Comic Brian Regan is shown in his 2021 Netflix special “On the Rocks.”
Photo provided
Comic Brian Regan still remembers a time long before the Netflix specials, the sold-out venues, the talk show appearances, the TV comedy show role and before he was a household name. In the early 1980s, he served as emcee of the audition for Rodney Dangerfield’s Young Comedians showcase that made stars of that era’s stalwart standouts such as Jerry Seinfeld and Andrew Dice Clay.
Regan was so good even in that marginal emcee role that organizers asked him to do a special stand-up set the next night.
He did. He bombed. He was devastated.
“I remember later that night walking the streets of New York City thinking that that was my one big opportunity — and I blew it,” said Regan, speaking by phone from his home in Las Vegas. “And that’s not the only one (situation) like that. There have been quite a number of very tough experiences.”
The 62-year-old Regan, now considered among the most successful touring comedians today, brings his wit to a performance at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Brown County Music Center in Nashville. He mentioned that a new tour such as this one always signals all-new material.
“If you’re regularly looking at life through a comedic prism, you’re probably going to see humor where other people don’t,” Regan said.
That includes even his doctor appointments, which he claims are increasing with age. He covered some of that in the 2021 Netflix special “On the Rocks.”
“My dermatologist said he needed to do a biopsy of a little mole on the tip of my nose, and I was like, “Wow, that sounds like it’s going to hurt.
“He said, “Don’t worry. We’re going to numb it first with a painkiller.”
“I said, “How?
“He said, “We’re going to puncture a sharp needle into the tip of your nose.”
Except for a few instances in his earliest days of performances, he always has worked clean — even when he saw others profiting handsomely from “blue” material.
“I try to be careful to do what I like, and not what an audience might like,” he said. “Now, I do want the audience to be able to like what I like. I’ve always described my act as a Venn diagram. There’s a circle of what I think is funny, and a circle of what an audience thinks is funny, and where those two circles intersect is my act.”
Much of his material focuses on everyday life.
“All I really do is share goofy thoughts with people,” he said. “The fact that people connect and enjoy it means the world to me.”
All the better that the goofy thoughts seem so relatable.
“So my doctor told me to watch what I’m eating — to read food labels,” he has mentioned in the past. “I’m in the store reading the Fig Newtons label: I’ve always liked Fig Newtons. I’m reading the label to make sure everything’s fine: fat content. I looked at the serving size; two cookies. Who eats two cookies?
“I eat Fig Newtons by the sleeve: two sleeves is a serving size. I open them both and eat them like a tree chipper; Fig Newton shavings coming off the side.”
In 2021, Regan returned for his third season in Peter Farrelly’s dark TV comedy series, “Loudermilk,” streaming on Amazon Prime. Farrelly personally cast Regan in the series as “Mugsy,” a recovering addict who is estranged from his family.
“It’s a different kind of (performance) rush,” Regan said of acting. “We’re kind of in a holding pattern to see if the powers-that-be want to pick up more seasons. … It doesn’t sound like it would be funny, but it is funny along the way, and I’m proud to be in it.”
Away from performing, he said he likes to watch movies, though that seems hard to believe — because he and his girlfriend just caught the 1969 classic “Midnight Cowboy” for the very first time.
“Hey, I thought, this movie’s pretty good,” he said. “Think I’ll tell people about it.”
About the show
Who: Nationally touring comic Brian Regan.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: Brown County Music Center, 200 Maple Leaf Drive in Nashville.
Tickets: browncountymusiccenter.com
