The Comedy Studio Hosts Auditions for Eddie Brill, Mosaic

Eddie Brill is at the Studio tonight scouting
for the Great American Comedy Festival

When I first started covering comedy in Boston more than a decade ago, you didn’t hear much about auditions. They might happen once in a while, but the biggest industry-related event in town seemed to be Comedy Central’s Laugh Riots. Comedy Centreal doesn’t do the Riots anymore, but this week, The Comedy Studio is hosting auditions for Eddie Brill, who is scouting for the Great American Comedy Festival and Letterman, and for the artist management group Mosaic.

According to Colleen McGarr, who co-owns Austin’s Cap City Comedy Club and is organizing the trip for Mosaic, this trip is more about familiarizing the agency with the local talent for the future than adding clients immediately. She is sending scouts to a showcase at the Studio on Thursday. McGarr calls it “just a good opportunity for people to familiarize themselves with the level of talent in Boston, live. Boston comics do seem to put a lot of clips on the internet. A lot of scouting is done that way these days.”

McGarr has been a frequent judge at the Boston Comedy Festival, and has also scouted here for the Just For Laughs Festival. She now scouts for Mosaic’s TV department, and says she has always been impressed with the Boston scene. “Love the intelligence, the attitude, the accent, the originality, the characters, the willingness to try something different, the joke writing,” she says. “Lots of stuff! It is better to experience it live and in person.”

Brill, an Emerson alum, is a frequent visitor to Boston. He held a workshop out at Showcase Live just a few weeks ago. Brill books the comics for the Late Show with David Letterman and organizes the talent for The Great American Comedy Festival, which takes place every summer in Johnny Carson’s home town of Norfolk, Nebraska.

He’s at the Studio tonight, and says he is looking for what he always looks for – “Great, smart, one-of-a-kind, poised, clever and funny artists.”

Brill found that in Joe Wong, who made his Letterman in April of 2009. Wong has been on the show twice, and he and Brill are working on getting him on for a third time, something Brill said could happen “very soon.”



Since Brill has been to Boston a lot, he will be seeing comedians he has seen before, which adds a twist to the audition process. He says those comics shouldn’t necessarily try to do anything different to impress him. “If they are themselves, with a nice confidence and an attitude that they are very good at what they do, I will see it,” he says.

He expects a certain growth among the comics he has already seen, even comics he saw as recently as last year. He notes that comics try to reinvent themselves as they grow and get more experience. “It is natural that most comedians are much sharper and funnier a year later because of more stage time,” he says. “If I see a comedian one year and they are making a lot of rookie mistakes – taking the easy way out with their jokes, pandering to the crowd, acting like a comedian instead of being one – I don't hold that against them. I did the same things they did. I am excited when I see a comedian a year later and they have taken leaps and bounds. It is exciting to know that they love comedy so much, they invested the time to do the work it took to find stage time, to take risks and to sharpen their skills.”

Brill calls Boston “one of the greatest cities in America for comedy,” and has been thrilled with the level of talent he finds here. “The real hard and satisfying work is to find and develop young talent and watch them grow in the community and become the best in their craft,” he says. “It's like having a kid and he/she makes you proud of them. Rick Jenkins does that so well, and that is why I like to use The Comedy Studio when I am scouting. There is amazing talent in Boston top to bottom – and incredibly enthusiastic and smart comedy fans.”

He still has a soft spot for Boston, having spent his formative years as a comic here. “It is still one of my favorite cities to do stand up in,” he says. “This is where I cut my comedy teeth.”

