Brooks Wheelan: This is cool, right? @brookswheelan-blog - Tumblr Blog

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Headed out on a spring tour. Poster art by Barry Blankenship. Get tix here

April 17 - Santa Cruz

April 19 - San Francisco

April 20 - Sacramento

April 21 - Arcata

April 24 - Seattle

April 25 - Portland, OR

April 29-30 - Burlington

May 1 - Montreal

May 4 - Canton, NY

May 6 - Portland, ME

May 7 - Boston

May 8 - New York City

May 12 - Bethlehem, PA

May 13 - Philadelphia

May 14 - Baltimore

May 15 - Washington DC

May 16 - Charlottesville, VA

May 26-28 - San Diego

Los Angeles, I’m running my new hour this friday at 8pm. Get tickets here!

My Central America tour starts next month. It’s gonna be great and I might die on it so come to an early stop. brookswheelan.com/shows for tickets and info

a morning show i did in portland where I told them I was on bath salts and was strictly there to promote the band Florida Georgia Line.

I think the 3 of us have great chemistry!

FALL TOUR! Really excited about this. Poster by Barry Blankenship

CENTRAL AMERICAN TOUR STOPS: Pontiac, MI October 13 Lansing, MI October 14 Fort Wayne, IN October 15 Indianapolis, IN October 16 Champaign, IL October 17 St. Louis, MO October 18 Columbia, MO October 19 Wichita, KS October 20 Lincoln, NE October 21 Honolulu, HI October 24 Columbus, OH November 3 Newport, KY November 5 Louisville, KY November 6 Nashville, TN November 7 Memphis, TN November 8 Birmingham, AL November 9 Hattiesburg, MS November 10 Mobile, AL November 11 New Orleans, LA November 12 Lafayette, LA November 13 Little Rock, AR November 14 ticket and venue info at brookswheelan.com/shows

I’ve got a show at the Hollywood Improv this Saturday. It’ll have some great comics on it. Get tickets HERE

there was a time I gave a powerpoint presentation on the film “mighty ducks” to 300 people. Here it is:

riylcast

Episode 104: Brooks Wheelan

I knew Brooks Wheelan was moving. His PR reps had already alerted me to the fact that the comedian only had a few days remaining before moving on to greener entertainment pastures.

And, of course, he hadn’t exactly been quiet regarding his intentions to leave the city after his unceremonious departure from Saturday Night Live (nor anything regarding those unfortunate circumstances).

Even still, I wasn’t fully prepared to find his entire life in boxes when I arrived at his soon-to-be vacant Lower East Side apartment. He had one final standup set directly following out conversation, and that was pretty much it for Brooks Wheelan and New York City.

All of his worldly belongs were now stashed away in U-Haul boxes, but there were, thankfully, a few beers left in the fridge.

We grabbed a couple of beers and sat cross-legged on the floor. In what many might have reflected upon as a moment for regret or solemn reflection the comedian expressed only excited at a new life on a new coast full of unlimited possibilities.

MY ALBUM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL! It's the coolest thing in the world to me. I was told it would be a terrible financial decision, but who gives a shit because it's rad! brookswheelan.com/store to grab one. There's a link in my bio.

I’m apart of this comedy package now that lets you get all of these albums for PAY WHAT YOU WANT. It’s only for the next 6 days. Pretty cool deal. https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

Headed back out. It's gonna be all new stuff that's not on my album. Let's hope it's funny March 21-22 SXSW March 25-28 Denver April 3-5 Toronto April 15-18 Lexington April 30-May 2 Montreal May 7-9 San Fransisco May 14-16 San Diego Tix at brookswheelan.com/shows

Last December I was bored in my New York apartment and decided to write about the best trip I had ever taken. I decided to post it here because I think everyone should go on a trip like this. Its not comedic at all, it's just about a trip I took.

Escape from New York

I live in New York City and it’s too much. It’s hard to think here. And this city doesn’t let up when you’re down. I feel like this city knows when you’re not feeling great and becomes tougher. I was bumming on things pretty hard recently and then one day I got hit by a cab riding my bike then later that night the bike got stolen. I was just thought, “Holy shit. Enough is enough.” I had to leave, just get away. I am a comedian and had shows in Utah so I decided to head out there a week early. I flew to Salt Lake City with my girlfriend, rented a car, and drove to Wyoming with no agenda. For the first time in my entire life, I had 6 days with nowhere to be.

