The Bar Gig Files with Guest, Dewayne White - Why Bar Comedy is 'Combat Comedy'

He got interrupted by hunting photos, a flying leg kick, and fake boobs -- now Bar Comedy USA Superstar, Dewayne White calls bar comedy "combat comedy." 

• Why Bar Comedy Makes Better Comedians
• The Bar Gig That Sounded Like a Reality Show Nobody Would Greenlight
• The Hardest Comedy Audience is Not Always The Mean One
• Clean Comedy is Expert Mode
• From Army Veteran to Comedy Teacher

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

You know, I always tell people that when you do shows with bar comedy USA on the pub and grub comedy tour, it's kind of like the boot camp of comedy. And I think today's guest on the bar gig files will actually be able to confirm or deny that observation. It's Dwayne White. Dwayne White has uh experience as a twenty-three-year army career combat serviceman. Uh, he's a father, he teaches comedy to veterans, which I think is pretty cool. And this dude is rapidly rising in the stand-up comedy industry. Let's bring on Dwayne White, everybody. There he is. What's up? How's it going? We'll find out if you're behind the book or in front of the book. We've we've had some technical back and forths, uh, but we'll see. So Dwayne might be covered by the book, but there it is. And by the way, he's actually on the cover of the first edition of America's Best Bar Comics.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

That's true. That's true. I made the cover the first year, I didn't make it the second year. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

I think you're yeah, you gotta put different people on there for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

You got it. Nobody wants to look at this. Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So uh, hey man, I'm glad you could do this. Thanks. This is thanks for having me on, dude.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I really appreciate it. Excited.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I always like hanging out with Dwayne, like he's a true road warrior of stand-up comedy, and it's there's a certain uh even if you'd only talk a few times a year over a couple of beers or over some late night breakfast food after a show, like there's certain a certain type of uh chemistry you have it just by being a fellow road comic. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Oh, yeah. I mean, we all speak the same language, you know. It's like we we've been through a lot of similar experiences, so yeah, you can it's one of those things you can just kind of pick it up as you go and go, oh, this happened to me. It's like, oh, that happened to me at this place, etc. Yeah, so it's it's there's a hundred percent there's a connection for sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah, yeah. And I said at the beginning, I tell comics all the time when you do the pub and grub comedy tour, going to these small and growing nightclubs, taverns, neighborhood restaurants, and bars, small town America, the nooks and crannies of the country. I'm like, this is where you cut your teeth in comedy. This is the boot camp of comedy. Am I am I using stolen valor to describe the career development of a comedian, or is that like a fairly accurate statement?

SPEAKER_02 3:21

I don't know if I'd call it the boot camp because boot camp is controlled and and everything's there. I think it's more of just it's more of combat of comedy. This is the actual warfighter going on in some of these places sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Straight into the shit.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

You ready to go? Let's let's go into someone else's house and tell jokes to them. It's it's fun. Yeah, yeah. It is, it is a it is a growth experience every time. It's so much fun, though. It's great.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, and I know you've had some crazy ones on and p and you get asked it, and you said it earlier, and so you got to tell us about the gig in Michigan. Well my he said, probably the worst gig ever.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

