Published: January 27, 2008 9:45 AM EST
By: Isaac Joseph Davis Junior
Edited by: Tina D Leggett (Juniorscave.com)
Photo provided by Lance Weiss.
Comedian/Actor Lance Weiss can be seen making us laugh on stage or video. He currently resides in New York City; the city that never sleeps, but is originally from the Golden Isles of Georgia. He performs stand-up comedy just about every night and does it quite well - we might add. This funny man was kind enough to take some time from his extremely busy schedule to allow us to delve into his mind via a phone interview. Here is what we discovered.
Lance Weiss is a very funny stand-up comedian and down to earth guy. I really did enjoy the interview with Lance as he was more than eager to answer all of my questions. I started the phone interview with the usual salutations which included asking him how the Christmas Holiday was going. Now to the interview, one of the first set of questions that I wanted to ask Lance surrounded his major move from the city of Brunswick, GA to New York City. I especially wanted to know about some of the adjustments that he has had to make and some of the shocks that he has encountered while living in this extremely busy city. Lance revealed that one of his bigger alterations involved his adjusting to the extremely busy pace of the city life versus that of a smaller city. He stated that in the city “there is something to do all the time. Everywhere you go there is something happening”. Another adjustment came in the form of expenses. Living in the city of New York is extremely expensive. This is something that can take a person for a loop initially if he or she is not prepared for it.
As for the advantages of living in the big city versus a smaller city, Lance explained that in New York City a person has the ability to perform at a variety of shows and notably, a person can do as many as five or so shows a night. He impressed upon me that anyone who is seriously interested in becoming a Stand-up Comedian needs to consider making the move to New York City because of the many clubs/establishments that one can work at regularly. Take Atlanta, Georgia, a great place to make a name for one self if you are a musician but not necessarily so great if you are a comedian. Even Los Angles would not fare as well as New York City for comedians according to Lance. I tend to agree. The great people of New York were the next topic of interest. He reminisced about the moment when a guy dressed quite differently from the norm boarded the subway that he was about to ride. Prior to this guy’s entrance it had been relatively silent then this guy’s appearance really broke the calm because all of a sudden everyone was just laughing. He immediately thought to himself, “I wonder if everyone is thinking the same thing”. He believes that a cool moment like that can be had in just about every city but it seems more poignant when one lives in New York City.
When Lance was younger, he was not the traditional class clown yet seeing him today that is so very hard to believe but truly he wants us to believe that he was really just a regular funny kid; he would make statements and folks would just laugh. At this point, he had the first hint that he may be somewhat funny. But, it was not until he final began performing in front of a live stage audience that he believed! “It was like the audience and I connected. The audience and I were on the same page and the moment felt so great to just have this connection with a group of unknown people”, Lance explained.
Although there are many challenges to doing Stand-up Comedy, Lance mentioned that the biggest challenge for him at times is writing the actual material for his skits. But, he does not let this stop him from always achieving his best when it comes to doing comedy. From the interview, Lance’s love and passion for comedy revealed itself each time I would ask him another question. In fact, when I asked him about the intrinsic rewards of doing comedy as well as his desire of what the audience will acquire from one of his performances, Lance revealed that he hoped that someone would take from one of his performances the joy of laughter. What I really love about his answer was that as he explained it; “laughter is the best medicine to cure many sorrows. If a person can come to one of my shows and for that hour or so forget about his or her problems and just laugh, I feel that I have done that person a great service”. I agree with Lance; I know that there have been many times over the years when I am listening to comedians, I tend to forget for that hour or so the problems that I am having.
One pressing question that I wanted to broach is how does he handle - while on stage - the routine heckler who just won’t shut the hell up? Laughingly, Lance stated that he pretty much ignores the guy or girl who is doing the heckling so that this will not give the heckler power. If the heckler continues, he will allow the audience to “attack” the heckler. With this approach for the most part, the heckler will just shut up. Additionally, I was interested in how he would handle an audience that seemed to be unresponsive. Lance explained that goes with the territories when you are performing for an audience; You never know what type of reaction you will receive from an audience but that is what makes doing Stand-up comedy exciting. You challenge yourself to do the best you can do every time and hope for the best response from the audience.
Lance stays busy with his schedule. After reviewing his MySpace account, I asked him, how does he keep each performance new and fresh? Lance recalled that he always goes into each performance first and foremost giving it his very best. Secondly, he always treats each performance as if it is just his very first to retain that sense of newness that then spills over to his audiences.
Carolines at Broadway appears to be the most enjoyable venue in which Lance has performed due to its improvisation although he does enjoy many of the clubs in the City. Lance can attribute Jim Carrey’s style as one of his major influences; he feels that Jim Carrey is a gifted comedian who takes his comedic flair beyond the typical boundaries of comedy which is a really good aspect of Jim Carrey’s world wide appeal. Lance has some additional insight into the influences obtained by the many Comedians that he has met, and he does not mean for just a quick hello. He means an actual face to face with these different iconic comedians while backstage waiting to perform such as Dave Chapelle.
As a final wrap up question, I wanted to ask Lance what advice - if any - that he could provide to anyone who is trying to get into the Stand-Up Comedian business. Lance believes that location, location, location is of extreme importance. He also believes that if a person is serious about this comedian business that he or she will need to go a place like New York City that offers the opportunities to pursue his or her craft since nightly performance opportunities are there!
Lance sees himself continuing to perform Stand-up Comedy professionally and maybe doing some acting (commercials) for the next five years or so. If you would like to catch up with Lance, please visit his website at http://www.myspace.com/lanceweiss or http://www.lanceweiss.com for more dates of where the comedian will be performing and new videos.
Thanks for your support,
Junior's Cave Online Magazine/JC Internet Radio Staff Team,
