Sam Tripoli: Dangerous Comedy

by Noah Gardenswartz

Wild World of Spike star Sam Tripoli is a comedian who’s not afraid to take risks— literally.

When he’s not cracking jokes as a headlining comic, he’s more than happy to drive through brick walls.

By Noah Gardenswartz

Stand-up comedian Sam Tripoli is living the dream. As if it weren’t enough to make a living getting drunk and telling jokes, he even gets to co-host his own TV show, Wild World of Spike, on SpikeTV. Fresh off the release of his newest comedy album Crimefighter, Punchline Magazine caught up with Tripoli to discuss his life, his career and why he’s a hooker magnet.

How long have you been doing comedy?
For 12 years now. I went to college at UNLV and was part of an improv troupe that used to perform at casinos around town. That eventually opened doors for me to host an open-mic room, but at first nobody would come. It got so bad that I had to start hiring a live band to come play just so they could be the crowd afterwards.

Vegas isn’t a bad place to start your career though. Did constantly being in that type of atmosphere ultimately make you a better performer?
Oh, no doubt. But keep in mind, this was back in the time when Vegas was still trying to appeal to families as a vacation spot. It was like Disneyland with hookers.
So how long did you stay in Vegas, and why did you decide to eventually move to LA?
I was performing in Vegas for five years and after a while I just wanted something new. Don’t get me wrong though, I love Vegas. Those are my type of people. But if you’re going to make it in stand-up, especially if you’re trying to get into other things like television or movies, then Hollywood is just a better place to be.

Was the transition difficult for you, moving from Vegas to Hollywood?
Actually it wasn’t that bad because I moved into a really shitty apartment in a crazy area, so it felt familiar. There were actually four transvestite hookers that lived right down the street.

You seem to go where the hookers are.
I know, bro… or maybe they go where I go. I’m like the Hooker Whisperer or something.

So you moved to LA, started working the circuit and got to know some people. But thousands of aspiring comics do that, so what separated you from the rest, and in the end, how did you get to pitch Wild World of Spike?
That’s a really weird story. I actually didn’t pitch the show at all. I guess the producers at SpikeTV already had this idea for a show and wanted one of the hosts to be a comedian. So they were at the Laugh Factory one night looking for talent when my buddy Steve Byrne was performing. After his set they asked him to audition for the show and they told him that if there was another comedian he worked really well with he could bring them too.

So he brought me, and I got in there and didn’t know what the fuck to do. I started smacking Steve and dry humping the wall and shit, and all the dudes in the room were just looking at me like I was a complete retard. On the way home I felt so bad and I was apologizing to Steve for ruining the audition. But oddly enough, a few weeks later they called and offered me the job.

So you host the show, but you’re basically a stunt man too, because you and the other hosts have to find these crazy sports from obscure parts of the world and then attempt them, right?
Yea, and it’s funny because my co-hosts are Jason Ellis, who’s a legendary skateboarder, and Kit Cope, a martial-arts champion. You have an X-Gamer, and an ultimate fighter, and me. It’s like two superheroes and a Special Olympian.

What’s the worst stunt you’ve had to do on the show?
One time we had to make a sandwich while getting shot by paintball guns without a shirt on. I got shot 29 times. Another show I drove a bike through a brick wall. That obviously hurt real bad.

Is the pain worth it? Has the show helped your comedy career?
Yea man, the show has helped a lot. Now I’m headlining all over the place and doing all of the things I couldn’t do before. I’ve been working for 12 years but I’m actually glad it took me this long to get my shot because now I know from experience what to do with all of these great opportunities, versus if I got my chance too early.

When the show’s not in season how often do you travel and perform?
I get on the road about once a month, but I really like to gig in LA.

What are some of your favorite clubs to work?
I like the Comedy Store in LA and the Improv in Hollywood. I also really like the Punchline up in San Francisco because it’s such a smart crowd and it’s fun to do political jokes up there. Outside of California my favorite club is probably Riddles in Chicago because it’s just a crazy blue-collar crowd— my type of people.

