ROOKIE QUESTIONS WITH…RORY SCOVEL
Interviewed by Blaire Postman
Rory Scovel was born and raised in South Carolina and lived there until 2003 when
he graduated from USC Spartanburg (now Upstate). His dad worked for the US Postal
Service and he is the second oldest of seven siblings.
Rory took some time in April 2014 to answer questions that we thought might be helpful
to comedians in the first few years of their careers.
THE INTERVIEW:
1) Why do you think people become comedians?
I am not entirely sure what compels anyone to want to do standup comedy. There is
definitely a fear at first but this curiosity to try it and then as soon as you try it and it
goes even “just ok” then you are suddenly addicted to it. I think some people really
enjoy attention and being able to maintain it. Not necessarily in an ego-driven way but
there is something very satisfying about strangers thinking that what you think and say
is funny.
2) What thought/emotions/dare/talents first made you think you should perform
comedy, even if years before you actually did any comedy?
I ended up trying comedy because I didn’t really know at all what I wanted to do after
college. I wouldn’t have ever guessed I’d being doing this or even have tried to do this
even once. I knew I wanted to be in entertainment and I spent no time learning how
to act or acting even though I wanted so badly to do that. I wanted to be a filmmaker
but also made no real effort to try it or get good at it even. So when I tried standup it
genuinely felt like this is what I want to do.
3) Where and when was the first time you EVER did a stand up set, even if you
didn’t do stand up again for many years? What do you remember about the
audience? What do you remember about your emotions before/during/after? Do
you remember any of the jokes and if so can you give us a taste?
My first set ever was in my college town of Spartanburg, SC at a place that was called
Guitar Bar. It’s gone now. It was an open mic poetry night and I decided to get up and
try standup during it. I invited like 40 college friends to come and watch and they were
amazingly supportive. I remember being terrified and not really having any jokes. I had
ideas but I didn’t know what I was doing. I definitely wasn’t prepared and thankfully I
wasn’t. That lack of preparation and willingness to discover bits in the moment really
helped me perform the way I enjoy performing and pushed me into exploring improv
after I moved.
4) Who were your major comedy/performance influences when you started?
David Cross was the one and only. I wanted to do what he was doing and have the fun
he was having.
5) When and where (city, or clubs or whatever “where” means to you) did you
first start doing comedy regularly?
The DC Improv was the only club in DC. I got to emcee there about once a year while
living in DC, so really 3 or 4 times. I would say my home spot was Dr. Dremos in
Clarendon, VA. Unfortunately it’s been torn down but that bar was the greatest spot for
3 years of my DC life. (It had) so many awesome comics performing on Wednesday
and hanging out. I really genuinely miss the hell out of those Wednesdays. I wish I
could go back and relive those over again. I didn’t realize how much I loved it til it was
gone.
6) What did you learn or what choices did you make in the first 6 months of doing
comedy that you only realized looking back later was/were REALLY important?
I learned to fail and not let the failing get me down so much. Learning to cope with
failing at standup comedy is probably the biggest lesson you can learn in the first
5 years of doing it. The failing never ends really but you learn how to turn it into
something positive to grow from instead of letting it hold you back. I bombed my first 10
times in DC and was about to quit until my older sister told me to give it 6 months. After
that something just clicked and my confidence started to grow.
7) What piece of advice did you get from the “established” comics (or “industry”)
– whether in the first year or so that you started or after you moved up to “the
next level” – that you were glad you ignored?
I don’t remember any advice too specifically that I ignored. I think tons of comics give
great advice and the good thing is that you can take advice and learn from people that
are better or worse than you. There is always something to learn. A veteran can learn
something from watching someone perform for the very first time even. I think I just
tried to stay away from any advice or suggestions that put any sort of rules or barriers
on what was allowed to happen on that stage. People say never point out that a joke
doesn’t work but sometimes that’s really funny and fun to do. Why say never do that?
If it’s funny, the audience doesn’t care about the etiquette. Doing whatever you want is
the most important thing and trumps all the rules if it’s funny. Any and every single thing
can work or fail. That’s what I love about it. People try to categorize those efforts into
genres like “club” or “alt”. Realistically it’s either funny or it isn’t. It doesn’t matter how
it’s done.
8) What habits did you pick up in the first couple of years that were good for your
evolution?
I started taking improv classes and performing with Washington Improv Theater in my
first 2 years of standup comedy. I think I learned a lot of great habits that are really just
the foundations of improv and I applied them to my standup. All of which sort of deals
with failing again and continuing to move forward and play in the moment. Playing in
the moment is the most important habit for me. To me it is the purest exposure of your
sense of humor. What is funny right now? I think that element can be present even
when doing jokes word for word that you’ve told thousands of time. You can still be in
the moment with it. Improv taught me how to maintain that.
9) What habits did you pick up in the first year or two that you had to break/let go
of because they were holding you back in some way?
