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Eugene Mirman is a hilarious comedian man with two CDs to his name and an assortment of funny videos and gags on his web site www.eugenemirman.com. He allowed me to interview him for 30 minutes one fine January night as he prepared for his weekly comedy showcase "Invite Them Up," and here are the results. As always, my questions are in bold, his answers are in skinny.
Also, it turns out that www.markprindle.com Official Interview Transcriber Jim Laakso is friends with a guy named Brian Spinks who used to room with Mr. Mirman! So you can imagine the hilarity that might have ensued had I used this information in an interesting way.
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Hello?
Eugene?
Yes.
Interview guy.
Yes. That’s what I thought.
Are you available?
Yeah, I am. I made it, just seconds ago, to a quiet place.
Excellent. So you do this show every Wednesday?
I do, yes.
What is this show?
It’s called “Invite Them Up.” I do it with Bobby Tisdale and Holly Schlesinger. It’s different comics doing different stuff each week -- I guess doing new stuff each week, mostly.
So how do you come up with enough material to do it every week?
Some of it is sort of throwaway, and some of it ends up becoming part of my act. Some things are re-honed, so I’ll try something and then fix it up and do it again the following week. It's not meant to be like a challenge. Or, it is meant to be challenging, but it’s not.... It’s just a fun way to develop new material; that’s its point. And then other people do whatever they want.
What’s your current favorite recent new joke of yours? I know a lot of your humor is in the delivery, but if you can think of any....
Um… I forget…?
That’s a good one!
I have a video where I fake run away; I like that a lot.
I like the one - I just watched it the other night - of you giving all the reasons why you can’t go fight in the war.
Yes. I remember that video, from when we were about to go to war.
Oh, it’s that old?
Yes. Yeah, I made it a long time ago and I debuted it first here, at Invite Them Up. Probably around the time when we first started the show, since it’s almost five years old and the war is of similar age.
Have you known since you were a kid that this is what you wanted to do?
I think since probably a teenager or something. I watched tons of stand-ups on HBO or A&E;, wherever I could find it really. I had lots of cassettes and records of comedy.
Were you a joker at the time, a class clown?
I wasn’t really a class clown, I was just more of an extraordinary outcast.
Really?
Oh yeah, I was horribly disliked. I mean, I’m a Russian kid who grew up during the Cold War, which is probably what it’s like to be Muslim now, I would imagine.
Oh. OK. So do you know this person Brian Spinks?
Yeah, of course. I went to college with him.
Really?
Yeah, and -
OK. Well, I don’t know him from Adam. What did you say?
Yes, and I used to live with him, so I do know him.
Well, he said that maybe I should ask you about the similarities between comedy and math. Does that mean anything to you?
Yes, it does. It means a lot to me. (chuckles)
Oh, great! Tell me about it.
That’s so funny. Yeah, well, it’s partially because a lot of Russians in my family are very good at math. Math is sort of just a very common thing, probably both for immigrants and also Russians. Specifically math and sciences and stuff. And I do think that comedy often uses a lot of the same goals of logic that math does; it’s just that in the end the goal with comedy is to create a surprise, whereas with math it’s probably to create a mathematical solution. But with comedy, it’s a twist of sorts. So I feel like both heavily play into logic. It’s just that one fucks with logic and one does not fuck with logic.
Okay. When you do the videos, do you ever bother with a script or is it all made up at the moment?
I do both. I have no reason not to, so I write out a bunch of things that I think might be funny. I’ll try them, I’ll pause it, I’ll think. If I come up with anything or something I do gives me an idea, I’ll do that. So it’s sort of an organic process. But I certainly try to think of funny things. But then sometimes I also think of them on the spot. That’s why it’s all jump cuts.
And when did you move from Boston?
2000. I believe six years ago.
How often do you get to work? How many shows a week?
Oh, I guess, several… I don’t know. It depends. Right now I have two that I do weekly, and sometimes I’ll do some others. But I’m also just working on stuff every day as well. Like I’m writing a book now, and I’m making shorts for a new series. I’m also working on a cartoon. I just have a bunch of random projects, basically. So in a sense I’m working all the time. But in terms of shows, maybe two or three, four, depending.
What is the book about?
It’s a book of advice slash sort of a self-help book. A parody of that. I’m not actually a doctor of psychology, so I wouldn’t give people advice. Well, I would still give them advice; it just might not be accurate.
