LOL WITH IT: Q&A with comedian Louis Katz

In anticipation of his new book, If These Balls Could Talk, comedian Louis Katz is playing a one-night show at Helium Comedy Club.

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LOL WITH IT: Q&A with comedian Louis Katz

POSTED: Thursday, May 5, 2011, 4:00 PM

Every Friday, Ryan Carey takes a look at who and what’s giving Philly the giggles …

Louis Katz is a funny comedian. You might have seen him last night on Jimmy Fallon. His Comedy Central Presents... special this year was, in my opinion, one of the best of the season. His album is even better. He’s sneaking through Philly for a one-night show tonight at Helium. I spotted him on my radar and harassed him for a bit. Enjoy.

City Paper: How long have you been a comedy writer?

Louis Katz: I’ve actually never had an official standup writing job. In my bio, it says that I first wrote jokes for Carson, but it was a write-in thing. I haven’t been on a show staff, although I work on Marc Maron’s old online show. I also worked on a few pilots for Dave Attel. I have a good reputation as a writer, but I do most of my writing for myself. I think the album is much better than the special. The special, which they edit themselves, is on TV. The album, they let me do a whole edit myself. The album is exactly my vision; exactly what I want it to be. My vision for my standup.

CP: Who were your big inspirations growing up?

LK: Growing up I wasn’t that into standup, I was into SNL, and Mel Brooks, Farrelly Brothers Movies, and Airplane. I didn’t really watch standup till I started doing it. My modern influences are Louis CK, Chris Rock, Doug Stanhope, Marc Maron, and Dave Atell.

CP: How did you get started?

LK: I joined an Asian sketch comedy troupe in college; I was one of the only non-Asians there. I wrote a sketch for them, which was pretty dirty. It went really, really well. That was the end of my sophomore year. I went abroad my junior year to Brazil did some writing, got back senior year at Berkley and started doing standup. I started doing open mics and just kept doing it. As far as doing a day job, I’ve been magically blessed where I never really worked a steady day job. A year and a half in I got on disability for carpal tunnel. Right when that money started to wear off, I got Montreal and scored an agent… Then I got a job making videos for www.SuperDeluxe.com. It’s been ten years this summer.

CP: What did you study in college?

LK: At Berkeley I studied third world development. I like to travel a lot; I trained myself to travel as much as I can. It’s good that I get to do that for my job. Recently, I had frequent flyer miles built up from road gigs, and a friend of mine was in Uganda. I decided to go hang out with gorillas. You go into the jungle and track them, and you just hang out with them for 20 minutes. It’s like a big fat hairy dude sitting next to you eating leaves.

CP: How did that go?

LK: We were supposed to have a guide and a car, there was no guide and no car, and we started heading off on our own in my buddy’s dinky car. Halfway there the car breaks down. We had to pull over and get towed in a tiny African village. It was pretty intense. These kids gathered around us and we’re hanging out for like an hour — fifty of sixty of them. I started putting on a show. No jokes, of course, because they didn’t speak English, but playing Simon Says and doing whatever silly dances I can think of. When they finally got our car up and running, it was getting dark, we’re using a compass and we get lost... Travel brochures neglect to mention fear!

CP: Any really crappy horror stories from the stage?

LK: I’ve been booed off stage twice... that’s actually not that bad. Once was when I came to New York, I was staying at a friend’s house for a month, it was depressing. I was used to doing a lot of black rooms in Oakland, but I got booed off the stage at a black club in New York. I was pretty depressed. I had no money and I was living on a steady diet of hot dogs and 40s of malt liquor. Another time, I had this weird alt character where I would wear a gold diaper and a leopard-print cape tell weird jokes. I ate it in front of this alt crowd at a show with Eugene Mirman. Then there was a time I was doing this open mic in San Fran; it was up against this glass wall that was painted black. Some crackhead out on the street put his head through the glass right during my set.

You can visit Louis on www.louiskatzcomedy.com. His new album, available on Amazon, is called If These Balls Could Talk.

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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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