SLOFunny Comedy Show co-organizer Brian Owens remembers well how he came across the name for his monthly comedy series—The SLOFunny Comedy Show—which plays the last Saturday of the month at the Morro Bay Vets Hall through January.
It was during the after-party for the annual SLO Comedy Festival, and a drunk, not-to-be-named LA comedian who came to the festival on her own dime because she didn’t make the paid-comic cut was insulting paid comedian Mary Upchurch from Phoenix by saying, “You might be Phoenix-funny, but I’m LA-funny.”
“I looked at her and said, ‘You might be LA-funny, but she’s SLO-funny because she actually got into the festival,” Owens recalled. “The festival only takes 40 comics. After that, Mary started making Phoenix-Funny merch.”
On Saturday, July 30, Owens and co-organizer Nancy Westerfield may very well have their biggest show of the series so far. They’ve booked five big names to play two shows (6:30 and 9 p.m.), one of whom is Sacramento heavy-hitter Key Lewis, who’ll act as host. He’s described as “a high energy, improvisational, storytelling, multiple-personality nutcase! His love for the people and hunger for the stage is his undying motivation.”
Lewis grew up being influenced by Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, and “later in life [George] Carlin because I began to understand what he was talking about,” he said in a phone interview, so his interest in comedy was there from the beginning.
His mother is white, but he was raised by his Black father, and he jokes that he looks Mexican. His desire to be on stage was cemented when he saw stand-up comic Joe Klocek open for Pauly Shore at the Sacramento Punchline, “and I watched this guy just do magic with crowd work and impromptu comedy, and I was just like, I’ve got to get the ball rolling on this.”
He took a comedy class at a club called Laughs Unlimited in 2004, and soon he was doing short sets and developing his chops. He’s since appeared on Dry Bar Comedy, Marlon Wayans’ TBS reality show Funniest Wins, Starz’ StaannDUP!, Kevin Hart’s One Mic Stand, as well as Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes!
He can work clean, but as he noted, “I’m a comic. I do what’s necessary. There’s a mood. If I’m in a situation and the jokes go a certain way, if I need to drop an F-bomb to get the point across, that’s how it works out. I read my audience.”
FYI, SLOFunny is rated R, and Lewis likes to improvise with the audience.
“You’re making a show out of a conversation,” he said. “I’ll segue into bits based on that conversation. I love people and interacting. I love the awkwardness of having a conversation with someone that I don’t know. That’s the funnest part. Some people are uncomfortable, but for me, talking and relating and having that human interaction is key to my stand-up.”
Four other comedians are on this bill, including Sean Grant, who was named Funniest College Kid in America by Jimmy Kimmel. Kiran Deol was most recently seen playing opposite Kal Penn in the TV series Sunnyside. Headliner Betty Barnes (formerly Liz Stewart) hit it big in 2017 with her TV special Liz Stewart: I’m Crowning, where she tackles ghosts, drugs, and motherhood—filmed when she was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant. Also on the bill is actor, writer, comedian, and activist Nic Novicki, who’s appeared on SNL, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and in dozens of other films and TV shows. He also spoke to New Times via phone.
His comic career began in school when he was something of a class clown.
“I’ve been doing comedy since I was a kid. I guess part of it was I’m a little person,” explained the 3-foot-10 Novicki. “I’ve used comedy as a way to break the ice. It was something I was always good at doing.”
What’s it like to be on this kind of comedy circuit?
“It’s amazing,” said Novicki, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and new baby. “You know, I just did a show at the [Vina] Robles Amphitheatre, where I opened for Nate Bargatze two weeks ago, and it was so cool to be back there. I did the SLO Comedy Festival probably about five or six years ago, and the crowds up there are so amazing. Being on this circuit and being on this show, people want to laugh, especially coming out of the pandemic. They just want to have a good time.
“Honestly, it’s not a bad place to just look around, too. The scenery? Just awesome. I love San Luis Obispo and the whole area.”
How does he handle hecklers?
“You just kind of improvise. My act doesn’t really invite hecklers because I’m more of a storyteller. I talk about my wife and my baby, so I’m not the guy who’s going after people, but when it happens, you’ve got to play along and have fun with it. If someone going to start the party, you’ve got to keep the dance going.”
How does he describe his comedy?
“I work clean. I bring up a lot of personal experience in my life, talk about family. I’m married with a new baby, so that’s where the comedy inspiration comes from. Comedy is relatable, hopefully. I’ve done shows in front of a church and shows in front of Marines on a base.
“The same jokes usually will work anywhere … in theory!” Δ
Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 21-31, 2022.