CheekyChicago

(continued from last week’s ‘Part 1′ interview with the Chelsea Lately comedians…)

Cheeky: What was the genesis for this comedy tour? You were all performing individually and wanted to bring it together?

Brad Wollack: We were all doing stand-up and just started doing it. You gotta understand – when we first started the show here, no one believed in it.

Jen Kirkman: I had a junior manager that was like, “Get your feet wet here,” and then two months in said The Daily Show is hiring if you want to write a packet. I was like “No, I want to be here.” All of us had to convince our managers and say, “You don’t see it but something is happening here.”

BW: My manager was the only one I know that was like, “No, this is a good thing. Ride this out.” It was one of those things where we started getting on the show and doing writers of Chelsea Lately shows around town, and finally – I remember we always talked about doing a tour – I sat down with Chelsea and our executive producer Tom. And everyone was scared to ask Chelsea if it would step on her toes…

JK: That’s where we go to Brad for things. We’re like, “You ask her if we can do this.”

BW: I’m the conduit. The liaison. And so I said, “Are we doing Comedians of Chelsea Lately or not?” And it started the discussion…The best part is that they see us on the show and then they come see us perform and it’s like, “Oh, you have your own persona, your own personality beyond the show and your own thoughts and humor.” And I can’t do all my Holocaust material on the show.

JK: It’s cool too because if you’re not famous you very rarely get to play in a 2,000 seat theater in front of people who actually came to see you. Normally it’s like I’m doing a show at the Kentucky Comedy Club and people walk by and just see comedy.

BW: None of us think we’re famous. Except for Heather McDonald.

Cheeky: Where do you get your material? What’s your inspiration for your comedy?

JK: I really don’t know where I get my ideas from. If they come to me I know I should run with it because it’s coming from somewhere. I talk about my feelings and my life….Like some weird creepy guy left a note on my car that said “I thought you were pretty,” from Robert – the guy in the van. I’ll take it further and talk about how I happened to be feeling and that night I felt fat and was going to buy some jeans that fit me. It wasn’t successful and I came back to the car and saw this note, so I kind of exaggerate everything where I turn it into this horrible thing. We Googled his phone number and it turns out he’s a male escort, so then I turn it into a further thing…that I’m now insulted he thought I’d pay for sex. Sometimes divine things will happen like that and I try to blow it out as much as I can.

BW: Jen is very good at being very honest about who she is. She’s kind of neurotic and obsessive. But she’s good, she’s really original.

Cheeky: Brad, how do you pull your material together for stand-up?

BW: Just questions I ask myself. I ask really kind of off the wall things…

JK: When we shared an office he’d say, “Do you think that you have to put together a budget for ransom? When you’re having a kid, is that something you have to think about?”

BW: Because I wouldn’t want to go broke if my kid got kidnapped! And so I ask stupid questions like that and then you realize it’s kind of a funny premise and you build off that.

Cheeky: Considering you guys really push boundaries – pulling out, sex, bathroom habits, gay jokes – it seems like there’s nothing sacred. Is there any line you won’t cross? Or is it anything goes?

JK: You can’t touch Brad’s stuff! Within ourselves we all have our own lines and it depends on our mood that day. I’m up for anything, but if I’m upset about my mental health or my weight and someone makes a joke, I will go fucking nuts.

BW:: My only boundary on stage is how far I think the audience is willing to go. If someone got murdered last night, I’m willing to talk about that. Honestly, I’m not a believer in too soon, I’m really not. In fact I started a website – we haven’t been able to maintain it – but it was called the “Too Soon Minute” and it was just doing jokes about stuff that was “too soon.” I love it and I get frustrated when people aren’t on board. There’s nothing too soon.

Cheeky: What do you guys always find funny? Is there anything that always does it for you?

BW: The Holocaust.

JK: I always find certain people funny like Larry David and Ricky Gervais.  Anything tragic – not tragic like the hurricane – but anything that’s not supposed to be funny is funny to me. Anything super personal and honest is always funny. Except stories about people’s kids – I could give a shit about those. They’re never that funny to me.

Cheeky: If you weren’t a comedian or writer, what else would you have been?

JK: I wanted to be a dancer, but I don’t think I would be one. I’d probably be a loser or maybe a psychiatrist.

BW: You would be good at that because you’re a fucking nutso.

JK: But I wouldn’t have the discipline to go to school.

BW: But you’re very insightful and you can read shit really well. We’re the only ones who are in therapy regularly on the staff so we’re pretty in touch with our feelings. So what would I do? I don’t know, I always say I do this because I don’t know what else I would do. I got my MBA in December.

Cheeky: Congrats!

BW: Thank you. My parents made me. Shit, I don’t know…I’d be in television. I’ve always loved television. This is kind of a blessing.

Tickets for Comedians of Chelsea Lately can be purchased at Ticketmaster. For the Horseshoe Casino performance, click here.