I it it was pretty bad. It was pretty uh, I don't know how much I can get into some of this stuff, but it's it's the only place I've ever uh called in an anonymous tip on the FBI uh for a place because I swore they were like like a human trafficking ring, but that's another story. We don't work with them anymore. Um it is uh no, we got there and the the people were just weird as can be. It's the middle of nowhere, upper peninsula, Michigan, weird, weird people. One guy started telling me a story, and then his wife told me the same story with the exact same words. It sounded all planned and weird, it was crazy. Anyway, I get ready to do the show, and it in a second into my set, I started talking about hunting. Um, and the owner's wife comes up to me to the stage with a cell phone, goes, Look at this. And I'm like, What are you? She was like, These are my grandkids, they're hunting. I'm like, Yeah, but don't show me now. We're doing a show. Like, what do you do? Like, why are you here? And she's like, What do you start? You talk about hunting. I was gonna show you freaking hunting pictures. Okay, okay, okay, after the show is good. And then at one point, she's yelling and jumping around and screaming with this other lady. She's like, It's her birthday. I'm like, I don't give a shit. It's fine. Can I finish the show, please? And there's like six people. One point a dude comes up and he does like a leg kick at me. I'm like, What there's six security guards. I'm like, where the hell were you guys? What was that? And then the final straw, I think, for the show was when the owner's wife she needed attention or something. She put on a fake pair of boobs, like uh, like uh uh drag queen boobs, and just walked around the showroom while I was doing comedy.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I'm like, it's pretty hard to keep attention when this is going on. I was it was it was weird, man. It was a weird time, but again, it was a growth experience, man. It was fun in that sense. Like it gives me a great story to talk about. And and again, man, I know we've said this is if you can handle stuff like that in these bar rooms, you can handle anything in a comedy club.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Nothing's you can handle anything in a comedy club, it's like steel sharpened steel. Now, you don't want to do those all the time, but you it is kind of like training where you know, like for a UFC fight where like you you just gotta get more of like the mental toughness, yeah. You know, you you might have the stage chops, you might have the good jokes, but you do you do gold city, Michigan, you're gonna come away with some mental it is either gonna make you or break you, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, it was uh uh and and you know, there's a lot of little things that happen, you know, you but you you do learn a lot. I mean, on these, I I say it all the time, you learn so much how to deal with the crowd, how to deal with like maybe some people that don't want to pay attention, or maybe some people that are like, hey, I'm funnier than this guy. I and this is my bar, I want to talk over them, and you know, you just learn tricks and techniques to kind of you know, maybe speed up, maybe slow down, get louder, get quieter. You you learn to play, you know, in in those environments and have fun with them, even if they're how to work how to work uh work a crowd.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Sometimes work a crowd, it's not the same as crowd work. And what I mean by that is you're not going in and saying, What do you do for all that type of stuff to get them to participate? Work in a crowd is like how do I get this mass of people to follow along and play their part, and the but also doing it, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Turn them into an audience, man. That's that's the thing. Take them from a bunch of people, and it is hard sometimes in the bars because they're that's their house, that's where they're used to being all the time. So they think used to be they can do whatever they want, and so you just gotta you know, just gotta be ready, you know. Um, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

That's their yeah, you're a guest at their clubhouse, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

Yeah, you know, you're brought in your higher gun, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah, and then that late night show on a Saturday in a comedy club does is doesn't seem like that's nothing.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

That's yeah, you're like, oh, okay. A couple of drunk people, whoop de dude. Yeah, yeah, it's good. I can handle this.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

At least they're not running around with fake boobs.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

That's most of the time, that is true. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

They might have fake boobs, but they're not wearing like prostate. But they're not exposed to sex, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Although I have done comedy in the sex club, so maybe, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah. How long how long you've been out there headlining on the road?

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Oh, geez. I don't know. Uh, I don't know how long when I started working with you. Um, but yeah, I I probably I well, I full I went full-time about five and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

Somewhere around there is when I went full-time. I did it for I I went in pretty hard and fast earlier, a couple years uh in with when I quit my job to do it full-time. Um, but but yeah, so um I guess five and a half, six years, probably headlining as a as a rule. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And so, and that's that's a lot, that's a lot of up and down. And you do a lot of type of shows. Uh you do you can do clean. You you you can do I'm getting this off your website actually. You do uh all the lives. Uh yeah, because whenever I've worked with you, like it's no holds barred, but if you do all these different types of venues, you perform for the troops.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Uh yeah, you you run an open mic.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

What what uh other than the the hell night in Michigan, in general, what is the toughest audience of all the people?