Can you give an example of a great piece of advice from the book?
Mmm…nothing off hand.
Yeah.
Well, I’ll give you an example of good advice: I guess I would say that “do not drop the baby” is good advice.
That’s pretty good.
Yeah.
I know you had a comedy major in college, right? Is that what I read?
It’s true. That’s totally true.
Were you at all concerned that you wouldn’t be able to use that for anything? Like, it wouldn’t work out?
No. I considered that I could fail or I could only succeed in certain degrees, but, I mean, when someone majors in English or History, do they any more or less consider that they might not work in those fields?
Yeah, that’s true.
So to me, basically, I was like, "I’m going to spend four years studying something. Why not study something I really am curious about from different angles?" I still learned many of the same tools that people learn from going to a liberal arts school; I just chose to enjoy my experience, which I think is pretty reasonable. But also I’m not particularly good at anything else. I mean, I have some organizational skills, but meaning like, you know, it wasn’t like there was some point at which I was like, “I should really think about becoming a dentist.” Because I would make a shitty dentist.
I saw something - it was either in a recent interview or it was something I saw on your MySpace site where you were saying that one of the most important things is to make sure that the audience gets what you’re trying to do, so it doesn’t totally go over their head.
In a sense, yes.
How would you describe what you’re trying to do?
I meant that in terms of a specific thing, and what I mean is if you have found your audience, or an audience that potentially would get you -- because there are some people who would never potentially enjoy or understand something I did, and that’s not really who I’m trying to reach. I’m more trying to figure out how I can convey what I actually do want to the people who may get it. Do you know what I mean? So I don’t know the answer to “what am I trying to do,” but I’m probably trying to do something funny.
Where did I first hear about you.... Was your first album on an Onion top list or something?
I don’t think so. My first album was on Suicide Squeeze.
No, no, I mean, did the Onion have it on their list of top comedy albums or something?
Oh, yes, yes. That’s true.
That’s what it was, that’s what it was. So I bought it because of that, and what really appealed to me about it is that you don’t come across like a comedian; you come across like a funny friend, like someone I would hang out with in college that would just crack me up all the time and then go on to some shitty job.
Yes.
You really don’t sound like… you don’t go out there and go, (in over-the-top comedian voice) “So! I was… blah blah blah blah."
Right.
Even a lot of newer comedians still do that.
Yes.
So is that something that you intended?
Yes and no. I think I feel uncomfortable with something that’s too forced, but also a lot of that stuff is jokes that I say in the same manner. I mean, stand-up comedy is the illusion that you’re having a conversation, or that you’re just talking. However conversational a comedian is, it’s most likely that they’ve planned out what they’re going to say, either word-for-word or within a certain reason. Yeah, I mean, I have a very conversational style. I think that to me it’s much more comfortable. And some of it is also genuinely conversational and completely worked out. But some of it is also just, I don’t know, it’s probably my demeanor or character. I’ve always also tried to be as much myself onstage as I am myself when I’m sort of funny in real life.
When you do shows with comedians, do you find a lot of times or ever that they don’t act in real life like they do onstage?
Sure. Some people are doing characters, or some people are exaggerating. I mean, everybody’s kind of exaggerating. At the very least, everyone’s playing an exaggerated version of themselves. Sometimes it’s very different.
Yeah. Who are some of your favorites that are current right now?
As far as stand ups?
Yeah.
Patton Oswalt, Demetri Martin, Zach Galifianakis. There’s also a lot of people like Jon Glaser and Jon Benjamin who do pretty amazing things. It’s not quite stand-up, but it’s still extremely funny. Todd Barry is very funny.
Yeah, now, is he like that offstage?
Who, Todd Barry?
Is he that laid back offstage?
In a sense. I don’t know if “laid back” is how I would describe it, but Todd is similar to himself onstage enough. But him onstage is still an amped-up version of him.
OK. What do you think about… are you into any political comedians, either past or present?
Well I like the Daily Show a lot, and I think that David Cross is doing this -- is that what you mean, or no?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, sure. Yeah. I think that David Cross is very funny. But a lot of people knew who he is already. Either in terms of… Like, the Daily Show is very funny, so is the Colbert Report. And then Lenny Bruce is very funny. He’s dead, of course. He wasn’t really political as much as social, but still. I don’t know if I’m… I mean, I’m more interested in just whether I think it’s funny rather than if it is or is not political.
