On the heels of winning the prestigious 2011 Andy Kaufman Award in November, Nick Vatterott’s star is on the rise, as the Brooklyn, NY-based comedian, whose performance schedule is filling up with bookings, recently performed on Conan. Vatterott has been on the comedy radar since 2008 when Chicago magazine named him Funniest Man in Chicago. Last year, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and received rave reviews in The Hollywood Reporter for his performance at Montreal’s Just For Laughs’ New Faces showcase. STAGE TIME recently caught up with Vatterott to talk about his award-winning performance at Gotham Comedy Club.
What motivated you to participate in the contest?
The great thing about the Andy Kaufman contest is that it celebrates all the different ways people can use the stand-up stage for comedy. I think being part of that celebration was a big motivation for entering the contest. It’s a great platform for comics to showcase outside the box bits. Those types of shows have always been my favorite to do.
What was your experience in the semi-finals and finals?
Obviously everyone wants to win, but there’s no Black Swan back stage shit talk fest, there’s a great camaraderie. A lot of the comics I know from the New York and Chicago comedy scenes, so most of the time it just felt like I was just doing this great show with a bunch of other comics that I love to watch, and some new ones whom I’d never met before that were great. I don’t know about any emotions I felt, I was too busy laughing and goofing around with the other comics.
In the semi-finals I did this character of a monster comic, who is incoherent, but you can still tell he’s doing nothing but hack stand-up premises. It’s about the most impossible thing to explain without seeing it. In fact they broadcasted an audio version of the show and I can’t even imagine what people listening to the show thought was happening on stage as I essentially just growled nonsense for 5 minutes.
For the finals, I did this bit where I lose my shit after a stand-up piece doesn’t work and I go off on everybody at the show, screaming, having a break down on stage, telling everyone to go fuck themselves and that they would never see me in this shit hole again. The host, Harrison Greenbaum, then comes back on stage to bring up the next act as I awkwardly come back in the room and enter rows in the audience looking for a hat I’ve left behind. I find it, then tell everybody off again, that they’ll never see me again, before again and again awkwardly returning to look for something else I’ve left behind, keys, milk jugs, etc…
Then the last time I come back in I tell the audience since I really am leaving, and they’ll never see me again, I’m having my opener, Lobster Jason, take my place for the rest of the show. Then Lobster Jason (comic Robert Dean) dressed in a lobster costume and a Jason Vorhees mask walks slowly to the stage to the tune of slasher movie music. The whole thing was so chaotic with me going off on the audience, Lobster Jason trying to come to the stage and Harrison trying to get the show going. I think it’s fun to make an audience laugh, while at the same time they aren’t quite sure what the fuck is happening.
What was the most valuable lesson that you learned during the competition?
I think the biggest lesson I learned from the contest was to do what you think would be the most fun thing to do. I’ve done contests in the past and done stuff only because I thought it was a piece that I should do, or because I thought that a particular piece had the best shot at winning and not necessarily what I think would be the most fun thing for me. The worst is when you lose a contest with something you didn’t even really want to do. I figured I would rather lose with something fun, than play it safe with something that I wasn’t passionate about doing.
What are some of the challenges you have faced working in comedy?
Well, I’d say that there’s been lots of frustration with comedy clubs telling me my act is “too theatrical” and then theaters seeing the same act and saying, “sorry, but we don’t do stand-up here.” In the past I’ve kinda been spooked by trying really weird bits in comedy clubs because they generally don’t go over as well as they would in a show in the alternative comedy scene. I think that comes from club audiences often having a certain expectation of what the stand-up that night will be, and “Alt” audiences are bit more open to anything. I don’t think this expectation should be held against the club audience though, and the competition taught me that the audience’s perception can be shaped by context, that people can walk into a comedy club and be open to really abstract comedy happening in a club. While there’s not always the luxury of performing under a banner saying “Andy Kaufman”, I think that it’s on the comic to figure out way to change the audience’s perception of what they will see that night. The challenge is finding a way to bleed fulfilling what the audience was hoping to see, into coming along with you on something they didn’t expect.
Are there any performances that you enjoyed at the competition?
I really enjoyed everyone on the show. There was not one act that I didn’t think deserved to be in the contest. There are even more acts that are doing really interesting outside the box stand-up than there was room for in the show. The only downside of the contest was that I wanted to see even more!
Check out Nick’s performance on Conan (12/13/11).
What are some of the opportunities and feedback that you have received since winning the Andy Kaufman Award?
The feedback has been really great, there has been a lot of great articles and blogs that have passed along some really kind words. I think one of the biggest opportunities to come from the award so far is that I’ll be hosting a show called The Andy Kaufman Fun House the last Monday of every month at the UCB East. It’s going to be a multi-media/live showcase of a wide variety of comedians pushing the conventions of comedy. I’m super excited to be involved and really looking forward to the shows.
What does winning the prestigious award mean to you?
I’m very grateful, it’s an honor to be given an accolade that other comics I respect and admire have also won. Not to mention the fact that the spirit of the award is based on a performer who was one of my heroes and great influences. Andy Kaufman was so inspiring, he taught me that there was more than one way to perform on a stand-up stage. He proved the success you could have, just by doing what you think is funny. He introduced to me the idea of manipulating the perception of an audience, and drove home the importance of committing to a bit.
What would you like to achieve next?
I want to destroy the Internet and introduce “the outernet.” It’s a lot like real life, but people don’t look down at their phones as much.
What advice do you have for comedians aspiring to compete in next year’s event?
Any advice I have for comics who compete in the contest next year would be to start putting together stuff now. All sorts of stuff. The Andy Kaufman Award is not about one bit that you do in a contest next fall. It’s about every time you get on stage doing what you think would be the most fun to do between now and then. I like to look at a stand-up set as a one man show. I don’t think next year’s winner will be defined by what they do next fall, but by all the little one man/woman shows they do leading up to the contest.
I think it’s important when putting a piece together to ask yourself, Is this the most heightened version of the comedic point I’m trying to make? Be open to the possibility of adding layers your comedy. While Kaufman did read the Great Gatsby for his set, it was more than just that; there was a payoff. He would ask the audience if they wanted more Gatsby or if they would rather hear a record. Then as the audience pleaded for the record, he would then play a record of him reading the Great Gatsby. Sure sometimes Andy would torture an audience he didn’t like with bits that had no payoff, but for the most part it was all for entertainment. While Andy didn’t consider himself a comedian, I think what he did he did he did for the sake of comedy. If you’re torturing the audience, without making them feel, without letting them in on the joke, without some payoff for creating that tension, then you’re just telling an audience that they’re idiots for leaving their house to take a chance on live entertainment.
If you can make an audience laugh as well as trigger some other feeling at the same time, I think that’s when you start tapping into what Andy was all about. But those are just my thoughts, I think the only absolute guideline is to do something that’s so fun for you, that you’re so excited to do, that you can’t wait to do it on stage.
Or you can always just do something with a rubber chicken with an arrow through it’s head.
Tasha Harris is the founding editor of Stage Time magazine.
