Getting a laugh used to be easy. Remember when a well-timed armpit fart would kill during class? Comics could ruminate on what the deal might be with airline peanuts (they’re hard to open, har!), pair it with a racial observation that amounted to white guys looking goofy in short pants (true) and they had themselves a set.
 
But nowadays everyone’s a comedian. We’re inundated with funny, from the new breed of awkward “office humor” that’s become populist to viral videos care of sites like funnyordie.com and those virus-laden forwards you get from your mom featuring cats doing funny things. We read The Onion. We watch The Daily Show. We’re familiar with the flexible man from Nantucket. In other words, we’re overexposed, a tough crowd no longer sated by clichés or the easy.

Comedy has had to adapt, becoming smarter and more clever to keep us laughing, and nowhere is that more apparent than the Twin Cities. Ours is a well-read and astute audience not much for pity laughs. Our comedy clubs and improv theaters are breeding grounds for smart, innovative comedians, given that smart audiences breed smart comedians, or perhaps vice versa. (Consider this: Fred Beukema, of local improv troupe Fingergun, was a recent four-day winner on Jeopardy!.)

Here now are some of our favorite local stand-ups and improvisers, the funny men and women who have the proverbial milk spilling from our proverbial noses. They’re expanding and testing their chosen form’s limitations, all while redefining what’s funny, and occasionally picking on us if we sit too near the front.


Brian Beatty

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Age: 39
Hometown: Brazil (the one in Indiana).

Natural habitat: Various publications, including McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Monkeybicycle and METRO (he writes our jokes).

Past & Present: Brian moved to Minneapolis in the late ’90s under the impression that Prince was having a party, though he’s yet to receive an invite. He recently published DUCK!, a collection of stories, jokes and poems. He’s available for kids’ birthday parties and yard sales when not actively freelancing.

Style: Dark, surreal and concise; prose and stand-up.



IN HIS WORDS:
Funniest Movie: Animal House, according to a list I found on bravo.com. That works for me.

Funniest TV Show: Black Books with Dylan Moran and Bill Bailey.

Funniest Word: Diaper.

Worst Performance: Opening for Louie Anderson in front of 5,000 confused people one New Year’s Eve.

Best Performance: A showcase at the Hollywood Improv, summer 2005. See how famous it made me?

What’s funnier, awkward situations or falling down stairs? My awkward situation is funny, but you falling down stairs is considerably funnier. 

Always “on,” or shy when off stage? "Drunk" isn’t an option?

When/if heckled, I respond by: Offering the heckler a hug. That’s usually all he or she wants.

Most irritating comedy cliché: Keeping the applause going for other performers. “Giving it up” for them is stupid, too. Screw other performers.

I don’t have a sense of humor about: My bear suit.

Knock-Knock. Who’s there? “Who’s there?” is supposed to be my line. I’m not telling you how to write your little magazine feature about comedy, but you did just screw up your own joke.

Why did the chicken cross the road? A genetically insensitive dare.

Zinger: Having a baby changes everything. Especially when it’s not your baby.