I thought Vegas had your type of people.
I have all kinds of types of people. That’s why I’m so excited to be on the Vivid comedy tour starting in July. Porn people are definitely my type of people— me and porn people are like George Lopez and Mexicans.

Is there any crowd you can’t perform in front of?
Not really. Younger crowds are difficult because there’s a lot of my act that I can’t do, but they LOVE fart jokes.

Well clearly your career is going well, between being a headliner and having a TV show. So what’s next?
Man, I just want to bring the party back to stand-up comedy like Sam Kinison used to do— just fucking party and have fun.

Party on, Tripoli… party on.

For more information, check out www.samtripoli.com.

Joe Rogan: Shiny Happy Jihad

by Dylan P. Gadino

Though he derides his half-a-decade worth of work on Fear Factor — claiming no ownership of any of the horrid ideas acted out on said show — stand-up comedian Joe Rogan does admit that given a hefty pay raise, he might just have agreed to another season.

Of course, the set on Shiny Happy Jihad, performed at San Francisco’s famed Cobb’s Comedy Club, was recorded when the former NBC cringefest still had a small chance at renewal. By now, we all know the show’s long gone, and if Rogan has anything to say about it, the immediate association most people make between the LA-based comic and the show will soon fade away.

Though if the show’s line of crap — DVDs, a cookbook, Game Boy game, playset and candy — has anything to say about it, Rogan will not soon be forgotten as the bleary-eyed guy who enthusiastically encouraged poor saps to bite harder on those cow eyeballs.

Unfortunate? Yes. But is it any more unfortunate than being known as the guy who’s waged war on Carlos Mencia? No. Though one could safely assume that Rogan is publicly more proud of the latter association, both of these things are equally regrettable, mainly because each distracts the masses from this: Rogan is one of the most skilled and unique headlining comedians today.

On Jihad (his first album in nearly seven years), Rogan proves he has an amazing charismatic presence — an energy and a voice that prod, if not a hearty belly laugh, then some vigorous reaction from his audience. It’s this part of his personality that makes it so easy to agree with Rogan’s wild theories.

When he refuses to accept — as most people do — that, due to obvious mathematical and logistical obstacles, the creation of the pyramids is some grand mystery, you want to believe him.

“I think that people used to be really, really, really smart,” he says. “But the dumb ones just outfucked the smart ones. I think we are all the bastard children of the idiot stone workers of Egypt.”

And when he’s not theorizing or dropping pot-inspired faux profundities — “This whole universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies each with hundreds of billions of solar systems might just be a part of one atom that’s in a cell of the balls of another guy who lives in another universe — he’s sneaking in observations that are more of this world…but always with a twist.

For instance, even Rogan does girls-are-different-than-boys jokes. Most times, however, they’re dressed in subplots, like when he contrasts men and women by exploiting Islamic terrorists’ belief that their ultimate sacrifice means an afterlife with 72 virgins.

“Pussy is so strong that there are dudes willing to blow themselves up for the highly unlikely possibility of pussy in another dimension,” he explains. “You know how fucking crazy that is? There’s nothing that’s got that kind of power. Dick isn’t even in the ballgame. There are no chicks alive willing to blow themselves up for dick. You offer 72 dicks to a chick, you’re gonna have a real short line of dirty transvestites with deep wrist scars.”

Throughout Jihad, Rogan’s high energy and seeming stream-of-consciousness delivery allow us to believe he’s just winging it. But it’s obvious that he takes his stage time seriously. He’s an expert pacer, his topics are varied but play well together and he self-deprecates just enough to kill the cockiness that threatens to creep in from time to time. It’s a formula that would translate well to theaters, places where he, no doubt, will soon be consistently playing.

If Rogan is out to prove himself as a major stand-up comedy force with this album’s release, he’s done so with great success. But now that he has the proof and the power, will he use it for good — or will Fear Factor references and the Mencia beatings continue to overshadow an amazing talent?