Kevin Allison, creator of “RISK!,” a live podcast and traveling comedy show, said the show aims to humor and shock — whether that’s through stories about experimenting with prostitution or about psychotic, murderous breaks in sanity.
“RISK!,” created by Allison in 2009, is coming to the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival Saturday, with a show at the Carrboro ArtsCenter at 7:30 p.m.
NCCAF is an annual comedy festival with three weeks of improv, sketch and standup comedy. RISK! is part of the sketch lineup.
Allison describes RISK! as a show where people tell true stories they never thought they would dare to share in public.
“I grew up very aware that I was gay when I was just a toddler,” Allison said.
“I just knew that this fundamental part of myself was something that I was not supposed to be frank with people about. As I grew older I realized there were all kinds of things that you are not supposed to talk about in mixed company.”
Allison’s non-orthodox upbringing led him to comedy, and he performed on the sketch show “The State on MTV.” But after the group broke up, he tried to do solo comedy, creating different funny characters he would act out on stage.
But these characters he created weren’t relatable to audiences, so he decided to try something new — live storytelling at a venue in New York.
“I thought ‘I’m going to go balls-to-the-wall here, I’m going to tell the story about the time I once tried prostitution,” Allison said. “But on the day of the show, I called the producer and said ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this! I’m sorry I told you I would do this, but I have to back out.’”
The producer of the show just encouraged him, and said that every time someone called her to back out because they were too anxious, that was the story of the night that knocked it out of the park . She said those stories are the best because the audience realizes the performer is actually opening up to them.
“There’s something psychological that happens with people when they get the sense that you are finally dropping the act and you are speaking to them as you would a very close friend,” Allison said. “It’s cathartic and it just resonates with people on a deep, psychological plane.”
Allison started “RISK!” after this performance, and it became a live weekly podcast and traveling act. Allison said he also teaches storytelling classes for people who want to have more fun on dates or perform better in public.
“The show was mostly just purely funny,” he said. “With stories like ‘I did acid in the Oval Office’ or ‘I crapped my pants on a date with my mom and a friend.’
All sorts of crazy, embarrassing situations.”
But then fans started becoming moved by the podcasts, and started writing in to Allison.
“We started getting stories like ‘I was molested when I was 5,’ or ‘my sister just died a few months ago and I’m still dealing with it,’ or ‘I just tried this BDSM sort of sexual experience that actually became a spiritual awakening for me,’” Allison said. “Intensely personal stories amongst the laughs.”
Allison describes the podcast as a lot like NPR’s “This American Life,” except that “RISK!” is willing to tread where “This American Life” wouldn’t dare. “RISK!” even allows audience members to share their own stories at live performances — regardless of how risqué or crazy.
“Recently someone got up at a ‘RISK!’ show and told this story about how — she loved her mother dearly — but she overdosed on mushrooms and opium and had a psychotic break and heard the voice of God telling her to stab her mother to death,” Allison said. “And she tried very hard to do that, and she relived the whole stabbing scene, screaming what she screamed at her mother, screaming what her mother screamed back at her. The audience was just jaws-dropped, it was like ‘Where would you see something like this anywhere else?’”
Allison doesn’t know what stories will be told at Saturday’s event, but Josh Gondelman, one of the performers and the co-creator and co-author of the Modern Seinfeld Twitter account, is willing to give a sneak-peek.
“The theme is weirdos, so I think I’m going to talk about how a friend and I drove cross-country in 2009,” Gondelman said. “We met this guy who lived next door to a fake Elvis museum, and we slept on the floor of this couple’s room in a hotel in Montana because there were no hotel rooms. We have a very interesting collection of stories.”
Allison and Gondelman said they are excited to perform at the ArtsCenter — as the show’s first time in Chapel Hill.
“We’ve come to this place where ‘RISK!’ is a movement,” Allison said. “People feel really strongly about this show, to the point where I get emails from people saying ‘I was ready to end it all, and I truly feel that your show saved my life … because now I don’t feel like such a freak.” Allison is excited to bring this movement to Chapel Hill, and said he hopes people will be inspired.
“It’s beyond entertainment — there’s something deep about it,” he said. “It is the show where anything goes.”
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
