Page 135 - Katherine Ryan press pack 2015-20

RYAN: I think you have to find a balance. Usually now, I can tell if

my audience is going to think something’s funny or not. But then

there are a few stories and a few jokes that I love, and they never

really get a good reaction, but I keep them in just because I love

them. You wouldn’t be able to have a whole show like that, but there

are comedians that pander to the audience as well and that can be

pretty lazy. They do, maybe, this simple joke that gets a laugh, and

this joke might be misogynist, or they might be punching down

rather than punching up. It’s tempting just to do the thing to make

the audience laugh in a club setting, and you don’t want to do that

either. It’s been said about James Franco that he makes some films

that are going to sell very well, and then he makes a few indie films

for himself, and then he’ll make a few films that sell really well, then

a few for himself. I think you have to treat jokes the same way. Fun

for you, fun for me, fun for you, fun for me—and hopefully, the bulk

of them are for everyone.

BROWN: How malleable is your show once you’re on tour? Do you

skip bits or improvise or feed off the audience? How does that work?

RYAN: It’s really good to be interactive. With so many streaming

services and so much stand-up comedy on television as well,

there’s nothing that emulates a live experience perfectly. If you

didn’t have things happening on the night and in the moment that

involved the audience, then there wouldn’t really be that much

incentive to go out and support live comedy. You do have to be

really flexible and malleable, and talk to the audience to see what

they’re going for and what they’re not. And change the order of

things, maybe. I do a lot of topical stuff as well, and you just can’t

get away with doing that for eight months on tour because the world