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Well, I think the toughest, I mean, I think everybody would agree. The toughest audience is if it's a place where they didn't really know there was gonna be comedy, and you just like kind of assault them with comedy. I think that's the hardest, you know. They came in to have a drink with their buddies, and now it's like, shut up and listen to me. They're like, but this isn't what I wanted, those are tough. Um those but I yeah, I think uh I think the the toughest audience, I mean, who yeah, I just think I think uh you know, sometimes they're just not they didn't for whatever reason they didn't come to laugh or whatever, and you gotta you gotta work twice as hard to get to them, get them, get them uh broken open and stuff like that. But uh yeah, I I just I really do. I think it's it's the places where it's like they don't they're not used to comedy, they don't really know what comedy is. They they've seen stuff online where it's like, oh, they want us to shout stuff out the whole time. It's like no, we don't, we don't want that at all. Um I I I think those are those are the ones people that just you know first time doing seeing comedy and stuff like that. Those I think those are the toughest sometimes. Um, but yeah, and usually it's not people being mean or being like, you know, everybody always asks about hecklers and stuff. It's like usually it's not people being mean, usually they think they're helping out, they think they're doing good, yeah, and they're and they're not. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

They have a complete misconception about what it is, yeah. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

You know, I mean that's our job to kind of train them, though, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah, yeah. When she was showing you the pictures of the of the of her grandkids that were hunters, she probably thought that that was helping you.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah, she's like, Oh, this is or it's a conversation, like um, yeah. No, you don't have a microphone, ma'am. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

For a reason, for a reason. Yeah, why uh I always felt like the corporate gigs were like that, like you know, they sometimes they would regret, like if it was the blue collar company party and it's construction workers and they're all there drinking, and they just want to it sometimes it was like, oh, they're all everybody's here just because they have to be, or the boss is gonna be mad at them. Yeah, so they're not they won't they would rather talk shop than listen to me for 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah, and that's it. It's like it's uh those can be tough, corporates can be really tough. Um, anytime I I I don't love, you know, it says on the website, and it's true. I do I can do clean. In fact, when I first went into comedy, I was like, I'm gonna be a clean comedian because I was like all into church and stuff still, and uh I gave it up for Lent in 2020. And but I I I did, I was like, I'm gonna be a clean comic. I was like, it's harder, it's you know, it's more challenging, it's better, you know, and I can and I enjoy it, but I always feel a little restricted when I know I'm doing a clean show because I'm like, I don't think that way, I don't talk that way normally. So I like, but I I do think it's a great exercise. I was just talking to a comic last night. It's like I write dirty, even if it turns into a clean bit, I write dirty because that's how I think, and then I try to like take the words out, clean it up, and make it make it usable at other stuff, you know. So you know, I want to be able to perform everywhere. That's that's my thing. If someone I just had a church reach out, like, hey, we want a Christian comedian. I'm like, I can do that for you, you know, no problem. But it just it always feels a little tight when I'm doing shows that have like those kinds of restrictions on them for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Yeah, it can be tight. It can also feel like sometimes it's not about the words, it's about your attitude or the subject matter, or even if it's something completely vanilla and totally innocent, if you have like an edgy attitude about that, yeah, you know, that they might consider that to not be clean. It's it's kind of strange what people even mean by clean comedy.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Oh, I have to have a when people say we want a clean show, I'm like, what exactly do you mean by this? Like if I'm doing a private gig where I need to talk to them about like, hey, you can say this, you can't say this, etc. etc. Um, but honestly, and I will say though, I do like it when I when I succeed doing clean, it it feels good because it's like, all right, I did I did it on I played expert level today, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Um, and and it it is more lucrative, you know. I mean, for real. I mean, it does help. I mean, I gotta do clean shows on cruise ships, you know, and then the next night I can kind of re you know let go a little bit more, but yeah, I mean it's it's just part of comedy. We gotta learn to do it.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

So yeah, I I always tell guys if you if all you have is blue material, you're dead in the water. Yeah, you know. I I I started out kind of clean. I didn't I was write writing clean because I was doing shows in amusement parks and fairs where that was the it was a family audience, yeah. And so you just had to learn to write clean material, but you could use innuendo, you could be uh you could use a lot of silliness, and uh that was a good skill to develop because later on, when I'm just writing comedy, I could write the joke the way I originally thought it, which might be even something that's a rated R subject matter, but by being able to drop out the curse words of a rated R subject matter, it cleans that up, and then to be able to add in curse words on something about maybe just your rant about road rage, it draws it draws people in, you know. It's hard to do a rant about road rage if you don't actually curse. Yeah, you knock the head, right? Like that doesn't guy that you're not believable as a road rager.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

