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Jack with Ryan Stout

RYAN STOUT – DOWN-UNDER - 06/09/10

Ryan Stout, who on a couple occasions been dubbed as the Dark Prince of Comedy is an easygoing, likable lad who at times is lost in a world of his own. Since starting the comedic road, his reputation has grown among the cognoscenti. It has often been stated that performers need certain amount of ego to be successful however in Ryan Stout we have talent. He has been entertaining audiences in Australia – at Sydney’s famous Comedy Store and a late night segment at the Opera House.

Since the age of 14, he wanted to perform comedy, but laws in the US prevented him doing so. They wouldn’t let him in the door at the Comedy Club it was the same with the local bars, there was just no available place. Had he grew up in New York he could have started earlier in his chosen profession.

His first paid job as a comic was in a bar in San Francisco where he was paid a mere $25. However, his first cheque came when performing at the Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco. Ryan is a people’s person – who appreciated the company of others. “Since I came up with all these other comics we were kinda of the same generation – so after the show I took my cheque and bought everybody pizza. It was such a community feel about it, that we were all in it for each other almost . . . that was where the first cheque went”.

Great acts are far and few between, and many comedians use profanity to get a good laugh from their audiences – Ryan’s approach to comedy is equally sinister without the obscene language. His style of comedy maybe tasteless to some, hilarious to others although at the end of the day, it’s all good humour.

Ryan explains:

“When I’m on stage I’m trying to get people into a kinda heady and thoughtful place and so if I do material that’s off colour or dirty I’d like to think that I’m doing it for a reason beyond just shock value. There are still audiences who don’t appreciate that. I talk about certain subject and they sit there with their arms crossed, and get upset with me, so at the end of the show, I say well, we’ve talked about third-world kids, a guy in a wheelchair and midgets freezing to death and not once did I use the ‘F’ word. I do that only to see those people get upset as if to say ‘what a righteous asshole this guy is’ I’m only not swearing as a complete F—K YOU!! to the people who don’t like me” it’s sheerly ironic for me.

People often ask why the suit? Ryan’s answer is simple. “The late comedian Robert Schimmel certainly is one of the reasons. He’d dress up for the show and he always claimed that he could get away with filthy material because he presented himself so well. Unlike some comedians who’d wear just about anything and up there for a quick laugh. I want the audience to know, like I’ve put a lot of work into this and I am here to give it to you, so please sit quietly and listen to what I have to say I like the audience to know that it’s a show, it’s not some drunk hanging out”.

No subject is taboo – when asking is there any subject that he would never hit on!! “probably my rape” Ryan said (nah, I’m kidding), “no, that’s the one point I’d argue to my death, you can talk about any subject as long as you approach the subject in a thoughtful way. People say you can’t joke about suicide, but I’m aloud to joke about rape, how is that okay in your head? And how is it okay that I can talk about a guy who’s missing an arm but to talk about a third world kid who is missing parts, that’s terrible for you? Like where’s your moral line. You can either talk about all of it, or none of it, in my mind – and if you are gonna tell me I can’t talk about any of it, then I’m gonna tell you, ya crazy”.

Bad experiences:

“It’s always a bad experience when the crowd isn’t clicking to what you are saying, you know if they don’t catch the irony of it or if they are not willing to . . . . umm . . . in my jokes and I like to argue in most good jokes, there is a kinda logical meet that the listener is forced to make on their own and fill in the blanks, they have to put the picture together by themselves. Some crowds, I don’t know if it’s mod-mentality with what is happening in the room but it’s amazing to me, like when you have a hundred people in the room all unwilling to put the information together on their own, it’s like you really have to spoon feed it to them, and they are looking at you like it’s your problem – and I’m like NO NO NO!!!, I’m doing what I’ve always done and you’re not playing the game.

Aside from that though, I remember a particularly bad moment when I took the stage, it was a corporate gig I had been hired for and they were these older men. I don’t like any crowd that is all one thing, because everybody feels unified ‘we’re us, and you’re the comedian you make us laugh’. I prefer diverse cause it’s like we are all in this together, and everyone has their own little thing going on let’s try bridging the gaps. BUT, these old men, soon as I started, this one old guy said “it’s too loud, it’s too loud” then a guy maybe a seat away from him saying “I can’t hear you” so they both had opposite problems. I said well you guys can switch seats, or I don’t know what to tell you, it’s the same volume for everybody. That was just a weird way to start the show and it didn’t get much better after that . . . .

In his spare time, there is a serious side to Ryan, well almost – it’s mostly where the internet is concerned: “You know it baffles me, you can have any thought about anything and just search the information on it. Like I’ve been watching philosophy classes from Harvard University, I read a lot about evolution on line and creationism. I love when people (Ryan laughs) have this religious debate still, verses the scientific debate and what I love is getting in there and reading these arguments. But yeah, I’m pretty obsessed with just being bombarded with information I just can’t get enough. A lot of it I take in my head process a little bit and then just dump it – It’s more like mental masturbation, really, it goes nowhere and does nothing”

When I caught up with Ryan in Sydney I throw some random questions his way, and he’s what we got.

