There’s a bit in Eddie Pepitone’s new special, The Collapse, where the veteran comic wakes up with self-loathing attached to his face like the creature in Alien. “You know, I’m trying to order a cup of coffee and it’s attached to my face, going, My God, are you ugly! I bet you can’t even make up a fake name for the barista.’” Comic self-loathing runs deep in The Collapse, a special that Pepitone says mirrors our societal collapse. That’s not the bummer that it might sound like: “I think it’s freeing that we all are so fucked up,” he says.
Pepitone recently talked to me about his elder statesman status in the stand-up community, his brushes with comedy icons before they hit it big, and why he can’t help hugging Joe Rogan.
“I started in New York City. When I first started doing stand-up, I was a wreck. I was so nervous to get on stage that I would throw up in the bathroom sometimes. I would get out there and I would be screaming. I was a mad man that people didn’t like, you know?”
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“So what I did in the early 80s was I went into improv where I was with other people on stage. I also studied acting for years, which is why I think my stuff has some theatricality to it.”
“Comedy has changed a lot. Back in the day, the 80s, it was all set-up/punchline. It was very rare for people to be doing stories.”
“I’m all about absurdism, but I realized that from my standup, I get really confessional. I talk about all the crap I’m going through. I guess that’s what’s changed in comedy. Even though things are so fucked up right now, people are so much more introspective and aware.”
“When clubs don’t lock up phones, you see people on their phones. (laughing) You motherfuckers, you motherfuckers. I always go after them.”
“This one woman told me, ‘Oh, I just got news that my really close friend died,’ and I said, ‘You’re full of shit. You’re just doing that to make me feel bad.’ And she wasn’t but it was really kind of funny because she was willing. When things get hairy on stage, you got to double down and really go into the dark side of it, because people are amazed when you go to certain places.”
“Stand-up is a place where you can’t play it safe. I don’t mean saying horrible things about race or gender, and I never do that. I have a good inner censor. But you can’t play it safe as far as being vulnerable.”
“It’s very healing for people to hear other people’s fuck ups and failures. Everybody is so afraid to fail, you know, or come off as a loser.”
“I was at the Hollywood Improv, it was a showcase for the Montreal Just for Laughs festival. It was all industry, and they notoriously don’t laugh a lot, those motherfuckers. You know, my confidence, my self-esteem, is always wavering. And on that set, it just got worse and worse. It was a classic bomb where instead of getting my shit together or addressing the fact that I was bombing — one way you can get out of bombing is by just calling it out — I didn’t do that. I was so horrified. At the end of the set, I just walked off the stage and into my car. I called my friend from New York, a comedian, and I told them what happened. I just needed to fucking commiserate. That was a really bad one.”
“I’ll tell you, man, when you bomb like that in front of industry, a lot of people quit. There’s a lot of people who have started stand-up and just quit because of a horrific bomb. And for me, I don’t know what keeps me going.”
“It’s so funny that I’ve become this elder statesman. That is hilarious to me, where kids come up to me and they’re asking me, What should I do? I’m just like, man, you just gotta fucking get on stage and do it, you know?”
“I was in New York at a place called the Comic Strip, and I saw Gilbert Gottfried. Oh my God, he was stream of consciousness. He just was absurd, and I love absurdity, you know? And he would be like (Gottfried voice) ‘A turtle got under my radiator.’ It was out of left field. It was so funny, and he was just going with the flow. That really blew me away, Gottfried.”
“When I was coming up, I remember seeing Jon Stewart. It was an open fucking mic at one of the clubs. And Stewart and me just started talking about the Rangers, the hockey team, then I saw him go up, and I could tell he was just very witty, very smart. And I was like, oh, this guy’s fucking good.”
“I saw Ray Romano early in his career, also at the Comic Strip. He was very funny. And you know what’s wild is now I feel like I’m better than these guys. (laughing) I haven’t had the succes that they’ve had.”
“I’ll just dismiss right-wing comics. I fucking dismiss them, because they’re not funny. I really believe that old adage that a comic should be fucking standing up for the little guy, like punching up. Don’t punch down. I really fucking believe that.”
“These comics are going to Riyadh because they were offered a ton of money. But (Dave) Chappelle? I expect someone like Aziz Ansari to do it, but Chappelle? Bill Burr? Bill has been so good calling out different corporate stuff and media stuff. And now, he’s going to go shill for some brutal, oppressive regime?”
“Do you know what’s really funny about Joe Rogan, that whole crew in Austin, is that Joe Rogan has been nothing but so fucking sweet to me, you know? It’s really hard for me to go after Rogan, because every time I see him, he’s like, ‘EDDIE PEPITONE!’ He hugs me.”
“I never fucking go to the Mothership. I always feel like it’s all about what I do. I don’t give a shit what these motherfuckers do. I can still be friends with them. I call them out, but I see them. You know what’s fucked up about calling these guys out? I have to see them at the Comedy Store. I’m a regular there. And I’m like, Oh, fuck, here we go.”
“I wanna get back to New York soon, but I’ve lived in LA 23 years, and man, that is a town that can beat the shit out of you. When I first got there, everybody was laser-focused on being a star. It’s not like other cities where that isn’t the predominant thing. New York, you could get lost doing whatever. LA, it’s so Hollywood-centric.”
“I just want to be the best stand-up I can be. My main focus is being a stand-up. It used to be a lot of these shows, acting and all this stuff. I’m so laser-focused now on mining myself and putting out really good, raw, fresh comedy.”
“Hollywood’s been okay, but I’m ready to leave.”
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