That's true, that's true, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

And if you're gonna be the lovable angry guy, you think that there's gotta be some, yeah, there's gotta be some level of four-letter words dropped in there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Especially a lovable angry guy who's an ex-vet. Yeah, let's or as a vet, let's let's go. Like, I do I say things, you know, and I talk about that as it about how what I used to be when I would when I first started doing it, doing comedy, I still was going to church. I was like pretty senior in like this church that around here, and uh they're like Dwayne, you should do announcements. And I was just like, Uh you're like, you're a comedian, it'd be great. I'm like, okay. Sometimes words come out of my mouth that I don't know they do, and uh I just look for people's eyes to get real big. Like, won't do announcements anymore. This is cool. I just got out of it.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

This is that's one way to get not asked back to do what you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

It's good, but I don't know. One time I did a show, it was a clean show, and it was squeaky, squeaky clean. And they gave me all these rules that said, Hey, if we light you once, that means you broke the rules, please be careful. If we light you a second time, it means you broke the rules twice, and if you in and and you're really close, and if we light you a third time, that means you're not getting paid, and to finish up your set. And I was all I could think of was please light me a third time and tell me I'm not getting paid, and let me be on your squeaky clean show. I was like, I will burn this room to the ground. I will freaking destroy it. Oh, I'm not getting paid, so there's no okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Like all right, no problem now. I'm on now I'm on a vengeance tour.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

I know. I was like, I I get what you're saying, I get what you're trying to do, but you might want to word it different.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

That's like old school vaudeville shit, like where they would give you the hook.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

It was crazy, yeah. Come get me, that's fine, but don't tell me that I'm gonna stay on stage and you're not gonna let it keep going.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

You broke the rules three times, but keep paying you right because you broke the rules. Well, guess what's happening?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah, I yeah, now at that point it's it's no holds barred. It's like, what do you have to lose?

SPEAKER_02 17:34

I know that's why I told him. I was like, you might want to change how you approach this with your yeah, that's bad strategy now that I'm thinking about it. It was great, but you know, I did the clean stuff. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

I was like, if you're losing it, just burn the whole thing down.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah, I'm gonna take I'm gonna take this whole room with me. I'm gonna take you up the Christian radio station here to get some press, perfect. Yeah, I'll tell all kinds of stories.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, and you also got a special out. This is really cool. Uh special a boy named Shannon without giving away the jokes. There is a story behind that title.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Yeah, yeah. It's uh a boy named Shannon's on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, all those things, Spotify. You can listen to it. It's all free now. Uh so you can watch it anytime, anywhere. You can put it on and let your dogs watch it while you're at work, it'd be helpful for me. That'd be nice. Uh, but but yeah, man, a boy named Shannon. That was my that's my real first name. Dwayne's my middle name. My real first name is Shannon, and my and uh so it was a it was a fun time growing up. Everybody's now is like, oh, Shannon Sharp. I'm like, yeah, he wasn't around in the 80s uh when I was uh getting messed with in school. But yeah, other than that, it's great. But yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been it was fun. It's been fun. I love it. Uh now I don't mind it, you know. When I was a kid, it sucked, but yeah, it was uh it's a good it's a good time. I love the special, so we're very proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

And I also like how you teach stand-up to veterans. Is that something you still do?

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Yeah, yeah. I'm getting ready to start a new class uh in September, actually. Uh yeah, it Arm Services Arts Partnership. Uh it's how I started stand-up comedy back in the day, and now I teach their class. Uh 100% true story. Uh, I was talking to my son when he was getting ready, he was in high school about the time I was debating on starting comedy, and and I had just taken a government job I hated, and I was telling him, hey, about like, hey, follow your dreams, do what you want to do. And somehow it came out. I said, Well, I always wanted to be a stand-up comic since I was eight years old and I never tried, and I'm pissed off about it. So do the things you want to try. And that week I walked into a coffee shop and there was a flyer from Armed Services Arts Partnerships. He's like, Are you a military veteran? Have you ever thought of trying stand-up comedy? I'm like, You gotta be freaking kidding me, dude. This is crazy. Oh wow. It was like the Ron White bit. It's like, are you sitting on a folding chair eating Cheetos? It's like, yeah, I am. So I was like, well, I have to try it. And uh yeah, just the organization is amazing. Uh, Armed Services Arts Partnership. I can't say enough good things about them. They are they teach veterans, family members, all different kinds of art forms. They started with comedy, but they do storytelling and writing and acting and music. It's it's insane. Um, it's all free for vets and family members. It's super, it's a super cool organization, uh, just to try to help build community among vets. So it's pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah, and that's how you got started. And now you're teaching, so it's great. Yeah, I teach it.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

