Benkharakh.com

By Ben Kharakh

My chat with Perrier Award winner Demetri Martin was cut short, but his answers were so full of comedy insight that I felt it would be better to present an unfinished interview rather than wait until it was completed.

When did you develop an interest in comedy?

When I was a kid, I had a really funny dad that liked Saturday Night Live and Peter Sellers. He'd show us Pink Panther movies and he liked Bill Cosby a lot, so we watched Bill Cosby: Himself. My dad was a Greek priest. In church, his sermons were more like twenty minute sets of, I wouldn't say standup, but very anecdotal. Very funny, so it was something I was always around.

What were you like in school?

I was a nerd. I liked puzzles a lot. It wasn't that I was so on top of the game at school and prepared a lot. I was a procrastinator just like everybody else, but I always liked to challenge my self in ways that were more individual, so I'd bring puzzle books into class. It's extra dorky.

So when you refer to yourself as, "A nerd with geek tendencies," it doesn't mean that you liked computers and occasionally bit the heads off chickens?

No. My friends devised a system of breaking down the world into nerds, geeks, and freaks. It doesn't matter how famous, popular, or athletic you are. It's not that sort of thing. It's general traits and things that you gravitate toward. It seems that I'm primarily a nerd with geek tendencies in that I was not always organized, a bit haphazard, and not completely together with everything.

Did you enjoy growing up in New Jersey?

Yeah, I liked it. A good place to grow up. I lived near the shore.

What were some plusses and minuses of growing up in a family that owned a dinner?

I didn't like having to work against my will. I started working when I was eleven. We had a Greek food stand on the boardwalk. That was a little frustrating. I wanted to be skateboarding or surfing with my friends, but I had to go skewer shish kabobs in the basement of the stand at the boardwalk. A plus was that I had good dinner food all the time.

Was it like Cheers where there would be regulars that come by, like Cliff, the alcoholic mailman?

Yeah, there were regulars, but not quite like Cheers. They weren't funny. It's a family business there. My parents, grandparents, aunt and uncles were all involved.

What sort of aspirations did you have as a child?

I wanted to be a lawyer since I was eleven years old. I just felt that that would be what I would do. It was almost as if I picked it off a to do list. "Oh yeah, I guess my career will be law. That sounds impressive." That was pretty much it for me until I got to law school. I didn't like it.

There was no real reason that you decided to be a lawyer?

I always think about that. I can't think of any logical reason. It was more the idea of having a career. You get good grades and then go on to one of these careers. I was at public school in suburban New Jersey and I thought, "Lawyer, doctor, or business man." I didn't know what the categories were. I didn't like science enough to be a doctor. Law seemed like something you could do things with, but I found out it would be the ticket to boredom. I didn't know what the daily job would involve. I thought, "Well, I'm student council president. I do a lot of student government stuff and a lot of people in the government are lawyers."

You were student government president?

Yeah. The first time I ran for office was sixth grade and I was elected president of my class. Every year after that I ran for office and it was crazy. I won every election. It continued on in law school.

When you ran for student government, do you remember the sort of slogans you had?

I don't remember how many slogans I had, but it was more my style. I ran for vice president of the SBA when I was in law school, the Student Bar Association, and I ran for president of my section of campus. Those are the last two offices that I held. The style that I used to run my campaign was the same as when I was in the sixth grade: I just made posters with markers. I drew my own letters, filled then in, put a lightening bolt on there or some stars, and wrote, "Vote for Demetri Martin." I'd tape it to a tree or post it around campus.

It's like the way I draw now. I some how draw the same way as I did when I was in the sixth grade. I never really evolved beyond that. It's the style that I have. I liked drawing a lot when I was a child, stopped for a while, and came back to it recently.

Were you pleased with the student government?

Yeah. I'd try to approach any leadership role that I had from the angel of, I think they call it, enlightened self interest, which is when you do things that you see as beneficial to your constituents but also do things that you're interested in. The sort of things I'd promote were things that I wanted to happen anyway. Like, when I was in law school I started an intramural basketball league because I like playing basketball. There were sixteen teams that we formed, rented a gym, and had a tournament through the whole year.

Did you devise any elaborate fundraiser?

Not really. I emceed a fundraiser when I was in college. It was for an elementary school for kids with disabilities. That was one of the first time I had to speak in front of people in an entertainment capacity. Usually when I did public speaking it was a little speech or announcements and if there were jokes in those things it was because it was a natural choice for me to make a joke. I didn't have jokes written out for it. It was more of, "Yeah, I'll host it." It was fun.

The speeches that you gave when running for student council, were they humorous in nature?

I guess. I can't remember the kind of things I used to say. I was learning without even realizing it that I had to be in the moment. So that it wasn't an intention. I didn’t think, "I'm going to go up and make people laugh and that's why they'll vote for me." It was more, "These are my points. I want to increase communication between the administration and the students." You start sensing these windows that you have when speaking to a group of people, certain moments that when you say something you'll probably get a laugh. Something funny, but it's more about that window that you have. It's like a pregnant pause that if you take advantage of it you'll hit it right. I just started to learn where those windows were. Sometimes you can feel it open. "Right now would be the perfect moment. Just something right here and you'll get a laugh." And other times it's one beat to late and it's, "Yeah, I thought it was closing. I missed it."

Were you incorporating humor into your daily routine in school and in college?

Not so much. More for diversion. The whole puzzle thing led, for me, to all sorts of word games, palindromes, and such. That entertained me and sometimes it would be funny. I started making cross word puzzles for the schools newspaper. And in law school I made cross word puzzles. In college I made three dimensional cross word puzzles, which is something I hadn't seen and I thought that it seemed like a cool challenge. I started making it on paper. It was basically five cross word puzzles that would line up with each other. The answers would go across, down, and back, so you could see a word going from front to back through the puzzle. Every letter would be part of three different words.

How did that come out?

Good. I made four or five of them. They were really hard to make. Hard to make and easy to solve, so it wasn't a very good puzzle in the end, but they looked cool. The first time I thought of it I thought, "That's too hard. I won't be able to get it to work." And when I finished it I felt a real sense of accomplishment.

Do you see humor as the ultimate puzzle?

I think so. For me, it hasn't gotten boring and I've been doing it for eight years. I still really enjoy thinking of jokes and trying to make jokes. And it's fun presenting them. It's a challenge with so many facets to it. Just learning how to be more spontaneous and present in front of an audience has its own side of it, as well as learning how to see a certain perspective or understanding your own perspective enough. It's almost like learning how to see things and learning how to articulate what you see. And they're both replete with interesting little pockets of challenges.

What other clubs were you in while in school?

I started a youth group while I was in college for some of the Greek kids that were in the city of New Haven. I ran the soup kitchen in my college. I was in the student government. Did some intramurals. A wide spread of activities. And then in law school I did this thing where we would teach basic law principals to high school students on the weekend. I never did any theater, acting, or comedy.

When did you decide, then, to get into standup?

I was disenchanted with law school. I asked myself one day, "What would I enjoy doing?" I would wake up just feeling dread for what I had to do that day? I was, "Alright. This is ridiculous. I'm twenty-two years old and I'm waking up feeling that I dread what I do. It's not right. I messed up." I asked myself, "If I could do anything I wanted, what would that activity be?" An activity I just enjoy; more activity based rather than achievement or worrying about people's opinions of me, how impressive I might be, or how much money I make. The answer was I would like to tell jokes. Write jokes, tell them. I decide, "Yeah, I'll be a comedian. I'll do that." I quit law school, pretty much as soon as I got that idea. I started doing standup and temping. That's how I got my money.

Was this a decision that surprised everyone?

Yeah, everyone in my family was, "What are you doing? Why?" I only had one year of law school left and I was on full scholarship, so it was extra surprising. They said, "Just get the degree, so you can have it." But, no, I didn't want to waste any time once I knew what it was that I should be doing. I didn't want to waste another minute doing this other thing that's not going to matter to me at all.

How did you prepare for your first performance?

I started writing jokes a month before. I remember writing, "S colon, P colon," for setup and punch line. I was very specific of what I thought the structure of each joke was. This is the setup up to this word and here's the punch line. That's the puzzle person in me. Trying to break it down to basic components.

How much material did you have prepared for the first performance?

About twelve jokes.

Where was it?

I did the New Comedy Night at what was The Boston Comedy Club but is now The Comedy Village. It was a bringer show, where you have to bring a number of people to get stage time. I had to bring four people to get six minutes of stage time.

In your experience, what are some good places in New York to do an open mic night?

