Here, as just a sample, is a perfect joke in just four words that he delivered at he Edinburgh Festival in Scotland two years ago: "It's birthday season approaching. If you go for that sort of spiritual-brother-of-Steven-Wright-and-Mitch-Hedberg thing, there's a chance to catch Philips live here, to hear the way such jokes ripple through a crowd, so differently from the brand of stand-up that is about the comic's force of personality.
He'll play six shows over three nights next Thursday through Saturday at the Zanies on Wells Street, the club that was his launching pad and that has enshrined him in a big wall poster, along with the likes of Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. Philips prefers e-mail interviews, and that was just fine with us. This one was conducted over the course of several days last week, and only the second answer is really long.
Q: I was delighted to note that you have addressed the whole emo music issue. Congratulations on starting a movement, a very sensitive movement. A: I'm not at all happy that my name was swiped for that music genre, but what can I do?
My dad BeBop Philips suffered the same sad fate. You've had a long run in comedy, but there've been some bumps, and maybe even some forks, in the road. Describe your career journey, please. A: I grew up in Downers Grove; I started doing stand-up at the age of This was back in , around the time coincidence?
The young comedians of today gasp when I tell them how many shows I did that first year: Five nights a week, I would start the show at the Comedy Womb in Lyons, and then I would drive to the Comedy Cottage in Rosemont to end the show -- or vice versa.
The years went by, and other rooms opened up in and around Chicago; then in the early eighties, the big one: Zanies. I was at Zanies from the get-go; in fact, I was the first person to book the entertainment there.
Somehow anyway, the club survived. By I was playing all around the country, and in I had my first national exposure: the David Letterman Show. In I went to Australia, and made another huge splash.
My career has slowed since then; I blame the laziness of our ancestors for not starting more English-speaking colonies. How could you? A: I count myself extremely lucky to have grown up in Downers Grove. Ah, the experiences I had!
The vast majority of which, to quote Nietzsche, made me stronger. And to see the Tivoli Theater this year in that Geiko commercial! I pert near jumped out of my chair. Thank goodness for the straps. Q: Have you read the novel "Downers Grove," which is supposed to be yet another "modern-day Holden Caulfield " thing, and which they have apparently come very close to making into a movie? Q: On the wall at the downtown Zanies, you are enshrined via the really big posters on the wall, not just the little headshots.
Do you feel sorry for the little-headshot people? A: It's a great honor just to get on the wall at Zanies. In fact, I seem to remember one comedian who actually got bricked up behind it. Or perhaps I've just been reading too much Poe. Q: Wikipedia says your comic style is comprised of " paraprosdokians and garden path sentences spoken in a wandering falsetto tone of voice and a confused, childlike delivery.
Did you have any idea, before clicking on the link, what a paraprosdokian was? A: Then what's that lamb thing they keep warm till 3 a. Q: How have you changed your style over the years, and why is or isn't that necessary? Far from it. He quickly retreated to the safety of material and rote responses--and offbeat behavior, such as gargling with the water, ostensibly to help sooth his hoarse throat. Not surprising. But I took a new tack. Confront him directly.
I noted that in reading other interviews with him, and in talking to people about him, his refusal to break character had emerged as a running theme. I pressed on. Well, what if I ask you about the history of your dotty sartorial style which I once did. Is that the truth, or just an excerpt from your act? Especially when the resulting stories tend to present Emo in a favorable light, which is hardly serendipitous.
My publicist tries to weed out the non-fans. Interview stories are one thing--controlled circumstances, easier to influence by a crafty publicist or a media-savvy interviewee. But reviews would seem to be a different, uh, story--typified by more variables and, therefore, less control.
Yet, with rare exception, Emo gets good reviews. Hollywood scuttlebutt has the picture beset by problems, gossip that has gained credibility as the flick--originally scheduled for a Christmas release--now has no release date at all. Geez, Emo. Well, it turns out Wil had booked Emo onto his show.
Is the idea that anything that gains you more exposure--that somehow advances your career--is inherently worth doing? This, from a guy whose club work alone must put his income in the middle six figures.
It was while discussing Judy Tenuta, who like Emo is an ingenious, off-center comic from Chicago. What did make complete sense was his answer when asked which comics he particularly admired.
A big favorite was the late Andy Kaufman, an often-bizarre performer whose career was built around blurring the line between fantasy and reality. During a joke. All Sections. About Us.
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