It's fun. Yeah, it's so fun to watch these guys go from having like some of them not being able to even stand up on stage or being so terrified to speak in front of people, and by the end, they're standing at the DC improv alone with a microphone in front of 200 people. It's pretty cool to watch, yeah. It's it's pretty satisfying. I I can't lie.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

It is. I used I used to be one of those guys back in the day. I was like, you know, comedy, comedy's not something you can be taught, like either you're funny or you're not, and that is kind of true. You either you're funny or you're not, but comedy can definitely be taught. And this, I mean, I had to learn one way or another. I took a workshop or two. I even just learn by doing, you're gonna learn things, and now at this point in my career, I like that comics pass on the knowledge. I like at this point being a guy that also teaches it, it absolutely can be taught, and then it is you do get a big thrill out of seeing some of the other comics that you've mentored, or the students in your workshop move up, and they go from not even being able to be able to say words into a microphone.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

We got a little bit of uh he drop there. Dwayne's almost back in my hair. We're about to wrap up. There he is.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Dwayne Was I was I broken up? He made it. I made it, I'm back.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah, well the the key dropped for a second. Uh and now you run an open mic.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah. Yeah, started that. God, we've been there now for and now you run an open mic.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

And that's really cool. Again, passing it on.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah. Yeah, it's fun, man. We uh we started with an open mic at our venue here in Woodbridge uh back in um Groundhog Day 2021. We started for the first time there, and yeah, it just kind of grew. You know, we had an open mic every Tuesday, then it grew into hey, we're gonna do some showcases. And so now we're there every Tuesday night. We do a riff mic to kind of just help people get comfortable on stage. Like once a month, we do that on a Wednesday night, and then we do shows every other Friday. So yeah, it's uh it's been good, it's been a good time. Uh, and you know, it's a great room. We have a lot of fun bringing comics from all over the place. So yeah, it's a it's a it's a good spot, it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Awesome, man. Well, hey, we're this is a lot of fun. I appreciate you being on, and uh check out Dwayne's special. It is on is it on Prime?

SPEAKER_02 23:28

It's on Prime Prime on Apple TV. Uh you can listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, all that. So yeah, it's it's kind of everywhere but Netflix. I think they didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

And he's he's on the pub and grub comedy tour coming up. We got a couple dates going out to the wild west, Montana.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Montana, dude. Yeah, I'm trying to knock out all 50 states by the end of this year. Um, Montana is one. Um I got a show in Wyoming the next night, and I just I need South Dakota, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Alabama. Those are the four I still need to book this year. I'll have done all 50, so I'm excited, man.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

I still need Rhode Island. It's crazy, right? And Alaska and Hawaii. I I didn't close this year. Yeah, I just made continental United States my goal. I didn't worry about this. I don't want to like feel like I'm traveling to another country.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Oh, I well, it gave me an excuse to take the wife with me to Hawaii, you know, and big tax write-off. And then I went to Alaska. Just happened to work out. I got to Alaska a couple months later this year. So it was pretty sweet. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. I knocked out Hawaii in January, Alaska in March, I think it was. For the did a festival out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was it's been a year, man. It's been a the first half of the year, I think I was home 23 days.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

So they gotta be they gotta be starving for comedy up in Alaska. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

They're starving for everything.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

All right, hey man, it was good seeing you again. I always like talking with Dwayne White. Uh good to see you, bro. Thanks for doing this. You too, man.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Oh, heck yeah. Thanks for having me, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

All right, we'll wrap it up there.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

All right, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Yep. We'll see you next time, guys. On the bar gig files.