Tall as a timber and gawky as a fawn, Brian Posehn doesn’t look like your average Hollywood success story. Yet this Sacramento bred comedian has been right in the middle of some of the most groundbreaking comedy shows of the last decade, including Mr. Show, The Sarah Silverman Program and has written for and provided voices for many of the twisted toons on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup. He gained mainstream exposure on the NBC sitcom “Just shoot Me”, and starred alongside pals Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifinakis in the popular 2005 documentary “The Comedians of Comedy”. All along he has remained a stand up road warrior, bringing his passion for all things dorky, from comic books to sci-fi to '80s Metal, to an ever growing audience. A recently reformed stoner, Posehn has hit the comedy trail with a vengeance, and new clarity. of This weekend He’ll be riding into the Magic Bag Theater in Ferndale, harnessing a bottomless well of nerd rage and forging it into pure comedy gold.
Metro Times: Are you bummed out that there are so few records stores around now?
Brian Posehn: Yeah for sure, because that’s so much of what I like to do when I get to a new town. Although I still find them. I was in Ann Arbor and found a couple things on vinyl there. You’ve got to dig deep and ask the locals. Twitter has been so helpful with that kind of thing. When I go to a town I say “ Hey Detroit, where’s a good place to eat? Where can I buy punk and metal records?”
MT: You’re really using Twitter more as a social tool?
BP: I do. You know I like to put jokes on occasionally, but that’s not why I’m on there. It’s a good tool to contact the fans and let them know when I’m coming.
MT: You’re not one to spam jokes on there.
BP: I do occasionally, but I get ridiculed for it. I get people saying “ be funny”. I had a guy recently say “ I was following Brian but for a comedian he doesn’t say very many funny things. I’m like, well, pay me
MT: Some guys just pepper twitter with material; save it for the act.
BP: Exactly. Also my jokes, if you’ve seen my act, I’m more of a storyteller anyway. My bits can’t really be compressed into 120 characters. I’m working on coming up with a podcast where I get my friends together and play D &D, and talk about if the Thor movie was any good and stuff like that. Kind of like a poker night for geeks.
MT: Why not, because like jocks talk about sports just as obsessively as nerds right?
BP: I think Fantasy football is nerdier than Dungeons and Dragons. We don’t have the word “fantasy” in our game. Like they are already dorkier, I can’t even think of a guy “ how is Barry Bonds going to do this year”
MT: Yeah Barry stopped playing like three years ago, so you really are...
BP: No yeah, definitely dude. I am a nerd!
MT: It’s hyper muscular guys in skin tights suits crashing into each other: it’s kind of the same as comic books.
BP: There are different kinds of nerds. Those guys are sports nerds, and Christians can be Jesus nerds. And there’s just a bunch of different types.
MT: But they don’t always cross over.
BP: It’s true there are divisions in the nerd world. I may collect Spider-Man but in my head I’m way cooler than the kid who sits in his basement playing Magic the Gathering.
MT: Nerd Classicism?
BP: I was at the comic book store the other day and I actually looked at this guy with derision. He was an older than me and chubby, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, collecting old kiddy books. “He reads Little Lulu and Casper?” What a dork!! He’s nerdier than me. Meanwhile I’m like what’s “Peter Parker up to?”
MT: Who’s lowest on the totem pole?
BP: I think Furries are the lowest.
MT: You can’t beat that for weird
BP: Anybody who dresses up like a raccoon to have sex in a hottub is just a creep. They’re no longer nerds.
Saturday July, 9th two shows 7 and 10 pm
http://www.themagicbag.com/
http://www.brianposehn.com/index.cfm
-Corey Hall
