JFL NorthWest comedy profiles – Brian Posehn

Like fellow comics Patton Oswalt and Chris Hardwick, Brian Posehn has made a career out of being a nerd with a sense of humour.

Besides his stand-up, Posehn’s extensive resume includes three seasons of The Sarah Silverman Show, appearances on comedy TV series Mr. Show and Lady Dynamite and sitcoms like New Girl, voice-acting work for Bob’s Burgers and Adventure Time, and roles in movies like Funny People and the 2015 Christmas movie Uncle Nick. His work has also intersected with some of his beloved interests, including appearances in the 2007 comic-book movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and popular nerdcom The Big Bang Theory, as well as work scripting comic books, such as Marvel’s popular Deadpool series.

We talked to the comedian/actor, who performs with JFL NorthWest at Comedy Mix (1015 Burrard St.) Feb. 16-18, about working in Vancouver, his book, and the evolution of his stand-up.

Q: What have your experiences in Vancouver been like?

A: Every trip I’ve had to Vancouver has been awesome. I’ve been going up there for years, for standup and all of that. We shot the Fantastic Four sequel that I was in up there, too.

It’s just a cool city, always was. Back in the day – no, I’m not going to tell that story.

Q: Tell us a story about the Fantastic Four sequel then.

A: It was a fun flick. When you sign on to something like that, you hope it’s going to be better. I guess it was better than the first one (the much-maligned 2005 Fantastic Four, not to be confused with the even-more-maligned 2015 reboot).

Michael Chiklis was playing the Thing. I found out he was actually a fan of my comedy one day while he was in Thing makeup. He started telling me some of my jokes while he was dressed as the Thing. It was incredible surreal to have him saying some of the band words I’ve said over the years in Thing makeup. He also quoted some of my friends’ jokes. He was doing a really filthy Patton Oswalt joke dressed as the Thing. I can’t shake it, it will forever be in my head.

Q: Are you writing any comics these days?

A: Not on the regular. I did a fairly recent Deadpool annual, and I’ve been talking with Gerry Duggan, my writing partner, about doing more. But nothing’s in ink yet. I’m in the middle of writing a book on my own, and I’ve also got a lot of development stuff I’m working on, too.

Q: What’s the idea behind your book?

A: At this point, every comedian I know has written their book. There’s open-mic’ers getting books. And I’m a guy who’s done standup for 30 years and I figured I was in line to write a book. I’m just starting to write it. It’s called Forever Nerdy, and the premise is about how someone who likes all these things winds up living this life where I kind of get to mess around with all the things that I love. I like comic books and heavy metal and horror, all these things I’ve been nerdy about since I was a kid, and the fact I get to live this life where I get to be in horror movies and write comic books – it’s about the positive side of that.

Q: Is there any disillusionment in getting to work in these different media, or in meeting your heroes?

A: I still haven’t made my own horror movie, but it’s been nothing but cool meeting my heroes, going to these horror conventions. It’s been a blast. I still get to be a fanboy. There’s no downside.

Q: Your stand-up has gotten more story-oriented over the years, is that right?

A: Yeah. It was totally natural and organic. I never sat down and said, “I want to be a story guy now.” When I first started, I would just write whatever I thought as funny. I think I still do that. But I feel like I wanted to be more real onstage.

The hard thing is, I have to wait for stories to happen. Which can be frustrating. Sometimes I’ll say to my wife, “Do something funny, so I can have a five-minute bit.” Because a lot of my jokes have come from things that have happened to me. Not that I’m a relationship-based comic, I would never say that. I feel like my act is just what I’m going through. So funny things need to happen to me in life for me to have stories to tell.

But then this year I got really lucky, and an hour’s worth of material just sort of created itself.

For more info on JFL NorthWest, including a full lineup, schedule, and tickets, visit jflnorthwest.com.