Lee Camp’s critically lauded new album, Chaos for the Weary is a Carlin-esque cannon of improvements America could use. He is even introduced by Kelly Carlin, daughter of the late comedy legend George Carlin. Modern consumer culture gets the brunt of his comedic venom. We caught up with him for a brief chat about his transition into political comedy, the comparisons to Carlin and telling off Fox News.
You toured Western Europe this past spring. What was that like?
Comedy over there is interesting. England, in particular, has more silly comedy than we have here, as well as more serious comedy. And there’s definitely more interest over there in live comedy. Small towns can support three comedy clubs. I was just in one in Nottingham, they have three massive clubs. They’re not necessarily sold out every night, but they’re doing fine. But then I was in Syracuse — a similarly sized town, maybe even bigger — they have one comedy club, and it’s clear that their market can only support one club.
How did you meet Kelly Carlin?
We were both at the taping of Paul Provenza’s Green Room. I did a little five minute thing. She came up to me afterwards, said, “I really loved that, I was really impressed.” I didn’t know who she was at the time, and then she told me George Carlin was her father and I was like, “Oh my God!” Later on I was getting ready to tape my CD, and I emailed her, “I hope this isn’t too out of left field, but would you mind doing a little video intro for my show? And she said she was actually going to be in New York around that time so she came and did it live.
Do you find you are hurt or helped by comparisons to George Carlin?
I think there’s kind of a genre of comedian who’s kinda down the same path as Lenny Bruce, Carlin, Hicks, me…And that’s not to say that I’m putting myself on that level, but there’s a similar genre. I think it comes from a kind of anti-authoritarian, anti-being manipulated. Hitting similar topics is not about us copying each other, but it comes from places of anger about manipulation. Carlin hit a lot of same topics as Lenny Bruce, but I don’t think people said that he was copying Lenny Bruce. When we become cultural critics, it has to do with our anger, which naturally pushes us towards insulting marketing and stuff because that’s manipulation. If I were to have a political debate with George Carlin, we’d have a lot of differences. I consider myself left-wing, and he considered himself removed from the entire thing. Same with Doug Stanhope, who considers himself a libertarian.
You have some notoriety for going on Fox News and telling them off. Tell us about that experience? Was that sort of a “tipping point” for you?
They were doing this segment with a left-wing comedian and a right-wing comedian. When they saw me as a left-wing comedian, they probably thought that like most comedians or young people trying to get on TV that I was going to play nice. So when I said that Fox News was a parade of propaganda — I just did it because I thought it would be the right thing to do — I didn’t plan for it to go viral and stuff…Maybe I’ll feel a tipping point someday, It’s like that quote: “It took me 15 years to become an overnight success.” It’s a slow build, it’s a marathon, and you just try to keep at it. The tough thing to keep hanging on is that it’s always like this…Every step you get to, you always want the next step.
Were you always a politically-oriented comedian?
I started out very much into average observational comedy. At the beginning, I was striving to be like Seinfeld. I started to grow as a person and thus I grew as a comic. I grew more politically aware and started to care more about what was going on in the world. I had this avenue for free speech that so few get. I had this platform where people pay to come hear the things you have to say. There’s really not much left where people are coming to hear you speak your mind. Through my political awareness, I wanted to start speaking my mind, and I became a fan of Hicks, Carlin, Stanhope.
I was also a fan of Dennis Miller way back in the day. Dennis Miller changed on 9/11; It’s almost like 9/11 made him feel like he should be racist or something. I talked to his old writers, and they were left wing, and they said they could sense him turning more right wing and they were trying to hold the wheel steady and when they were gone, he sorta snapped off to the right.
Early big breaks?
At first, I wanted to be a comedy writer, but I tried stand-up and it becomes addictive really quick. There was a moment in college where I think I did a show opening up for the improv group and I went and performed, my first time in front of this many people. A room of 500 people and they all agreed I was funny. I also got to open for Jimmy Fallon in college, right when he got hot on SNL.
So I got to tour colleges and make a living pretty young. At 23, I got New Faces at Montreal [Just For Laughs] pretty quickly. But then it sorta plateaued, went stagnant. It was because probably because there’s so many guys who are pretty good comics. So instead of being this young guy who was a pretty good comic, I think I was one of many guys who was a pretty good comic. When I started the political stuff, it started marking that I was saying something different and it made me stand out.
Any messages to your fellow left-wingers out there?
The left wing is just as American as the right wing. My impression of it is that the left-wing cares about people. It’s slower to go to war, and slower to put our footprint on other countries.
Visit Lee Camp on Twitter.com/LeeCamp and check out his online video series Moment of Clarity.
Ryan P. Carey, D.D.S. is a Philadelphia-based comic and senior contributing writer for STAGE TIME. Check out his blog at http://dolphindentist.blogspot.com.
