There’s a conversation I am convinced will take place sometime today that will be the most fantastically detailed pop culture, zombie-heavy, glorious nerdfest to take place in Boston, possibly ever. That’s because tonight local comedian Ken Reid is opening up the sold out Patton Oswalt show at the Comedy Connection Wilbur Theatre. Reid has done one-man shows that explain his life through television, music, and John Cusack movies. There are old-school revolving comic book racks in his home. Oswalt did a voiceover for Mike Mignola’s Amazing Screw-On Head (still disappointed that was a one-off), and has professed if he had a time machine, he would use it to go back and prevent George Lucas from making the last three Star Wars movies.
According to Reid, the happy accident happened because Oswalt and former Boston comic Myq Kaplan have the same manager, who asked Kaplan for a few names of possible openers. “Out of those names, for some reason, they chose me,” says Reid.
Don’t expect Reid to overindulge – he thinks it would be unseemly. “I don't really have anything special planned,” he says. ”I'm only doing a 15-20 minute set so it will probably be a few stories, I think one of them involves Boy George, but it probably won't be overly pop culture skewed. I don't want to come across as trying too hard to ape Oswalt's realm.”
The Wilbur seats about 1200 people for a sold-out show, which Reid believes is the largest crowd he’ll have played to as a comedian. As a singer, though, his old band, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, played comparable places once or twice. “I'm not sure how many people were at the Boston Music Awards at Avalon,” he says, “but I think that was a pretty big venue.”
Reid is in the planning stages for another show or two, the details of which are still being hammered out. “I'm working on a story telling show that would involve more people than just me,” he says. “I'm also trying to see if I can make some full length shows about comic books and horror movies work for a general audience.”
A sampling of Mr. Reid's work:
