Speakeasy with - Gary Gulman

Gary Gulman, who performs Thurs.-Sat., Aug. 10-12, at the Funny Farm, became extremely popular in 2004 when he finished as second runner-up on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” and is currently one of the three comedians starring alongside Dane Cook in HBO’s “Tourgasm.” With the successful release of his comedy CD, Conversations with Inanimate Objects, and his multiple TV appearances, Gulman is quickly becoming a household name.</
Is it true that you were an accountant before you started doing stand-up comedy?</
Yeah, I took a unique road to my current career. I never liked accounting, but my brother was already doing it and it seemed like the clearest route to making some money when I graduated. But I didn’t like it; I have too much personality to be an accountant.</
What is your favorite inanimate object to talk to?</
Well, I enjoy chastising Pepsi cans. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Pepsi has decided to call themselves “the cola,” and I think for them to make that decision without consulting Coca-Cola is wrong. I mean, if I get a message on my machine from “cola,” I’m calling back Coke.</
You’ve been on two major TV shows now for comedy, the first being “Last Comic Standing” and the second one being “Tourgasm.” How have those shows affected your career?</
They’ve definitely had a positive effect. The way comedy is, there’s typically no grand outlet for people to see a comedian all at once, but the shows did that. The ultimate goal is always to get new fans and make them want to come out and see you live, and the shows have helped that.</
So how did you get chosen for “Tourgasm”? Was it a Boston connection with Dane [Cook] or some other way?</
Yeah, I’ve known those guys for over 10 years. Dane and I kind of came up together in Boston, and we’ve known Bobby [Robert Kelly] forever, too. Jay Davis was kind of new but we’ve all worked together and known each other for some time.</
Were you happy with the final product of the show and the clips of yours that they chose to use?</
I think it went great. It expanded my fan base to include 18- to 22-year-olds. You know, the college kids are a big part of Dane’s fan base, so it was cool to perform for them. I really enjoyed doing “Tourgasm.”</
There was one episode where you took a sabbatical from the tour. What was that about?</
Before the show started, I had told Dane and everybody that I was already booked to do five college shows elsewhere, and we tried to do everything we could to rearrange them. We ended up changing the dates on some of them, but there were a few shows I had to leave “Tourgasm” for to go do. It was no big deal; it wasn’t as dramatic as they made it seem on TV.</
So after putting out a successful comedy CD and starring in “Tourgasm” for HBO, what’s next?</
Actually, I’m going on tour again with Robert Kelly and Jay Davis starting in September. The tour will start the first couple weeks of September, and we’re going on a 35-city theater tour over a few months, so that should be cool, I’m looking forward to that.</
So how many live shows do you do in a year?</
Well, I’ve done 44 weeks of the year before but I had to curtail that to about one or two weeks a month on the road. I don’t want to be traveling for 50 weeks of the year, but I do like the clubs and the crowds and getting out there to perform live so I do travel a bit.</
Why Atlanta and the Funny Farm? How did we get chosen?</
Well, I like Atlanta. I like the room there and I’ve always had a good relationship with Marshall [Chides, the club’s manager], so when he called and asked me to come down, I said I would.</
This is off the subject, but I played one year of basketball at Emory, which I thought qualified me as the greatest Jewish athlete ever to live, but apparently you can top that. I read that you were a three-sport varsity athlete in high school, and that you played college football.</
Ha, ha. Yeah, there are a few Jews out there who are somewhat athletic. I played football, basketball and lacrosse in high school, and then I played tight end for the football team at Boston College.