We drove to the Grand Tetons first. I’d only seen pictures and had always wanted to see them for myself. Photos don’t really do them justice; they’re mesmerizing. We hiked into them one day and then spent the next day just staring at them from a distance. The photo above is from when I watched beavers work on a dam in a tributary of the Snake River and laughed like a little kid to strangers about how much excitement I was getting from it.

We drove up into Yellowstone with the idea of just looking around for a day, but immediately realized that was a huge mistake. If we wanted to really see Yellowstone we needed to stay there for a least a week and we couldn’t do that on this trip. My girlfriend had to fly back out of Salt Lake City the next day, so we made a mental note to return to Yellowstone soon to truly see it. We drove out of Yellowstone and back into the Tetons so we could have one last dinner staring at our new favorite thing on planet Earth. After the sunset we took of for Salt Lake City so she could make her flight in the morning. We drove all night, but weren’t tired because we were still high from the whole experience.

After I dropped Joanna off at the airport I decided to drive South to Zion National Park. The drive to Zion took a full day because I tried not to take the major interstates in order to actually see Utah as I drove through it. Taking back roads is how I always want to travel from now on if time allows. The photo above was on a gravel road about 2 hours from Zion in Central Utah. The World Series was on and I just pulled over, listened to it on the radio, and drank beer on the hood of my rental car while the Sun set. I felt so calm, like I had nothing to ever feel sorry about. I was relaxing and being happy. I had just been fired from a job and I had been angry about it for months and it was on this night I finally realized, “Hey man, shit is pretty good for you right now. Get over it.”

After the light disappeared from the sky I took off again for Zion. When I got there I rented cheap motel room a half mile outside of the park entrance so I could wake up and be inside the canyon for sunrise.

I woke up early and hopped on a bus that takes you into the park. I had no plans of what to do and didn’t know much about Zion so I lucked out that the woman I sat next to on the bus was down to chat and fill me in on the things I had to see. Light started entering the valley as the bus took off. The first thing the woman told me I had to do was hike Angels Landing. As with almost every hike I go on, I way underestimated it. I only had brought 2 liters of water, which I blew through pretty quick, but it was worth it when I got to the top. I crawled up to the very edge and looked over. My stomach went into my mouth and I immediately scrambled backwards and then sat down and read for a few hours until I decided to hike down to check out “The Narrows.”

I remained completely underprepared when I got to The Narrows. You had to wade through water almost the entire way and everyone had on special pants and water shoes they had rented back in town. I had nothing, so I just took off my socks, threw them over my shoulder, rolled up my jeans, and trudged in. Everyone I walked past inside the Narrows was eager to talk about how great it was. Just a bunch of phrases like “can you believe this?” and “really nuts, huh?”

It was the only time I asked someone to take a picture of me since I was alone. It’s tough to be an adult and ask someone, “hey take a picture of just me!” But I found a really sweet old lady who I didn’t think would judge me and asked her to do it. I went about two miles in to the craziest canyon I have ever seen and realized it was like four more miles to the end and then I’d have to hike back the six miles all over again. I don’t really like retracing my steps so I decided to just head back now and go watch the sun set at The Grand Canyon.

I felt like I was cheating The Grand Canyon by only being here a short time. I think to really even attempt to grasp the landscape I needed to spend at least one week inside the park instead of a gross single sunset. Either way that’s what I did and it was beautiful, but of all the parks I had been so far this was my least favorite. I totally understand that’s my fault. I drove to the spot where they tell you to go, I looked at it, and then I left. I failed the park, it did nothing wrong. I need to go back soon and redeem myself. I left after it was pitch black outside with no moon and drove to within twenty miles of Bryce Canyon so I could be there the full day before I had to drive to Salt Lake City that night to do radio in the next morning for my comedy shows.

