you can put butts in seats. You can be getting standing ovations every night, but if you're not selling tickets because people don't know who you are, it doesn't matter. There are guys who will sell out shows because they've been on TV or movies. Then you go to the show and you're like, “This guy's not really a comic, he's just on the stage." … I'm not saying they can't grow into a good comic, but you're not really supposed to be in front of 300 people if you've been doing comedy for nine months. If Will Farrell or Mike Meyers … tried to do standup for an hour, they would eat shit, because it's different and they're not used to it. … I read an article about how Mike Meyers tried doing standup, and he had no idea how hard it was, and he was like, "Fuck this, I'm not doing this anymore!"

CP: How did you get started in comedy?

DJ: My close friends always knew I had a weird mind, so they always said I needed to do something. I never took it seriously till I was less than a year out of college, and I was like, "Working sucks, I need some kind of outlet." So I tried the open mic at the Laff House and fuckin' ate shit. But I kept going back.

Growing up I used to worship In Living Color [and] I watched a lot of Saturday Night Live. I remember going to visit my dad in second grade, he had Bill Cosby Himself and Eddie Murphy Raw, and I watched them repeatedly.

I also have always been into comic books. I used to draw my own comic books and ink them. I had a creative writing class in eighth grade, where I made a comic book with a super hero I created. Somehow at the end I had tied in Bigfoot and Elvis, and it had a picture of Bigfoot walking in an Elvis costume, and the insinuation was that Bigfoot and Elvis had mated. My teacher was like, WTF?

CP: What TV shows do you enjoy nowadays?

DJ: I like The Wire and House M.D. People I respect tell me I have to watch Breaking Bad, but my thing is I like to wait till a series is done and then binge on the whole thing. I tried Mad Men, but it was just "Smoke, fuck, smoke, fuck," and no story. I was like, ‘this is disgusting.’ Everybody smoked cigarettes? I can't watch this shit. It's Entourage from the 60's. Entourage is pussy and partying, and Mad Men is pussy and cigarettes.

CP: What's your five-year comedy plan?

DJ: I don't know what I'm gonna do. My immediate plan is to do some festivals, maybe quit working full-time and get on the college scene. What I'd like to do is write. I think I'm a better writer than I am a standup. I'm good at helping people get in a direction they're thinking about going with their writing. My ultimate dream is to write, primarily, and then be a small enough character on a TV show where people would know me and come see me do standup, but I could still walk down the street without getting [harassed]. That's my ultimate dream in comedy.

CP: Who is your least favorite Republican candidate?

DJ: They're so pissed off at Obama, the same people that wanted Clinton impeached are forgetting that Gingrich is a whore also. If I can stray for a minute, he's a guy in a position of power. When men are in a position of power, not all of them, but a lot of them are going to be a little bit slutty. When people saw that Tiger Woods thing and said, "How could he? I would never do that to my wife!" It's like ... you're not having nines and tens throw themselves at you without any work on your part. If you're a normal guy, you have to get your game ready to talk to a six. You don't have the same opportunities. Imagine for Tiger Woods if everywhere you go someone offers you a chocolate chip cookie — [free] and fresh from the oven! You're gonna have one every time. But Newt's smooth. The fact that he got people to applaud when he turned on the guy asking him the question about his asking his wife for an open-marriage. And he's like, "How dare you ask me that for the first question?" And it's like, because you DID IT!"

Have a comedy event you'd like Ryan to cover in an upcoming LOL WITH IT? Email him at ryan.carey@citypaper.net or tweet him @slackerDIYtoday.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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