Yeah, that’s true.
I think David is very funny. He does a lot of stuff that’s political. But there’s lots of stuff that’s just social or neither.
Who are doing things that are completely, to you, new and clever? Like not normal stand-up?
I think that, to me, Jon Benjamin and Jon Glaser…
And they work together?
Often, but not always.
What do they do? Can you describe what they do?
Countless different things. There’s that thing they do on the Invite Them Up compilation. Comedy Central put out a compilation of the show that I do every Wednesday, and they have a bit on it called Fuggedabuddies, which is, I don’t know, I’m trying to describe… it’s two guys pretending to be a comedy team. They don’t ever break the bit, but that’s what it is. And so they just do countless… Glaser does another thing on it where he pretends his dad used to be in ZZ Top. So he just reads old letters that his dad wrote when he was a member of ZZ Top. Just stuff like that that’s kind of hard to describe, but it’s an insane happening.
Do you like Neil Hamburger at all?
Say that again?
Neil Hamburger?
Yeah. I think that, in terms of the stand-ups that I see, I see a lot of people do lots of different characters -- like that character, and I’ve seen him do very funny stuff. But it’s also sort of just a bit. Which is totally fine. But I prefer the stuff like Louis CK, where -- in a sense, what I really love is someone who’s just an amazing stand-up. Like, have you ever heard of Daniel Kitson?
No.
He’s a British comedian who’s really amazing, and when you see him talk, it’s genuinely like -- his stand-up is full of emotion, and it makes you think, and it’s just really incredible. But I feel like what I get really excited about is someone who has transformed stand-up into like an art or a philosophy. And it’s incredibly funny, obviously. I don’t really mean it’s like a lecture; I mean that it’s insanely funny but also really poignant.
Do you have any idea why humor is so important in your life? It is to me, too, but I wouldn’t…
Well, to me, it’s something that I’m pretty good at that I can survive off of, I guess. And also I love it. I just enjoy it. Why do I enjoy it? I’m not sure, exactly. I mean, why do I like making things? I don’t know.
Oh, what were the other things you said you were working on besides the book?
I’m doing a voice for a cartoon. And I’m making a bunch of shorts for something called “Super Deluxe.” That’s where I'm doing a sci-fi comedy talk show, and it’s like three-minute shorts. It’s called “Space Talk From Dimension Eugene.” That’s pretty exciting. It’s on there right now. It’s like a three-minute sci-fi talk show.
And where can it be seen?
Superdeluxe.com
Oh, OK. Yeah, I see it… So you already actually have a publisher, Harper Collins.
Yes.
And you’re a voice on "Lucy," the Adult Swim show?
Yes.
How did all this stuff come together? Do you have an agent who tries to get you this stuff, or do people just hear your CDs and call you, or…?
Different things just happen different ways. Like the book deal -- I for a long time had a column/blog for the Village Voice, and an agent contacted me asking me if I had any book ideas. So I did, and I wrote a proposal – it took me like a year, half a year, whatever it was – I wrote a proposal and we pitched it to different publishers. Harper Collins decided to buy the book.
When is it due?
I’m sorry?
When is the book due to them?
Oh, I have to finish it in the next few months probably. But "Lucy," which is the new show for Adult Swim, is being done by one of the producers for Dr. Katz -- the old producer for Dr. Katz and Home Movies. And he’s an old friend of mine. A lot of the people like Jon Benjamin and Jon Glaser and Todd Barry are all doing the show. So it’s people I know who asked me to be on that show. I play a nun. I’m the voice of the nun.
Do you do your regular voice, or do you do it crazy?
I do a mildly crazy voice, yeah.
OK, now if someone reads the interview here and they haven’t heard you, I would send them to the video section on your site. Do you have a favorite video that’s on your site that you think really puts across your kind of humor?
Yes, I think both the special agent video and the sexpert video get across my sense of humor. I think a lot of them do, but I think that those are maybe in there for people to understand that I’m making lots of weird crap.
OK. Oh, there's "Backdraftier" - I love that one! This is a tough question, but do you have a dream goal as far as your career, what you would really like to do most? Or do you just kind of go with it, and whatever happens happens?