Great American Comedy Festival Showcase: 8PM, $10. The Comedy Studio, 1238 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Ma. 617.661.6507

A Very Special Showcase of Boston Comedians: 8PM, $8. Myq Kaplan, Micah Sherman, Kendra Cunningham, Matt D., Ira Proctor, Kelly MacFarland, Mehran, Lamont Price, Tony Moschetto, Sean Wilkenson, and Bethany Van Delft. The Comedy Studio, 1238 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, Ma. 617.661.6507

Eddie Brill at The Comedy Club at Cheers

Eddie Brill is a New York guy, but he has a special place in his heart for Boston. Brill, who books comics for David Letterman, went to Emerson College and worked on his chops here in his early days. Now he gets back for gigs like his two-night stand at The Comedy Club at Cheers, tonight and tomorrow, and to look for talent for Letterman. “Some of the best comics in the world are from here,” he says, speaking last night from his hotel room in Boston. “If I didn’t come here to check out the comics in Boston, I’d be a fool.” He booked Joe Wong for his debut this past April, and worked with him on his set. Brill also teaches comedy, and he’ll be teaching three days of seven-hour workshops at Emerson this weekend.

How often do you get back to Boston, do you think?

Probably about three to four times a year. I’m always here looking for comics for the Great American Comedy Festival. I’ll try to do a Letterman audition up here, as well, but sometimes they’re the same thing. And I always teach at Emerson once a year, and I come up once or twice a year to do gigs or corporate work. That kind of a thing.

What are the workshops on, in particular?

It’s a comedy workshop that I created about ten years ago. I’ve been doing the one-day, very intense workshops for seven hours. And I’ve done it all over the world now, in Australia and England and Ireland, and all over Canada and the United States. It’s been very, very successful. It’s really about comics being honest with each other and helping each other, being each others’ eyes and ears. I’ve got it down to a science where it’s really effective.

So a few years ago I presented it to Emerson, and they let me do a weekend. It was so successful that we’re into our third year in a row.

Who is it aimed at? College comics or –

No, I’ve done workshops with ten people and eight of them have been doing it for sixteen years, plus. Comedians are nice to each other, but it’s really hard to be honest with each other because there’s a lot of ego involved. This is a situation where people have been given the okay to really be honest with each other in a respectful way, and you can help each other and be each others’ eyes and ears, to point out the kinds of things that people don’t know about themselves because you can’t see yourself.

Is that the main point of it, to show people how to communicate within the comic community?

Naw, that’s only part of it. The key is, I learned more from teaching when I was at Emerson than I did from doing. So I created a workshop where everyone is a teacher. Everyone learns so much about what they do by seeing what others do.

How much of that is stuff you learned since working on the Letterman show?

Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve learned that much. I have learned about what we want at Letterman, but that’s something in addition to what I’m already doing. It’s pretty much a different hat. And I’ve always loved teaching and I will admit I’m pretty damn good at it. I’ve always been very good at being that kind of person. Been doing it or a very long time and I’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of students, and a lot of them have been in touch with me and a lot of them have been inspired, not only to be comics but to be writers, and they learn a lot from them. So it’s been very, very good. There are people who don’t ever do it again, but they appreciate it. And then there’s people who never thought about doing it and begin doing it.

How tough is it when you sit down with a comic, especially one who might be well known and has been road testing their material for years, how tough is it to sit down with them and do something for Letterman?

It’s very tricky. What happens is, the kind of cool thing is, word has gotten around to trust me, that I’m not going to let anyone go up there and do anything that would make them look bad. Whatever I talk to them about will only be, will help them do better. And there have been some scenarios where I’ve helped some pretty top-name comics with some ideas for their sets and they just loved them. What it really comes down to, the bottom line is, it’s the comedian, it’s their set, not mine. So I might make suggestions, and most of the time, these people will follow it, but they’ll do it because they’ve learned to trust me.

Was it harder at the beginning, when you don’t know as much as you do now, when you first started the job?

I had booked before, a had booked a comedy club and a couple of shows, but this was booking for someone else’s taste. And interestingly enough, we have similar tastes. We both like the same kind of funny, which really is helpful to me. He also has a lot of integrity, Letterman, where he doesn’t care if anyone is big, he just cares that they’re funny. That’s a really great boss to work for, who’ll put comics on because they’re really great at what they do, not because they have a big name and you want to get ratings. He just wants the comics to be great. He’d rather find a young comic that no one knows about, instead of finding someone who already has all that power.

