friends don’t let friends
miss pint night.
Third time’s a charm
Homespun comedian Roy Wood Jr. takes a shot at comedy gold
by Sam George
If there’s one thing Birmingham has proven it
knows how to do well these days, it’s vote. I’m not
talking about the various elections that keep rear-
ing their heads, turn-out is still woefully low for
those occasions. I am, of course, referring to our
uncanny ability to vote in winners of reality talent
competitions on television. Though, I must say,
our high score of two barely merits the boastful
attitudes many Hamsters seem to bear. Three is
the magic number, or so I’ve heard, so if you truly
want to crown yourself lords of the dial, Birming-
ham, than say hello to Mr. Roy Wood Jr.
Many of you may know Roy from his twelve
years as a comic, or from his stint a few years ago at
radio station 95.7 Jamz making prank calls. Maybe
you know him from around his old neighborhood
in West End or perhaps, like me, you just changed
the channel one Monday night, saw him spouting
some funny on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and
decided to stick around. His consistently funny
brand of grumpy, exasperated comedy has gotten
him into the top six contenders for the grand prize
of $250,000. I recently had a chance to talk with
him as he drove back to his current home in Los
Angeles.
Birmingham Weekly: You started out doing
road warrior comedy up and down the east coast,
then you found a home here on the radio doing
prank calls and now you’ve gone back to your
stand-up roots. Do you like having a home or do
you prefer being on the road?
Roy Wood Jr.: That’s a tough one. I like the
road, I just like travelling and seeing all kinds of
stuff, but it does drain you. I mean, there’s no real
balance to it. There’s aspects of the road that I’ll
always love, because as you matriculate through
this, you tend to work better rooms, better hotels
and better crowds, but it also means higher con-
sequences. There’s something freeing about doing
a random roach motel in Southwest Georgia on a
Tuesday night.
BW: Because it’s less pressure?
RW: Yeah, it’s a lot less pressure. It’s more care-
free, but ultimately that’s not a life you want to live
for the rest of your days. If you want to have kids
and a family, you can’t drive eight hours a day just
to get to the next gig, and that’s what road warrior
comedy is. A lot of long drives for very little money
in very strange places. No one wants to do that
forever.
BW: Is that part of what drew you to L.A., that
there’s sort of a critical mass of comedy opportu-
nity there?
RW: If I could do comedy from Birmingham,
I would. Honestly, it’s not that I hate L.A., it’s just
that, socially, I feel more at home in Birmingham,
so it’s strictly out of necessity. Most television
auditions come down the pipe with about 48 to
72 hours notice. So you know, flying to L.A. on a
two-day ticket, when you’re only making $400 a
week doing comedy—it just got to a point where
the money I was spending out the ass on airline
tickets justified the bump up in rent.
BW: The stand-up comedy that you do is fairly
clean, but your prank calls often descend into an
incredible barrage of profanity. Why the divide?
1/2 off low-gravity pints
every tuesday & thursday
at the J. Clyde!
ov e r 200 be er s f rom a rou n d t h e wor l d
Southern Fare with European Flair
Still standing: Birmingham native
Roy Wood Jr. is one of the final six contestants
on NBC’s Last Comic Standing.
1 31 2 cobb l a ne | w w w . j c ly d e . c o m | 2 0 5.9 39.1 31 2
RW: Onstage, a comedy booker told me a long
time ago that profanity should be the seasoning,
never the main ingredient. When I’m performing
I usually don’t curse unless it adds something to
the joke. That’s not always the case with the prank
phone calls, though nine times out of ten I gener-
ally do not curse until the person curses me first.
I mean some people are just going to be crazy and
ignorant and I can say one curse word and sit back
and let them go—and that’s funny, and I have
a fan base that appreciates that kind of humor.
People that are into my stand-up don’t always
cross over to my pranks, but the people who like
my pranks do cross over to my stand-up.
BW: This is your third attempt at Last Comic
Standing. When you started this time, did you
think you were going to get this far?
RW: No. Matter of fact, hell no. If you look
closely at the first audition that I did in New York
this year, where we go and do our one joke in an
empty room, I didn’t even brush my hair. And
it’s not that I was pessimistic about it, it’s just that
I’d already been through the [audition process]
twice, so I have a very different perspective on
the show, and I’ve always been of the belief that
you can control disappointment by controlling
anticipation.
Well, the time for controlling anticipation is
over, and Roy Wood Jr. needs you now Birming-
ham. Last Comic Standing airs Monday night at 8
p.m., and he will find out if he made the cut at the
beginning of the episode. If he does, stick around
for what I’m sure will be another hilarious set, and
then get ready to dial. The numbers are toll free,
and there is no texting involved, so you don’t have
any excuses. Let’s cement our reality crown into
place once and for all.
For more information on Roy Wood Jr., visit
www.roywoodjr.com.
Sam George is the managing editor of
Birmingham Weekly. Send your comments to
sam@bhamweekly.com.
july 29 - augu st 5, 2010 B I R M I N G H A M W E E K LY 25