You were inspired by:

I really clicked with George Carlin in the late nineties the way he’d get up and say things that were . .um . . they made sense logically but on moral level, that people wanted to disagree.

If you were to be an animal what would you be & why?

“A lower level primate, just so that I would still have the opposable thumb and jerk off all day – that’ll be a bonus for me” . . or a pig, cause they have 30 minutes orgasm. If you’re an animal you have no higher level of thinking, you just live to eat and f—k. So might as well pick something like a dolphin that enjoys it.

The movie you would have loved to star in?

The Big Lebowski and Dr Strange Love

If you could turn back time?

“I would probably . . . .would probably like to . . . I mean I can turn back time all I want, but you just can’t change history really, my biggest dream is that I would have grown up in a city where I could have started stand-up sooner”

What bugs you more than anything?

People who just don’t pay attention, I really hate that. If somebody’s in public and they’re crossing the street they’re not paying attention to traffic – or you’re at the grocery store and they’re pushing a cart and they don’t realize you’re behind them and they just go about their day in this haze where they don’t recognise anybody but themselves, and it just drives me absolutely crazy”. “I feel like I spend so much of my day just being aware of others and trying to go through life without getting into someone’s way.

You would like to meet?

I would like to meet . . . umm . . . I’d like to meet anybody with an interesting story, really. It’s weird I’ll meet just a new person just sitting and talking and they get into detail or story about my life and their life . . . I just click, you need to tell me more, suddenly one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. I just wanna know everyone’s most interesting story.

You are patronizing when?

Nearly always. . . . if you’re dating me I am patronizing. Anytime I am dating a girl, and she stays with me, I’m just driving you crazy all day long and I know it, I’m sorry I can’t stop. I just have that thing in me, where I have to push somebody’s buttons and if I’m not pushing your buttons than I probably don’t like you.

When you got up this morning

I immediately thought about having coffee. Instantly I’m just a caffeine-attic. I love the stuff so much.

What keeps you awake?

I’m kept awake by the circumstances in my life that I have no control over and don’t think are fair. Like I wanted to do this television show in America and they turned me down three or four years in a row. Then when they say ‘we think you’re really funny and we‘d like you to come and do the show’ they cancelled the show before I could do it. So then, when I was doing a show for them years later in the same theatre that they filmed the initial show in and I did some of the same material that they had turned down initially, and I was like, oh so that material wasn’t good enough way back when but now it’s fine, you could have pushed my career ahead by six years and you just chose not to. Things like that just drives me crazy, and I don’t why I can’t let them go – I mean I have no control over it and they have no idea that that’s the case.

You can’t live without?

I can’t . . umm. . I don’t think I can live without having meals with other people. Like that’s one of my favourite things to do when I’m not on stage. After the show I like to go with everybody and have a meal some place and I suppose drinks as well, but there’s something about sitting around with people consuming food there’s almost a respect there. They say that humans are social creatures and I feel that that’s the one place I really love it more than anything.

You’ll be best remembered for?

I hope I’m best remembered for what I’ve done and not for what I am. Cause if you’re remembered for what you’ve done that means other people can relate to it and study it, but if you’re remembered of what you are, then the next generation of people after you’re dead who never got to meet you then they have no interest in you. They’re like ‘ah yeah right Stout was a great guy but who gives a shit, there’s probably a lot of dead great people – but if it’s like ‘look at this great body of work that this guy created then the next generation can look into it and study it and go ‘oh yeah I can kinda get a feel of what he’s done and contributed.

How are you finding it Down Under?

You know, I’m finding it really welcoming and friendly. I think I’m just trying to struggle with . . . umm . . . I’m forced to pay attention to people when they are speaking so hard cause I want communication to occur and I want them to talk and I want to understand what they are saying and communication is a two person process. So I’m paying hard attention and kinda translating in my mind and going oh, that’s this, this is that, so I feel I’m putting a lot of energy to get communication happening. On stage I can tell that the audience here is doing the same with me, that I’m using words and phrases that may not be common here (Australia).

In the regards to direction of road traffic!!

“I’ve spent the last three decades almost, when I step out onto the street, look left and then right and here (Australia) I’m gonna get killed”.

If you were President, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Consulting with people smarter than me, I feel that’s all the job is. The only job of a President is to be the face that people point fingers and yell at. I’d just sit around consult the smartest people I had, all day long and say ‘is this what we are deciding, you sure it’s a good decision? Okay I’ll tell the people that’... you’re just messenger, its not the job even most American’s think it is. I can’t stand when people point at our President and go ‘he’s ruining the country’ . . . bullshit!!! He has nothing to do about the country getting ruined – It’s the senators and representatives you vote for all the way down to your local level. If you can’t pick better representatives, than the President can’t do anything for you. The presidency is just a popularity contest, nothing more, it’s nothing more. . . .”

I would like to thank Ryan for his time, it was great to have met him while on his tour of Australia. Folks, if you are interested in knowing more about Ryan Stout or would like to catch one of his performance details are on his website.

Website: www.ryanstout.com

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