Are you currently looking at anyone else from Boston, or working with Joe again?

Definitely going to do something with Joe again in the new year. I like Dan Boulger. I like him a lot, I could see him eventually have a set for the show. There are so many great comics in Boston, and each time I see the groups from Boston, they improve all the time because there’s so much work here.

Joe Wong on Letterman: A Behind-the-Scenes Look on TVSquad.com

Besides updating Boston Comedy several times a week, I also write for the TVSquad.com blog. Sometimes, I have a subject with a bit of crossover, and as I was planning on writing a story about how Eddie Brill prepares comics to be on Letterman, Brill told me Joe Wong was going to be on the show. So I got to write my behind the scenes story and include a great Boston comic in the mix. Brill was impressed with Wong, and said the audience was, as well. The buzz about this has been building all week in the Boston comedy community, and while Wong will be watching tonight with his family at home, some of us will try to catch it on the TVs at the Comedy Studio (check the Kvetch Board for details).

The TVSquad.com story is here.

And remember to tune in to Wong's appearance tonight on Letterman. He'll be on the late end of the show, closing things up.

Eddie Brill Scouts the Studio Sunday for the Great American Comedy Festival

Last year, Eddie Brill rolled into Boston with twenty-four spots to fill for his competition at the Great American Comedy Festival. Brill, who books the Festival and also books the stand-up talent on the Late Show with David Letterman, looked at talent from twelve different cities, and wound up taking five Boston comics – Myq Kaplan, Shane Mauss, Dan Boulger, Micah Sherman, and David Powell.

That’s a pretty high bar to set – roughly twenty percent of the talent came from Boston. But Brill expects Boston will be up to the challenge when he visits the Comedy Studio again on Sunday scouting for this year’s festival (Joe Wong is already slated to be in the Festival). ““My feeling is there’ll definitely be people from Boston because it’s just been a fantastically great city for us for finding great talent,” says Brill.

At least one person on the bill Sunday, Dan Sally, almost made the Festival last year, and Brill asked for him to be in this year’s line-up. “He was someone who was on the cusp,” he says. “I thought he could have gone last year but again, I could only pick twenty-four.”

Brill is a New York guy, but he has strong Boston roots. He went to Emerson, and he started doing stand-up here. He still keeps in touch with his alma mater, and sees Boston comedians all the time in New York.

Brill says he is looking for people who are “on the cusp of greatness,” and makes it clear he is not picking contestants for an amateur competition. “I’m looking for poise, I’m looking for people who own the stage, who call the shots up there,” he says. “People who are one of a kind, who are really true to who they are. I’m looking for great material, I’m looking for people who have a point of view, who have an edge.”

The point of the Festival, which takes place June 14-20, is to honor Johnny Carson in his hometown of Norfolk, Nebraska. This year’s gala host is David Brenner, who appeared on more Tonight Shows than anyone. And another Boston guy, Bill Dana, who was the first head writer for the original Tonight Show, will receive the Comedy Legend Award. Every comedian who goes to the Festival is placed with a host family, who shows the comedian around and shows off Carson’s hometown.

Comedians who are auditioning for the festival might want to review a few clips from Carson’s Tonight Show to remind them of the spirit of the show. “Carson, Letterman [they were] Middle America guys but they were really funny, but they were never milquetoast,” says Brill. “They didn’t mind their tongue. I’m looking for that kind of sarcasm, that really smart, funny, biting, great comedy. It’s not like these people have to Johnny Carson, they just have to honor what Johnny did. Johnny was huge for the comedy business. And this is us giving back to him, to the community that he loved so well.”

The Comedy Studio, Sunday April 5, 8PM
Line-up: Ahmed Bharoocha, Andrew Sleighter, Bethany Van Delft, Dan Sally, Dave McDonough, David Grabiner, Jennifer Myszkowski, Jono Zalay, Rick Canavan, Rob Turbovsky, Tom E. Morello, Zach Sherwin, and musical guest Ronald Reagan 80's.