It took me a really long time to stop looking at my set list during the show. I would have
it on a stool. I learned about 7 years in that without it I had a better pace and it was fun
to just see what I ended up talking about next. Looking down at that set list after each
joke slowed me down and killed every ounce of momentum every single minute to 2
minutes. I also looked down a lot out of fear. Over time I have become better at looking
at the audience. Even still I work on it. That is a really tough thing to overcome.
Staring at strangers that might not like what you’re doing.
10) What did you do BESIDES stand up that helped you evolve as a writer,
performer and/or self-publicist? (might be a type of performance but might be
something else entirely)
I think the improv I mentioned before was a huge part of my standup success early on.
Even now, seeing great improvisers do shows, there is so much a standup can walk
away with. It’s inspiring to see people be so great at creating something from nothing.
11) What was your first paying gig? How much did you make? What did you learn
from it?
I can’t remember but I think it might have been my weekend at the DC Improv with
Bobcat Goldthwait. I won one of the monthly competitions at the club and the reward
was opening for Bobcat. I made $50 a show, so about $300 or $350. Seeing Bobcat
perform that weekend and just being in the club made me so happy. I watched every
single second of every single show and I absolutely loved it. The biggest thing that I
learned was that without question I was doing what I really loved doing.
12) When you started touring, was there anything about the shows/the process/
the people you met/getting the bookings that was EXACTLY what you thought it
would be? Was there anything that was a total OPPOSITE of what you thought it
would be (in either a good OR bad way)?
It was really eye opening to go on the road in the Pacific NW and Western Canada
and realize that there were actually tons of standup comedy clubs across the country.
It blew my mind. For some reason it never occurred to me. It also never occurred to
me how many people were actually doing standup comedy everywhere and how the
scenes in different cities were similar to the one in DC. I just never thought about it.
When I started going on the road in 2006 I got to learn in about 3 months the difference
between 10 minutes and 30 minutes. Since I was doing 30 minutes every single night
almost I had to learn it pretty quick. After about a month I started to really love it and
understood what it meant to self-edit. You can do that much faster when a joke doesn’t
work night after night. It can also help a joke grow quickly when it does work night after
night. I loved the freedom of doing more time and being much looser with what a set
can look like. In my opinion 20-30 minutes is required to really bring out a much fuller
performance and stage persona. It can happen in 10 but only after you’re a pro I think.
I was always just a guy telling jokes. The road taught me that I was Rory Scovel telling
jokes and needed to make sure they understood who Rory Scovel was. I would say
everything else though about the process of booking and getting booked was close to
what I pictured: 50% good and 50% awful.
13) Festivals, “contests” and similar (whether on TV or at a local bar): good, bad
or indifferent for early comedy careers?
I think anything is good early on in your career. Try everything. I don’t think contests
are an accurate representation of the art of what standup is and many times brings out
the worst in people but it is a great way to meet comics from other cities that might be
your coworkers for the rest of your life. Why not start making friends right away? If
you’re going into a competition to win it, you’ve already lost. A soccer mom might be
the judge that night and think you’re a Satanist for talking about pot. You’re powerless,
so just go and enjoy the five minutes you have and don’t sweat the points or scores.
Just have fun with the other comics.
14) If a comedian wants to make the next move in skills, connections, bookings –
where do you move: New York? LA? Or other comedy friendly city, like Chicago,
San Francisco, Austin (if you don’t already live in one of top 10 largest cities)?
I think moving to NYC is the option over LA but only when you think you’re ready for
that. Many people try to start in NYC or move there too early and they find that it isn’t
really a city to start in. Not that you can’t start there, people have and succeeded but a
lot of people would agree it’s really tough. I moved there after 3 or 3.5 years of doing
standup, a time when I was very confident in my current level of performance. I was
terrified of NYC but I was moving without any doubt that I was good at this. I think
that is the sign. If you’re not at that point but you need more opportunity then I think
there are a handful of other cities that are great to grow and learn in where you’re also
surrounded by great comics that can push you and influence you. Comedy is more
supportive than a lot of people realize. NYC is incredibly supportive. Comics that think
someone is funny will tell someone and that’s a vote of confidence. I got that in DC
from my friends who were all great at comedy. We all pushed each other. When the
time is right, NYC is the place to go. I think that city can really teach you how to be a
professional standup comedian.
15) How does a newer comic get “noticed”?
I think the only way to do this job is to perform as often as possible and have as much
fun as possible every single time you do it. You can look to be noticed. You can’t
make an effort to be noticed. You just have to go on stage and let it all speak for itself.
Everything will find you when it is meant to find you. Just work on you being as good as
you can be every single time and enjoy it.
Blaire Postman is a stand up comic & improviser in Wilmington, NC. Before coming to Wilmington she produced dccomedyfest. She still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up.
Check her out on Facebook
For more on Rory check out his website.