It changes with time. I haven't done too many in the last two years. I do small book shows. I've stopped doing the clubs. I'll do a club date every now and then, but I'm really not interested in doing clubs. The room that I love in New York is RiFiFi. The shows called Invite Them Up. My friends love that room and the audience is always excellent.

How did that first night go?

Pretty well. My goal was to get one real laugh. If I got one laugh, just one genuine laugh, I thought that it would be a sign to continue even though, in retrospect, it's silly to be so empirical about something like that. You have to just do it a lot and see if you're enjoying it. I was hoping for one real laugh and I got six. About half my stuff worked. I was exhilarated. I thought, "Yes! I found it. I'm a comedian."

The next night, the very next night, I went up and bombed. I did the same stuff, I was more confidant, and tanked. It was a good reality check. I thought, "I see how this works."

How has your material changed with time?

I think it's gotten more personal and emotional. I still think incrementally and gravitate toward short things. I like things that are economical, whether it's a drawing that requires only a few lines or a song that's very stripped down with small production value. I like to use as few words as possible. In that way my style has stayed the same.

Did you record your earlier performances?

I had a recording of my first night of standup and I lost it. Unfortunate. I used to record a lot more. It made me learn quicker, but I've been pretty lazy about that. It's more of when I get off stage I immediately take notes and circle the jokes that worked.

Where is that you store your material, in notebooks or a computer?

Both. Mostly I write everything long handed in my notebook and then make lists on my computer. I check and tally up what's working. I forget about jokes if I'm not vigilant about it.

So, you started doing the open mics, what was the next step for you?

I'd get more club dates and book shows. I did those bringer shows for a while and then I started getting booked in clubs.

You moved up to middling?

Yeah, but not really. I didn't do that very much. There wasn't a big window for that kind of stuff for me. It was more of just gigs around the city. Little spots. It was like building your career five or ten minutes at a time, and eventually I wrote a one man show that I got to do in the UCB theater and that was forty five minutes long. I ended up taking that to Scotland and making it an hour. I toured around.

This temp work that you were doing, what did that entail?

I was proof reading legal documents, then proofreading financial documents, and then I got a job at an advertising agency. I was their resident proofreader.

Did you write ad copy?

Just proof reading. They tried to make me an ad writer. They offered that to me a few times and I said, "I actually just like proofreading." I didn't want to have a career. I wanted to just have a job so I could make my money and be free, so it was a nice experience.

In terms of TV and film, what has done a good job of showing the office environment?

Well, of course, I love The Office. I thought that that was a great show. I like Office Space. That was a funny movie that's underrated. I don’t have any TV channels. I don't even get air channels. The only thing I do watch if I'm at home is DVDs. I have Monty Python, I'm Allen Partridge, short films. Things like that or I'll rent a movie. I often don't turn on the TV. I just turned it on the other day and it wasn't working. I thought, "What the hell happened?" and I realized I didn't even have it plugged in. I don't even plug it in anymore.

Is television something you watched growing up or is it just not important to you?

I watched it a little bit growing up. My parents wanted us to go outside and do more things. The rule was that we couldn't watch TV on weeknights, but on weekends we could. I really could take it or leave it. I don't care.

In law school I watched a lot of TV. It was one of the signs for me that I was depressed and was doing something wrong. I was sitting on stupid futon watching TV and thinking, "What a waste. What a fucking waste."

What changes have you noticed in comedy since you've gotten involved?

In the last couple of years, it seems like more young people are starting to go see comedy. Seems like they're coming out more, which is nice. More than when I first started. It seems that way, but it may not be true.

Do you notice that young people hold comedian in the same esteem as careers such as rock star, president, or astronaut?

Some of them. People ask me if I have comedy groupies. The only real comedy groupies that I notice are sixteen-year-old versions of myself that think that they probably want to be comedians.

What are the differences between you onstage and off?

Mostly the lighting and elevation.

I've seen you perform with a recording of yourself playing guitar, is this at all inspired by Stop Making Sense?

No, I'm not even familiar with that. I have a couple of friends tell me that I've got to see the Talking Heads concert movie and that they're such a cool art band.

I was talking to Rich Hall once and that at first he was a street performer and his first real standup gig was opening for the Talking Heads.

At this point Demetri had to leave to record his segment for the Daily Show. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to finish the interview, but until then you can busy yourself with Demetri's work at Demetrimartin.com .

Go to Brianmpalmer.com/demetrimartin.htm . for an excellent interview with Demetri.