The Eagle’s Anagha Srikanth speaks to stand up comedians Ed Blaze and Erin Foley about how they got started in the entertainment industry, their experiences as comedians performing around the country and their upcoming performance on Oct. 26 at the Hartke Theatre.
Ed Blaze, who moved here from Tanzania in 1998, has performed at comedy clubs and college campuses across the country, including Gotham Comedy Club in New York City and D.C.’s Howard University.
Eagle: How did you get started in your career as a comedian?
Ed Blaze: Back home in Tanzania I went to boarding school and I was always the person joking around trying to get a laugh. But when I came [to the U.S.], I was watching TV and saw people doing standup, and I didn’t know what that was before. So I started writing jokes and then one time a friend pushed me to go on stage. It was my first experience and I didn’t know if people were laughing at my accent or if I was funny. I didn’t jump on the stage for a while, but when I moved to D.C. eight years ago I got back to writing jokes and started getting on stage.
E: What were your first thoughts when you arrived in Washington, D.C.?
EB: D.C. has a feel of being an international city because everybody is here. I would run into someone from France and two minutes later someone from Jamaica. All the cultures are here. Now I live in Jersey and D.C., in the Northwest, and it’s changing a lot. It’s one of those cities that are building up.
E: You studied business management and computer networking in college here. Why did you pursue comedy as a career?
EB: I enjoy unity. I love to see people together: black, white, Asian. Comedy is one of those things that can bring people together from different background. You’d be surprised the people you meet: doctors, scientists, teachers. If I can perform for 30 minutes and make someone smile and forget their troubles, it makes my heart feel good.
E: What is one of your favorite jokes or routines?
EB: I have one where I talk about being a stay-at-home dad. I love being a stay-at home dad. Some people don’t like to say that they are a stay at home dad, but it’s the 21st century! The only difference between me and other stay at home dads is I ain’t got no kids.
E: Where do you get material for your routines?
EB: I’m traveling to different places now and as I’m going every day I’m learning something. The first 10 minutes of each of my shows is different something about the city I’m in and what I’ve noticed. These people haven’t heard my jokes before, so D.C. is the only place I have to worry about switching it up. You see stuff going on in people’s lives. Most of the time you something that people might see as normal but there’s always a comedic side of everything that you see. You’ve got to be careful like what kind of events is going on, you want to make sure it’s something everything knows. You want to be able to talk about something everybody will be able to relate. Then it brings happiness into people’s lives, trying to show people the side of life that is just enjoying life.
E: You’re currently touring the country and performing in different cities. What do your audiences look like and how are they different from Washington?
EB: The D.C. audience is kind of laid back but they want to hear something funny and then they respond. They’re a little tough but not like New York or Los Angeles. There they are exposed so much to the point where it’s too hard. Philadelphia or Miami, there they are way more laid back and more receptive. They’re all different but all of them are a good crowd.
E: What are you excited about for your show this Saturday in D.C.?
EB: I’m doing the show with Erin Foley. She’s also on tour and we just happened to end up doing the show together. It’ll be our first time performing together but it’s great. I think it’s going to draw a lot of people because there’s both a black man and a white woman performing, so it’ll be an interesting crowd.
Erin Foley has performed on Comedy Central and other television networks as well as comedy clubs, festivals and colleges around the country. She has also had roles in films, including Almost Famous and the Tribeca Film Fest short Cried Suicide.
Eagle: Last year you made your stand up debut on Conan. What did it take to get there and what did that mean to you?
Erin Foley: It was super fun and fantastic, because performing on Conan is like a dream. You just have to put your time in and be funny because it’s really a long process. It’s only five minutes but it’s a lot of work to put that together. From writing to editing, it’s a longer process than people realize, but at the end of the day it was such a great time.
E: Why did you decide to pursue comedy as a career?
