Interview · moment 15 of 20
Being Authentic vs. Copying Other Comics' Brands
from Bert Kreischer · #137
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
4 minGuest
Riff on comics who copy others' styles (buying certain shoes, doing jujitsu, doing act-outs) rather than being authentic, including Bert's admission his early act ripped off David Tell and Dane Cook.
- 44:41Tim admits his early special was a David Tell Dane Cook ripoff, imitating the fun party frat guy persona.
- 45:04Comics copy successful acts like Sebastian's act outs without understanding why those acts originally worked.
- 45:51Tim describes watching comedians repeat identical jokes across multiple specials instead of challenging themselves.
- 46:08Bill Burr as the counterexample—switching up his approach with act outs and different material each special.
- 46:26Stan Hope told Tim he'd exhausted his great jokes, then called him one day getting grapefruit and vodka, trying to write knock knock jokes.
- 47:00Tim spent a week convinced he could write great knock knock jokes because those writers weren't funnier than him.
- 47:23What if a comedian ended a special on three original knock knock jokes instead of crowd work?
- 47:46Tim became obsessed with Norm McDonald and decided he needed to write a guy walks into a bar joke.
- 48:03Found his guy walks into a bar joke in a Starbucks on April 13th—the most fun he'd had in comedy.
- 48:19Tim's challenge: keep his strengths in storytelling while disciplining himself in classic comedy forms like knock knock and bar jokes.