Bryce Canyon blew me the fuck away. I had no idea what I was literally walking into. I got there as the sun came up and trekked down into the canyon and took my time hiking inside of it all day long. If there was any off shoot of the trail, I took it. I laid on the rocks and tried to read, but found myself so distracted by the landscape I kept just staring off into the distance. This was the last day of my adventure, I had to be somewhere for the first time in full week the next morning. I thought a lot and realized this is what’s important in life; finding something you love doing, and allowing yourself to do it. I love seeing nature, I need to make this a top priority in life. Everything’s too short to not at least attempt to do what makes you happy. I climbed out of the canyon and watched the sunset, then bolted for Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City was the first time I had to be brought back to reality in 6 days. I found myself immediately not wanting to be in a city. I went and walked around The Great Salt Lake. It smelled terrible and seemed dead, but at least I was back in nature. The stand up shows I did were great in the city and it was because I was so happy. Excitement translates in stand up comedy, and I was so excited about the rest of my life that my performances were enthusiastic and happy. I am going to continue to do these type of things and hope my friends and family I called and passionately told to make a similar trip take me up on it. Escape from your New York. Get the fuck outta there.

here's seth meyers being the coolest dude ever

An interview I did with Splitsider about comedy and my new album

Look at it this way, if Brooks Wheelan didn’t get fired from SNL, he might not have recorded his hilarious new debut standup album.

Not many comedians have parlayed a TV show dismissal into standup success as quickly as Wheelan, an accomplished standup comic who was let go last year after one season as a featured player on SNL. But rather than sulk over his disappointment, Wheelan owned it and soon commenced the “Brooks Wheelan Falls Back on Stand Up Comedy (sorta) Tour.” Much of that material, including his SNL experience, is on his new album, This is Cool, Right?, which was released yesterday.

I recently had the chance to chat with Wheelan during his last week in New York about his start in comedy, his takeaways from SNL, and why he needs to start taking acting classes.

You’re going back to LA soon, is that right? How come?

That’s where I lived for five years before I moved to NY. It’s nice. I like the nature, I love the comedy scene there a whole lot. I think people just tend to like where they got good, and I got good in LA.

None of the NY comics were able to sour you on LA?

No way. I feel like NY is great if you didn’t live in LA first. And you didn’t know it’s way easier to live over there. Sure comedy is amazing in NY. It’s by far the most standup I’ve ever done and I feel like I got much better living in NY. But I’d rather go to Walmart than draw a treasure map to go looking for blinds or an air conditioner.

I’ve never heard someone make the argument for LA that LA has Walmarts.

I love it.

You were in NY for 2 years?

About a year and a half. It was cool when I was doing SNL, but now I’ve been touring so much so I haven’t really been here. January has really been the only month I’ve been living in NY with nothing to do and that’s when I realized I needed to get out. It’s so easier to drink here. Way too easy to drink.

You feel like you got better at standup though during your time in NY?

Oh man. New York really shows you where you stand. I moved here thinking I was pretty good at standup and then I realized I was way too loose on stage. I would go up having fun and people would be like “nope, we need jokes. Give us jokes.” Living here really makes your set tighter. You can really tell the difference between NY comics and LA comics in that NY comics are just so much tighter with their jokes, which I totally respect after living here.

So will you have to recalibrate when you go back to LA?

A hybrid is the best way. No one way is better. You can’t be all loose. And I don’t like just all jokes. NY is tough. I bombed the first month I was here. I’d go up being all goofy and they’re like, “alright we need material dude.” It’s funny though, each city is different. I was just out in LA for two weeks and I didn’t do as well as I’ve been doing in NY. It’s just getting the feel of the city. It’s not like I was bombing, it’s just that I thought I was better than what I was getting. Then I realized no, the crowd was totally right.

You used to be a biomedical engineer? How did you get your start in comedy?

Yeah, I was always obsessed with standup growing up. My older brothers were always watching it on Comedy Central. When I got to the University of Iowa, I started writing for the student newspaper there and then my brother got a job as a bartender at a comedy club in Cedar Rapids. One night I went there and used my jokes from the student newspaper on stage. That night I asked for a job and then just starting working there for the rest of college…It was weird, most of my friends in college were 35-year-old dudes going through mid-life crises.

[laughs]

I went to school for engineering, and one summer I got an internship in Chicago. So I spent the summer there doing comedy and that’s when I got to see the standup I became obsessed with, people like T.J. Miller…I thought about moving back to Chicago, but then I felt like I might get trapped there with a job, so I just moved out to LA.

Did you get noticed in LA the old-fashioned way, just showing up at open mics, etc.?