EF: I was living in New York City and I was doing improv with a group but I really had no intention of going into comedy, in fact I wanted to go to grad school. My improv group went to comedy club on night and stayed and watched stand up and I fell in love. I started and stopped and started again but after a year I loved it so much that I decided why don’t I really go for it. So I went on with it and lo and behold it’s now a career.
E: What are some of the obstacles you’ve faced in your career and how have you overcome them?
EF: I think one of the biggest obstacles is that it’s a tough world for a lady. There is not a ton of support for female standup comics, much like other careers. You kind of have to suck it up and keep going and you hope the climate will change. I think its getting better. With most things, I’m in control. I’ve got to write and work around the clock and you feel like if you write enough and work enough things will go well. But there are things you can’t control and there are just not a lot of comedy clubs that will support women comedians.
E: You’ve performed regularly both on television and on stage. How are the two experiences different?
EF: When I’m doing stand ups on TV it usually still is a live audience so I still have the live nature of it, which is super fun. You still get that instant feedback with the crowd but its stressful. TV tapings are really stressful and so there’s not a lot of improv, you really have to stick to the script. As far as regular shows go you can definitely be more in the moment and go off script. If someone says something you can talk to them for 10 minutes and it’s a lot more free. Of course it’s 10 times more exciting when you’re on TV but it’s just different when you’re performing at a club or college.
E: You’re currently touring the country and performing in different cities. What is it like constantly being on the road?
EF: If you want to be a professional stand up comic you have to love traveling because it’s a huge part of your job. I love traveling, meeting new people, going to different parts of the country and seeing people’s lives there. You’re not home a lot so it’s hard on relationship and physically and mentally it’s draining. But I cannot go to an office and sit at a desk all day, so as grueling as traveling is I’ll take it.
E: How are D.C. audiences different from your typical audience?
EF: I have a twin sister and she went to Marymount so I’ve been in and out of the city for almost 12 years. Any time I have a chance to perform in D.C. it’s a really cool thing. The crowds are smart and I like to perform for smart, interesting, diverse groups. It’s actually a huge requirement for me because I’m gay so I talk about gay things. I talk about politics, religion, everything, so I always want an open-minded cosmopolitan crowd.
E: Where do you get material for your routines?
EF: It’s been almost 14 years of joke writing so it’s kind of now in your nature. It’s really observational. You walk down the street, the signs you read, conversations with my parents and girlfriend, it’s human behavior. I look at everyday stuff, every day people’s behaviors and kind of just incorporate it all. Everything’s funny, honestly, I’m just concentrating on it. It’s like the most ridiculous world we live in and you have to laugh, otherwise it’s too horrible.
E: What is your favorite thing about performing and what you do?
EF: I’m kind of a nerd so I love to write. I love all the drafts a joke goes through and I think you really have to love the process of writing. Also the immediacy of it, I can see something that day and share that experience in front of people that night. And if they’re on the same page with you and everyone’s laughing, it’s the greatest thing in the world. It’s such a high, this moment you have with total strangers, and for me that’s the greatest thing ever. Essentially I’m laughing at my job, I’m just always laughing.
E: What is your favorite comedy routine or joke?
EF: One time I was at a bookstore and I was in the cooking section with a friend of mine. I pulled out a book “Vegan Cooking for One” and it just made me laugh so hard in that moment. I just thought it was the saddest book ever, like you can’t eat anything and you’re by yourself. And then I wrote a joke about it and every time I tell it it always brings me back to that moment when I first saw the book
E: What are you excited about for your show this Saturday in D.C.?
EF: It’s always exciting when you go into such a cool city with really like-minded and open-minded people. You can talk about how ridiculous it is that our government shut down and really have this freedom when you’re in a room full of those kinds of people. They’re just cool because they live in Washington, D.C., and I’m just excited because that’s what you always want as a comedian is to be on the same page as your crowd.
Comedians Ed Blaze and Erin Foley are performing tomorrow, Sat, Oct. 25, at Hartke Theatre from 8 to 10 p.m. Tickets and information can be found here..