I think right now it’s just different kinds of projects. I really wanted to do a book and I’m doing that. I’ve been pretty excited about my science fiction talk show thing for Super Deluxe. I’d like to do a comedy special for TV. I mean, no, I don’t want to be like a movie star.
OK, that’s what I’m asking, that kind of thing.
Yeah, I don’t really want a sitcom or to be a movie star. However, I want to work on a lot of different projects, and if one of them involves being a movie star or having a sitcom -- like I’m going to be on a new sitcom on HBO.
What’s that?
The show’s called “Flight of the Concords.” Do you know who Flight of the Concords are?
No.
They’re a New Zealand folk-comedy duo. They have a new show, and the premise is that they’re a band from New Zealand that has moved to New York, and I play their landlord.
Oh, OK. Jeez. You’re a busy man.
I am. I’m very busy.
And how did this all get started? First you did your stand-up shows, which led to a record deal…
Yeah, I guess, but I’ve done comedy for ten, eleven, twelve years, so it all happened slowly over time. You meet people, you work with people you enjoy. With this, literally, the landlord for the HBO show, my character’s name is Eugene --the part was made for me specifically. I still had to audition for it. But I landed it!
Ha! You had to audition to be your own self?! OK!
Yeah, it’s funny. There have been other times where I heard that they were looking -- I think there was some point where Comedy Central was looking for someone to be a Eugene Mirman type, and I never heard about the audition until maybe a month later, and then I did it but I wasn't enough of a Eugene Mirman type. So there are times where they’re looking, apparently, for someone like me, but not me. So I don’t know. But the question was how do I get work?
Well, no, I think you’ve at this point…
No, no, I know.
Wait, this Invite Them Up thing is three CDs and a DVD?
Yes.
Oh my God. I’ll go ahead and buy that, then.
Sure. It’ll be a lot of weird stuff, but you might enjoy a lot of it.
OK. Are you happy with it?
I am. I’m happy with it. Its original goal was to be shorter, so I think it’s a slightly cumbersome thing, but it has a lot of amazing things, a lot of comedy that wouldn’t be available otherwise. So in that sense I think it's exciting, but I think also it’s big in this way that I think some people find difficult. But a lot of people who like comedy really love it. It has a lot of stuff on it that you wouldn’t really be able to hear in any other way.
OK. And I’m looking at “Customers who bought this item also bought…” and I see that Demetri Martin also has a CD.
Yes, he does.
Should I get that? Is it indicative of his live show pretty much?
Yes. It is. Have you heard Demetri before?
No, you know, I haven’t watched the Daily Show in a long time, so…
Yes, Demetri is a great stand-up.
Most of the stand-ups who I’ve heard recently have been… this guy who owns Stand Up! Records, do you know that label?
I do, yeah.
Yeah, he sent me like everything he put out, so I’m hearing all this Doug Stanhope and Maria Bamford…
Yeah, they’re great.
Yeah, they are. Almost everyone on his label cracks me up. And then I got that Brian Posehn, because I love the Mr. Show.
Yes.
Let’s see what else… Basically whenever I hear someone who’s new and interesting I try to pick it up. So what I didn’t realize here is that Invite Them Up is something you and Bobby founded.
Yes.
I didn’t realize that. How long ago?
Now around five years, but, yeah, four-and-a-half, five.
Damn. And where is it every week?
Rififi.
Rififi.
Yeah, in the East Village, on 11th Street.
What time does it start?
It starts at nine, but people might want to get here early. I also do another show every week with Michael Showalter and this woman Julie Smith. She produces it, in Park Slope at Union Hall.
Now here’s a question that really follows everything else that we’ve just been talking about. Do you FEEL Russian? I know you grew up with Russian parents, but you sound so American, and you don’t really…
Well I came here when I was four.
Yeah.
Yes and no. I speak it every day to my parents. You know what I mean? So I speak Russian fluently.
You said that people, growing up, treated you like…
Yeah. It’s more like the sort of thing where like, do I feel particularly Jewish? Not really. But if there was a war, would people try to destroy me? Possibly. You know what I mean? So if people interpret you as someone… I mean, I also was a weird kid, so it just sort of started out with like, “Oh, he’s Russian,” and then it was like, “Actually, he’s just weird.” I feel half and half. One of the other projects – I don’t mean to make it sound like I’m incredibly busy—
You are, though.