Yep, I knew one person when I moved out to LA, this guy Mike Holmes who’s a funny comedian. I didn’t even move to LA. I moved to Huntington Beach because I thought it was LA, but it’s not. [laughs] Yeah, I had a day job as a biomedical engineer in Irvine. So I would drive up to LA every day for two and-a-half years to do shows and mics. And again, I learned my place in comedy watching people like Howard Kremer murder when I would bomb. You just surround yourself with the best comedians in the world.

That’s a long drive from Irvine to LA every day.

Dude, I think I was spending $400 a week on gas. I listened to every podcast imaginable. Eventually I fully went crazy and lost my mind at my job in Irvine and then moved up to LA proper and got a job at Cal Tech. I would drive two and a half hours up, just to hang for an hour, then I would drive two hours back. I can’t believe I did it. It was such a nightmare.

It paid off.

Yeah, it’s funny. Some of the Orange County comics would be like, “why don’t you just stay here?” I was like, listen, I didn’t move here from Iowa just to blow up in Orange County.

So when did you get on SNL’s radar?

It was kind of just out of left field really. There hadn’t been that many standups on the show in a while, and I didn’t really think it was in the cards for me. I just always really wanted to write my own TV show. I loveWorkaholics and Broad City and those types of things and creating TV shows. That’s a big dream for me, still is and was. Then just plugging away in LA for three and a half years I got to do their Top 10 Comedians to Watch thing and that led to doing the South Beach Comedy Festival and that led to doing Montreal where SNL people saw me and had me audition for them in LA. I remember Nick Rutherford was auditioning with his sketch group Good Neighbor and I remember telling my girlfriend that they were auditioning for Saturday Night Live, “how cool is that?” and then ten minutes later I got an audition for Saturday Night Live. It was just real insane.

That was exciting and then at the showcase everybody had characters and I just did standup and it somehow went great. Then I just came out to New York and did that whole test and it went well again and I couldn’t believe that then they just called me and said since I didn’t do any characters or anything they were like, “Hey just come write on the show.” That was amazing. You know, John Mulaney is like a hero of mine, and he is so funny and that career path seems amazing, you know? So I was still working as an engineer when that all happened, so I had to quit my engineering job and move to New York like two days later, and then I wrote on the show for like three weeks and it was real fun, and then Lorne just called me into his office and said, “We’re going to put you in the cast.” And I was like, “Oh my God.” Then it was real hard after that. It was tough being in the show.

I know you’ve talked ad nauseam about SNL so I won’t belabor that for you, but having worked there do you have any new appreciation for the show?

Being on the inside…you know I hadn’t watched the show in a while. I think that happens with a lot of the cast — like we hadn’t seen the show in a few years, since high school really. I will back that show up forever just being there and realizing how hard it is to make. A new TV show every week? All those writers are the funniest people. One thing that I kind of look back on is realizing I probably won’t work in an environment with this many funny people around me again. The show hires so many of the funniest people around. I just have an appreciation for how tough it is to make that show. Being in the cast… it’s tough, it’s just a tough gig. It’s emotionally draining so I just appreciate it and I would never talk bad about the show.

And you got some stuff on. Some sketches you wrote.

I wrote 11 sketches that made it to dress rehearsal, which isn’t bad considering that I’d never written a sketch before being there.

Did you ever feel out of place as one of the few standups writing on the show? It’s just a different art form, there’s no collaboration with standup.

I think one thing I had to shake at first was I thought I would show them how funny I was writing by myself. I quickly realized it was a terrible idea, I needed to collaborate with some of the amazing sketch writers. Then it went a lot better when I was pitching ideas and trying to write with other people.

SNL really is sort of a stepping stone job, people complain if you’re on it for too long.

Oh, for sure man.

Do you feel like you got a lot out of it? I’m sure it opened plenty of doors for you.

You never want to be fired from a job, you want to do well. You always want to go in some place and do great, but I’m honestly happier off of the show working on standup again then I was on it. I had a lot of anxiety and standup is what I love. I’ve just been doing standup again and working on that. I wasn’t working on it as much because I was working on the show. I’m thankful I got to do the show and I’m bummed I got fired, but I’m thankful that I’m back to doing standup, which is the version of comedy I think I do best and love the most.

When you’re on the show your standup takes a hit. You can’t get out most of the week because you’re working so many hours.

