THE HISTORY OF STAND-UP: FROM MARK TWAIN TO DAVE CHAPPELLE
Wayne Federman chronicles the business of joke-telling.
On this episode of the podcast, I spoke with comedian, actor, author, and stand-up historian Wayne Federman.
It would be fortuitous that I would talk to Wayne about his new book. The night before I received an email from his publicist, I was watching the movie, Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan. And the one scene, for less than a minute, Wayne pops up, and I immediately thought, “Oh hey! Wayne Federman.” It’s as if I manifested this conversation to happen in a bizarre-Beetjuice-comedy-interview kind of way.
Wayne is a 35 year veteran of stand-up comedy, most well known for the documentary I Am Road Comic, his Comedy Central special, and dozens of short appearances on movies and TV. In fact, so short he even dubbed his patented one scene-and-out career move, The Federman. In addition to his work as a performer, he also teaches Stand-up History and Performance at the University of Southern California. Now instead of having to shell out $58,000 tuition to enroll in his class (yes, that’s really how much it costs to go to that college. Crazy, right?), you can learn the full evolution of how jokes went from Vaudeville to Lincoln Financial Field from the man compiling the tome himself.
Pick up a physical copy of The History of Stand-Up: From Mark Twain to Dave Chappelle by Wayne Federman in your local bookstore (and if they don’t have it, ask them to order it), as an eBook, or as an audiobook on March 15th.
Click here for a full transcript of this conversation.
Music in this episode provided by my good friends Scott Lester & The Dirty Dottys.
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