I’m also in the process of doing a documentary about going back to Russia for the first time.
Oh, wow.
Yeah. I’m going to try to do a show in Moscow. It’s probably going to be in like a year or something, but I’ve begun the preliminary stages of working on that.
Do you have an actual record deal with Sub Pop, or did they just hire you for one record?
Basically, their deals in the beginning, in general, are one-offs. So yeah, it’s just a one-off deal. I probably will do another record with them, but it would be up to them and up to me.
What do you hear as the differences between your first and your second album? Do you feel that you’ve developed as a comic in any particular way between those two, or is it just more of what you like to do best?
I think it’s just different degrees of what I’m doing during them, for whatever reason. My first record had more of the stuff that I’d been doing up until that point, and I think my second record has a handful of political things just because of probably what was around me at the time. But it’s all still sort of from my point of view. No matter how political it is, it’s still like me having an experience of debating someone on a music network, you know what I mean?
Yeah. For some reason, the joke on the first album that cracked me up so much, it’s not even that new a joke, I think I’ve heard other people make similar jokes, but they just weren’t anywhere near as funny as yours… it was the one about the guy in the bathroom on the cellphone.
Yeah.
I don’t know what it was. It’s just your phrasing… "Yeah! I'm in the bathroom!" “I know! I am too!” That kind of thing… you do it very well.
Thank you.
Each day, as far as a work goal, do you say, “OK, every day I have to spend two hours working” or "four hours working" or do you just...?
Well, it’s not quite like that. I still work best under pressure when I have to get something done. I also have so many random things I can do in terms of… from preparing for a show, to working on the book, to planning an event or something. So, yeah, generally, I try to work. I think that one of its problems is it’s hard to put down, or it’s hard to go, “OK, I won’t do anything for a few days.” So there’s no weekend, in a sense, because I’m always working on something. And sort of disorganized as I am, I try to be basically on top of things.
Is it ever a problem of being in the right mood, or can you write good humor even when you’re pissed off or depressed or something?
It just depends if there’s something I have to do, you know what I mean?
Yeah, but even if you have to do something…
Well, right. But the point being… Is it harder to perform when I’m mad or something? Yeah, probably. It just depends on the situation or what the thing is. But I don’t ever have a situation where I have to write ten jokes by 5:00pm, you know what I mean? It certainly happens that I’m not in the mood to write jokes, and then I just won’t write jokes. But if I have to answer an interview or something and I want it to be funny, generally I have to focus on it enough to make it funny. But can I sit down and be funny for hours? I don’t know. I feel like to a certain degree I have to be in the right mood, but I’ve also structured things in such a way that I can take time off.
Yeah. And what are you into doing in your time off? What are your interests?
My interests are… the History Channel and superheroes. And music and probably some other stuff. A small amount of video games. I used to play more, but I haven’t in a while, But I just got a Wii.
Uh oh.
I got a jukebox recently, and that’s the most exciting thing.
A full size one?
Yeah, at an auction. They thought it was broken, so I got it for incredibly cheap, but now, in my spare time, I keep looking for 7”s.
What kind of stuff on the History Channel?
Oh, just anything to do with the past. I just really like it.
Do you know why? Are you looking for how it affects the current, the present?
Often they do that for you. But, I don’t know; I just like history stuff and often enjoy history things. I like random information. Like I saw something about how in World War II, to throw off the Germans, the British had built inflatable tanks and planes, so if they had aerial reconnaissance it would look like there was an army being built where there was no army being built.
Wow!
See?
Yeah!
I don’t know what to say about that fact. I won’t use that fact to write the perfect joke, but I think it’s just really neat and I love learning stuff like that.
Yeah. Well, you gave me your half hour so I can let you go now. Unless there’s something else you want to say.
Well, no, I think that’s a lot of it. I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure there’s other things. If there’s anything else you want to ask, this would be the perfect time.
Oh jeez. I guess I was gonna say “what’s next?” but I guess we already know what’s next.
Yes. A bunch of little projects.
OK. All right. Well, continue the good luck with everything.
Thank you very much. And when will this be online?
As soon as I get it transcribed.
Awesome.
All right, thanks again.
Thank you, sure.
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