Yeah for sure. You have to take a little time off because you get a little fried. And also one thing the show did most for me was give me a kick in the ass. Nothing makes you want to succeed more than failure. I was like, “I gotta go show everyone I’m funny. I can’t let this make people think I’m not funny.” So it was really motivating to go out there and kick ass in standup, and I went out and recorded an hour making a new album that I’m really proud of. It was a really motivating factor.

It seems like you’re doing more acting now.

Oh yeah, that’s another thing that’s come out of SNL. I’ve always thought of myself as just a writer. I was into writing scripts and pitching, but once you’re on SNL they’re like, “Oh you’re an actor.” That’s what happens and you’re like, “I guess so.” So now I audition for stuff. It’s cool but ideally I would get to write the thing before I’m in it, which is what I hope to achieve soon.

Have you taken any acting classes?

No, I’m told almost daily I need to. I gotta get into that. I went to take an acting class one time in LA. I faked a phone call and feigned my friend was in a wreck. I answered my phone and was like, “Oh my God! I gotta go, my friend was just in a wreck.” That was my only — it was 20 minutes of an acting class.

Well you’re getting cast without them right now, so…

I guess. I got “the guy from Iowa” on Girls.

So you recorded your album in Madison, WI. When did you record it?

At the end of November. I'd been on the road for about six months straight and I had gotten so bored with my material, but I love it so I want to get it out there so I can move on. That’s really what it was. I needed to retire this but I like it and just don’t want to dump it. I wanted to put out an album. It just came together great.

Is it newer stuff on the album? It’s your first one, so do you incorporate older stuff?

It’s probably everything I’ve written in the last two to three years, but that’s just because you become better at standup. That’s when I felt like I got good. So I quit telling jokes and started getting personal. The album is really autobiographical. It starts when I was young through when I was on SNL. That’s what the album is about. Growing up in Iowa, moving to LA, getting SNL, but also hopefully funny.

Comedy Club on State is notorious for being one of the best comedy clubs around. I’m sure you have a lot of laughter on the album.

That’s the concerning part. There’s almost too much laughter where people will think I faked it. Where I talked in to a microphone in my room and then played back Chris Rock Kill the Messenger laughs. After Comedy Club on State I was like "I should have done a two-hour album" and then I go to another comedy club and I’m like, “I shouldn’t have done an album.” That place is just great. I enjoy it very much and I can’t wait to go back there.

Was there any inspiration behind this album? Not a guide, but was there a direction you wanted to go with your first album?

No, not really. I wanted it to be loose. The only input that I really brought in was I wanted to be self-aware that “yeah we’re recording an album and if stuff happens talk about it.” I just wanted to be loose but other than that it’s pretty autobiographical. I really don’t have jokes in there that are just “joke jokes” because if you just write about yourself then nobody can ever say you copied. Everything is just so personal. It’s an album about this weird little weirdo from a 3,000-person town in Iowa.

Any other projects or anything else we should know about?

I’m just working on creating my own show out in LA and starting to write. I already have 30 minutes of my next hour ready to go so I would love to just get going on that.

Is that going to be your goal — just to turn them out as quickly as possible?

No, I don’t think I should do that yet, but I do want my next special to be a full one-hour special whether it’s through Comedy Central or Netflix. I just wanted to put out this album to show everyone I could do it. Now after that I want the next one to be video. I just want that to be up and ready to go before anyone says, “hey do you want to do it?” I have a lot of visual bits I didn’t do because I didn’t want to do them on the audio album and I’m saving those for video. Except for the opening joke on the album. I crawl underneath the table to tell a joke in order to fuck around with the fact that I’m doing audio and telling a visual joke. I listened to it back. I don’t think it was the best idea I ever had, but we’ll see.

Brooks Wheelan’s new album, This is cool, right? is available here.

This Tuesday "this is cool, right?" comes out. There is an album release show that night at Union Hall in Brooklyn with a bunch of my friends doing spots. Get tickets here

This awesome release poster was made by Barry Blankenship and you can pick one up at the release show.

It was very coo of @lenadunham to let me play a dude from Iowa on last nights episode of girls. It further demonstrates to Hollywood my incredible range as an actor. Excited for this awards season!

You can now pre-order my album "this is cool, right?" on iTunes and amazon and thats a neat thing! Link to iTunes HERE

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Brooks Wheelan: This is cool, right?