December 15, 2022
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Mike Binder
The story of Brad Upton’s rise to fame in the stand up world is something that sounds like a Hans Christian Andersen story. Kicking around for a couple decades, opening for acts like Joan Rivers and Johnny Mathis, he’s picked up by an outfit called Dry Bar Comedy that puts up a long list of unknown comics on Youtube out of Salt Lake City. It sounds like an endeavor that’s gonna end up as a nice solid silent fart until he puts put a routine about millenials that gets millions and millions of views overnight and then keeps on going and he becomes another internet mega download story, but this time it’s different because he’s the real deal, he’s put in the time.
He’s paid his dues. He’s a real comic and he can cash in on the views in a way that a lot of the Youtube wonders can’t. He can sell out shows and leave people happy and wanting to come back for more. He can write great bits and tell jokes that hit home to people his age and younger. He’s a really special comedian. I have to say I love this guy’s stuff. He’s really inspirational to me. I’ve never met him, I’m only a fan, he’s not the kind of comic I usually fan out on either, but I have really gotten into him in a big way.
Part of it is his story, yeah, the magic of it, part of it is because he kind of reminds me a little of my buddy Tim Allen, I don’t know why, but also, because he’s just really, really funny in an honest day to day life way. Almost a throwback to a David Brenner or Cosby in his prime way. Pulling comedy from thin air. Making it look so easy when you know damn well it isn’t.
ON THE ROAD
I also get the sense he loves it. It seems like he’s on the road all the time. Traveling like a maniac. He’s based out of Seattle I believe, never did the L.A. or New York thing which I respect. Was a fourth grade teacher and high school track coach before getting into stand-up. Just seems like my kind of guy. Okay fine, I want to blow him. There, I said it.
Seriously. I don’t want to blow him. I want to be him. I want to be that good. That smart of a craftsman. Check him out if you don’t know him yet. I know I tend to go on and on about a lot of newer hipper acts and podcasters but this is someone with a lot of class and an Instagram, Tik Tok and Youtube account you should really follow.
Also here’s his newest special;
THE WAY FORWARD
I’m really interested to see where he goes after this special. It’s going to be fascinating in general to see where a lot of Stand-ups of a generation who stay with it will go. Louis C.K. brought it up to me in the interview I did with him in The Comedy Store doc. He was talking about keeping with his act as an old man and doing comedy about that, and how a lot of comics he looked up to didn’t live to be able to do material about older life so much. That it was a young man’s game and it was a shame because you get so much better with age. I think George Burns was the only straight stand up that really made a long, long run of it.
I can see Brad really growing with the years and doing some really special stuff. The form itself has matured so much over the years and the acts and the audiences have both grown in age, acceptance and willingness to stretch. The best seems yet to come.
