Brad Steuernagel is a New York (by way of Chicago and Minnesota) comedian who keeps an eye out for fellow Chicago ex-pats who are also exploring the comedy environment in NYC. He was kind enough to take a break from throwing old baked goods at drunk passersby to talk to The Bastion about life, laughs, and succumbing to Jason Fever. Lately, he's enjoying the fun at Invite Them Up and making hilarious little videos like "Aggressive Walker." His ideas about short films and digital media back up The Bastion's assertion that comedians need to get their stuff online. He's working on a documentary about The Tubes, and is at least a little bit cooler than you by virtue of the fact that he recently crashed at Todd Rundgren's loft in San Francisco.

We've seen some of your vids, including "Subscriptions," in which you are the pitiful and annoying door-to-door magazine salesman who wants to come inside for Chunky Soup - and it keeps popping into our head at random moments and making us laugh. What's the shibby on one-off short vids? Do you do them mostly for fun, or do you think also they help market your particular brand of funny?

Thanks, I'm glad you find them funny. The videos I've made so far are pretty crude and were made for fun, but I put them on my reel anyway because I think they're a good representation of my brand of humor. Unfortunately, my stuff is more conceptual, which isn't that hot these days. I think humor based on ethnicity or "high energy" comedy is really popular, so I guess I'll have to do shorts were I yell a lot about being a fifth generation German/English white guy from Minnesota. "GROWING UP I ATE A LOT OF HOT DISH!!" AHHHHHH!!! OH MY GOSH!!!"

But seriously, shorts are a good way to get your foot in the door since a lot of broadcasters are creating broadband comedy channels and are looking for digital media. I think Channel 101, Blerds.com, Dave Hill Online and Human Giant are great examples of comedians creating high quality content that's funny, smart and well produced. YouTube seems to be hit or miss, it's nice to link to, but it's seems the most viewed videos are always teenage girls dancing or random nonsense someone took at a party on their cellular mobile camera phone.

You spent time in Chicago doing stuff everywhere - Second City, i.O., Annoyance. What do you value about what you learned in Chicago, and what made you decide it was time to shift over to New York?

Chicago is a really great place to try and find your voice comedically...hold on, there's two drunk Polish dudes arguing outside my window (I live in Greenpoint) it's very distracting....Okay, sorry. I told them to scram...Anyway, I tried everything in Chicago; improv, sketch, stand-up, one man shows. I guess I learned that putting together a show is easier than getting people to come and see it, especially when the reviewer misses the point of your show completely. (See a review from a show Brad did around that time, and Brad's response to that review as examples of what he means.)

My biggest influence in Chicago was Jason Fever. I saw him headline at Zanies and it blew me away. He was Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman rolled into one. Comedically, I learned from him you can be really dark and offensive as long as you're charming about it. I have his "Best of Fever" VHS tape and watch it all the time for inspiration...Christ, those Polish dudes are fighting again...just a sec...okay, I threw some old rolls at them. They're gonna think twice before bugging me again...okay, sorry...shifting to New York...

I left Chicago for New York in 2002. I had been booted from i.O. for throwing a chair at the audience (long story) and it felt like the only work for a writer/performer was at Second City, which the entire city was auditioning for, which is insane. So, let's see, there's a thousand performers waiting for what, 4 spots? Not good odds. Plus, on top of that, there was a lull in the stand-up scene. Lyons Den and Lincoln Lodge were starting to get hot, Elevated had its ups and downs and the Chicago Comedy Festival had taken a bath the year before so that was gone. All I could hear was a loud sucking sound, so I split.

We hear that "Invite Them Up" is an amazing room right now. What's going on there?

I was lucky enough to be around when it started, actually. I interviewed them in 2004 and made a little documentary, which is on my website. Eugene and Bobby had been in the city for a while so they had a lot of connections with some of the bigger alt-comedians and were able to build the show by putting up really funny rising talent like Demetri Martin and Aziz Ansari and then David Cross or Jon Glaser would come by and do something really bananas. Word of mouth spread pretty quickly that it was the place to see the best of "downtown" comedy. I think Bobby and Eugene compliment each other nicely; Bobby's a great storyteller/host and keeps things "up" and Eugene does a solid set of new stuff every week (when he's in town). Since Invite started, tons of rooms have sprung up all over the East Village, with the basic model Invite made popular. So it seems like the birth of a new form of comedy room. Hopefully bookers for TV shows will get their head out of their rumps and start scouting around more.

Can you give us some scoop on what Chicago comics are up to in New York? Is there a sense of "sticking together" with people from the same place?

Well let's see, Hannibal pretty much blew past everyone, which was humbling. He went from crashing at Sven's apartment to doing Montreal. Pete Holmes is a real titan. He's on the road with the VH1 "Best Week Ever" tour. Brooke Van Poppelen started a cool room with John O'Donnell and seems poised to take the city by storm. Mike Burns and I are going to do a new monthly show called Lundquist Entertainment Presents at Mo Pitkins, which is another new hotspot.

Sticking together is the name of the game. When I first moved to New York, all the Boston comedians had their own little cell of comedy, which was an eye opener. With that in mind, I think a lot of us from the midwest have banded together to help each other out.

What do you hope to achieve over the next five years or so?

I'd just like to be making a living doing something creative, writing or performing. I'm not picky. I just want to make enough money to buy a lake cabin, were I can play drums all day and have big bar-b-ques.

Gothamist has described you as "endearingly goofy." If you could choose any two words that would always be associated with you, what would they be?

Big Penis.

Brad Steuernagel will be in Chicago September 5, and hopes to grab some time onstage while he's here.

- Elizabeth McQuern