What comedic doors did winning the 2006 Andy Kaufman Award open for you?
First and foremost definitely was the honor of winning it and even being in the same room as Andy Kaufman’s family. It opened doors for me personally, for myself, as a validation. I don’t know if I can pinpoint any one thing. I think it just adds to the pedigree in a way that helps fill it out a lot. People will look at my work: “Oh, I like Andy Kaufman! What’s the Andy Kaufman Award?” It just adds another level of credibility to what I do.
What does comedy provide you as a performer that music doesn’t?
They share timing, and the timing, texture, delivery, all of those things are related to me. I found that I was tending to do a lot of banter when I performed songs, but I think after a while the band was like, “Um, can you kind of tone it down?” Which was fine. But it did make me think, “Well, I do like to do that a lot ...” So that thought became more tangible, and when an opportunity came to move to New York I was like, “Screw it, I’m going to move to New York and become a comedian!”
What percentage of your appearance on Brian Posehn’s Comedy Rock Show will be comedy, and what percentage will be rock?
I don’t know. I don’t fully know what that show is, if there’s a hardcore premise or that’s more the spirit of it. The other reason why I don’t know is I improvise most everything when I go onstage. I just have no idea what I’m going to do until I put my foot onstage and it comes to me, for good or bad. But making music away from my performances, I kind of adapt to the situation. I usually like to watch the entire show so I can add to it as a whole.