Q&A with comedian Todd Barry

Todd Barry, a comedian based in New York, has under his belt three specials on Comedy Central, various tours and countless television guest spots. His latest project, the Final Crowd Work Tour brings him to Kings in Raleigh for a performance tonight, where he’ll showcase a particularly unique style of comedy.

Diversions staff writer Drew Goins talked with Barry about his experiences so far with the project.

DIVERSIONS: So you’re a successful comedian. You have several albums out, Comedy Central specials, you’ve collaborated with some great names in comedy. But I’d like to talk to you about your Crowd Work Tour, so you’re going to be at Kings in Raleigh on April 3. Building a show around crowd work: Is that something that’s been done before?

TODD BARRY: I’m sure someone has. I know there have been shows where a few comics get up on stage and do crowd work. I mean, I don’t know who the first person is to do an all crowd-work show, I don’t know if anyone’s done tours, specifically, but it’s really more of a style of comedy.

DIVE: For people who don’t know, can you explain what crowd work is exactly?

TB: It’s like when you go to see a comedian and he starts asking the audience questions and hoping to get some laughs out of that. It’s comic and crowd interaction, directly with an audience member, for the sake of comedy.

DIVE: In basing a tour completely on that, what’s it like going into a show without any material?

TB: It’s scary, you know, it’s scary. It’s gone pretty well so far. It’s always nerve-racking, but it’s also kind of nice not to have to prepare anything, do any work before you go on stage, so the lazy part of me likes that.

DIVE: Is there anything you do to prepare, or do you literally just get up on stage?

TB: I just get up there. If there’s something I can think of like before the show that I’ve never said on stage, and it was just about the environment or the city or you know something that strikes me, I’ll sort of greet them with that. Because the show’s kind of about riffing also.

DIVE: So you said it’s scary, but onstage you seem really laidback. People have described you as low-key. Is that a persona, something you actively do?

TB: Well, you have to have an exaggerated level of comfort to get through a show, otherwise you’ll just start crying on stage. But yeah, you have to be a little bit cocky, not in necessarily a negative way, but you just have to be in charge.

DIVE: After this tour wraps up, are you done with crowd work?

TB: I mean, I’m calling it my Final Crowd Work Tour, but I can’t say that if someone says, “Here’s a lot of money. Will you do a crowd work show for us?” and I go, “No, because I called my last tour the Final Crowd Work Tour.” So it’d be like the way Elton John retired, and then put out another 70 albums after that. Right now, I plan to stop doing it, but it kind of doesn’t matter if I change my mind. It’s not like a politician lying to the people or something. It doesn’t matter.

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