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Looking for some quality comedy entertainment to check out?
Who better to turn to for under-the-radar comedy recommendations than comedians?
Tom says the webcomic influenced them not only in how the characters saw one another but how they moved.
I had never heard of Achewood before but quickly found it has a passionate fan base.
Webcomics kind of had a moment in the mid-aughts, and I was really in that.
As a comedian, Im much more influenced by things like webcomics than by people doing stand-up.
It seems to match your persona onstage: dry and direct.Thats me: very dry.
I always read comics in the newspaper as a kid.
I think that theres really something about comedic timing that you learn from comics.
Comics are so cinematic.
It varies moment by moment.
It shows you how to draw out the delivery of something to make it as funny as possible.
I like anthropomorphic animals.
(I like animals more than people.)
So I like that they are all cats, bears, and otters.
I love the weird way that they talk.
Im a person who has a very specific way of speaking, and Im influenced by things like this.
Theres a character called Roast Beef.
We dont talk about why his name is Roast Beef.
His full name is Roast Beef Kazenzakis.
Hes Greek, and we dont know why.
Its totally absurd, but it has its own logic in its own world.
Its kind of a scary comic sometimes.
It gets scary, it gets sad, it gets serious, and Im really into that.
One of the Achewood comics you recommended was from 2006, prominently featuringa piece of toast.
The whole joke of it is that Roast Beef is having these really, really small reactions.
His eyebrows go up a little bit.
He squints his eyes closed a little bit more.
Its so funny and so sad.
Its a real manifestation of a depression that is relatable to a lot of us.
The punch line is that hes basically doing nothing, and shes like, Good!
Hes doing nothing, and thats awesome.
Its just him going around having high thoughts, and thats it.
That it ranges from things that are stupid like Nutmeg!
THATS the secret flavor in Coke!
to What is it like to see someone die?
I wonder if my mom knows.
I just think that ones classic stoner content.
Rays thoughts completely go everywhere.
Do you see overlap between Achewood and your own comedy?I think so.
I feel very influenced by the way Achewood is this very minimalist comic.
I identify with the small font of Achewood.
The way they express things in a small way I think thats how I express myself.
The gossamer bloateewas one of my favorites.I love that one.
But I really identify with it as a transmasculine person.
I have this ridiculous pervert mustache, a little soul patch that Im not going to get rid of.
I look like fuckingV for Vendetta.And Im not going to get rid of it.
I think that its basically the same as this argument theyre having in the comic about the goatee.
Theres so much to mine from each panel.Its all the little things in this comic.
Roast Beef speaks in a smaller font, and it does so much to build the character.
And theres no punctuation for Roast Beef.It just gives them such a specific voice.
It gives the two of them a kind of dynamism that I think wouldnt be there otherwise.
It shows how a little choice gives the character a distinctive voice.
But theyre talking about it with such specificity.
Theres no backing down from Ray to the end.Thats Rays declaration of his masculinity.
Hes slapping his ass.
Ray is a cat who wears glasses and a thong and a big chain.
Hes slapping his ass and saying his ass is tight as a drum.
Thats him declaring his manhood.
Ray and Pat have an interesting back-and-forth inthis comic from 2006.
Its just a whole other landscape for queer representation in the media.
He comes out as gay in the series.
I dont think he starts out as gay.
Which is, like,Hes a fucking asshole.
Its really sweet and funny.
In the second to last panel Dang, I never thought it would be like this!
A guy is rocking my can!
thats Ray demonstrating a deep open-mindedness, actually, and an attempt at empathy that is so funny.
Its so funny how hes pissing Pat off this entire time while hes trying to be supportive.
The intentions are good, but what comes out is crass.
Its so up front.Right its very of its time.
Weve come all the way around on political correctness now.
They dont talk like this on TV now.
There are all these TV shows with queer characters, but theyre not having this kind of candid conversation.
The offensiveness is the joke.
Thats that characters point of view.
Hes trying to be helpful.
Its not for me.
I like things that are abrasive, that have conflict, that are sweet at the heart.
Which character from Achewood do you relate to the most?I was thinking about that.
Each character is an extreme that the same guy could have.
Ray hes braggadocious, hedonist.
Roast Beef has deep depression.
Pat is gay and judgmental.
Philippe, the little-boy otter, is naive and positive.
That is whats appealing about the comic: you might relate to all of them.
Theyre all just different parts of you at their most extreme.
I think Im probably a Ray and a Roast Beef though, insofar as theyre foils to each other.
Ray is this hedonist pervert to Roast Beefs deep depression.
Its pure self-confidence with a horrible self-worth at the same time.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
