February 23, 2024
This should come as no surprise, but Brian Regan has always been funny. “My mom and dad and siblings were funny. It was fun making them laugh. At school, I was always doing silly stuff and making strangers laugh,” he admits. That innate sense of humor didn’t translate automatically into a career in standup comedy, though. “It took a while for the confidence to catch up. When I first started, I was very nervous and scared every time I walked on the stage. I would describe it as petrified,” he chuckles. “I didn’t have to do it but saw the greater good in working through the discomfort. After some success, the confidence came.”
Among his own comedic influences, Regan lists what he says are the obvious ones – George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Steve Martin. “But,” he says, “there was this obscure comedian named Kelly Monteith. He never made it huge but was a standup comic who worked across the country. I remember seeing him on the Merv Griffin Show. He was this nice guy that would come out and say these funny things.” It made Regan wonder about comedy as an actual career. “That’s a job – you say funny things for five minutes. It made me very intrigued with the craft of standup comedy,” tells Regan.
Regan has been doing standup comedy since the 80s, making his television debut with the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1991. Since then, he’s appeared in many of his own comedy specials, on tv shows, and movies. He has gained a large following – among both fans and fellow comedians. He’s well-respected among his peers, with Jerry Seinfeld lauding him as one of his very favorite comedians, and many others – Norm Macdonald, Chris Rock, and Bill Burr, to name a few – singing his praises.
What is it about Regan and his comedy style that sets him apart from other comedians? Regan himself isn’t sure about the answer to that, he just seeks out what he thinks is funny.
“I don’t set out to try to be different. I just try to do stuff that makes me laugh. I’ve said before, I pretend I’m in the middle of audience…what would make me laugh? I stay true to what I think is funny versus what audiences like. If no audience also thought I was funny I wouldn’t have a career,” he laughs. “But I don’t try to cater my comedy to what I think the audience will like.” Luckily for him, audiences love his comedy and he’s been selling out nationwide tours for decades.
One thing that draws his audience in is his use of gestures and facial expressions to emphasize his jokes. “I think it comes naturally because I don’t try to do it,” Regan explains. “I don’t get in front of a mirror and work on it. In fact, sometimes the first time I see them is when I do a tv taping. I act them out because a lot of my jokes are vignettes, little scenes. Me and an eye doctor, me and a flight attendant, me and another person or inanimate object in a bit. So for me, it works better if I participate visually in the bit and act it out a little.” Regan’s comedy often taken every day, even mundane events, and makes them relatable – and hilarious – to everyone. “People are lucky enough to have a skillset at something,” Regan explains. “Think a certain way. Twist this, put this a certain way. I love the process of having a little spark in your head, putting scaffolding around it and building something that makes people laugh. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t purposefully try to be on the lookout for comedy. I just kind of go through my day and occasionally you observe something that was kind of funny.”
What can people attending Brian Regan’s show in Indio on Friday, Feb 23 expect? “Well, when the show’s over I hand everyone a $1,000 bill,” he jokes. “So they have an ironclad guarantee that even if they don’t like the show, they walk away with money.” For those who have seen his specials, Regan tries to work away from the material audiences have seen from him before. “I like the compliment that the stuff you did was new,” he says. “I want it to be new and funny, but I’ll settle for new.”
Let Brian Regan make you laugh, or at least impress you with his new material, on February 23, 2024, at 8 pm at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. To purchase tickets, go here: https://www.fantasyspringsresort.com/brian-regan/
