Inside With: David Angelo
The whirlwind known as David Angelo has been seen all over the underground stages in Chicago, including Chicago Underground Comedy, the Lincoln Lodge, Pressure Cafe, the monthly People Under the Stares installment, at Zanies and the Improv, and in films shown at various multimedia showcases. He's also a formidable presence online, having developed a defined persona on both the local stand-up and improv message boards. He and the Bastion discussed a few things during our respective workdays over GMail.
I'm going to be real unoriginal to kick off this interview. You can comment on that if you'd like. You do seem to keep abreast of current events and the way mainstream media covers news in our culture and world politics at large. At any rate, if one was to have just met you and was curious about your beginnings in comedy and recent history in the field, how would you describe your work and history?
Well, media and comedy have been with me since the get-go. I began by editing the humor section of the Lexington High School newspaper. I can't remember much about what I wrote, but after I graduated they stopped having that section. In college, I was part of a sketch/improv group that was just top notch. Some of the funniest people I know were in that group: Ptolemy Slocum, Sam Sklaver, TJ Miller, Ken Barnard, Chris Himes and many others no longer active in comedy. Since moving to Chicago, it's been all standup and no group work. My goal for a standup set right now is to just do funny stuff, with little or no concern for how 'slick' I come off as a performer.
As a result, there are rarely segues or callbacks or themes to anything. The material is all over the place. I think it's funny how hypocritical the power centers of society are, but I also think puns about Mexican food are funny; so I'll mention both in the set. It's normal to start by talking about airplanes and end with a social commentary on unconscious racism or something stupid like that. I suppose a good description of my style would be 'sloppy.'
In the "David Angelo" style, this interview is going to be all over the place. Something currently on my mind is the recent conversation you've been having with peers regarding a "book" you are in the beginning stages of shopping. You haven't given us too many details about that project yet. Do you care to divulge some Bastion-exclusive information on that, or do you prefer to wait until a publisher and contract has been locked into place?
Yeah, I will give some exclusive information; though I’m not pleased you used quotations marks around “book” (as they denote irony). The idea came about a year or so ago when I started to really get into Emily Post. She is wonderful, but I thought the idea of an etiquette book would be a great format for comedy. My version is really much darker and details things like the proper fashion to be passive aggressive to co-workers, how to maliciously cut in lines at the drugstore, etc. – things like that. I don't know the first thing about publishing, so I don't know if talking about it is good or bad. I'm hoping someone will help me out with the business end. My inclination is that no one will print it anyway, which is fine - I'll then add a chapter on the polite way to torch a literary agent's office. The cover will be a picture of me with my arm around one of those cardboard cut-outs of Patrick Ewing. Tentative title is "The Fuckface's Guide to Hangin' in There." I have another, top secret, book I am starting now.
I've been spending quite a few workdays lately catching up on old episodes of Red Bar Radio, and I have to say, I quite enjoy the episodes where you co-host with producer Mike D. Several things have happened on the show with you, including the fact that you have become one of four regular comedian co-hosts for this three-day-a-week Internet radio show, and recently you debuted a song from your "band". Band!? Do explain what this is all about.
Red Bar Radio is pretty fun. For reasons I can't explain, I have built a respectable fan base over there. There is something nice about having actual 'fans' - people who don't know you at all except for your work. They are nice to me, as is Mike D. I did release a rough cut of Kommissar's latest rock and roll single last time I was there. My friends, Alex and Andrew Malozemoff, are the other Kommissars and the real musicians. I essentially hum tunes and they lay it down, with some heavy beats. It's hard to work together because we live in 3 different cities; but we get shit done, nonetheless. There are about seven respectable songs right now, so an album may appear soon. We should also change our name to "band" with quotation marks around it. Honestly!
So far we've discussed performing, music, and writing credits attributed to David Angelo. In addition, we've started seeing you out at a handful of shows with a very nice piece of camera equipment around your neck; we also heard about a recent photoshoot you set up for fellow comedians interested in new headshots. Why the interest in photography all of a sudden? And what model is that exactly? It's gorgeous.
Well, it's nothing sudden. I worked in photolabs all through high school and college and developed my own film and prints darkroom style since I was 17. Around the same time, I worked on the other side of the lens as a print model for a ridiculous hunting gear magazine. The camera you speak of is the Canon 20D, and we are registered at Macy's and Pottery Barn. I did do a headshot day for comics in the city, and offered an obscenely low price to entice them to come out. Only three people took advantage of it, so I ended up losing money because I rented a flash kit. I've offered other things in the past, such as a basic HTML seminar for comics, but no one saw the value in that, either. It's annoying - but I can avoid future disappointment by not offering these services again.
How have your lessons in Taekwondo affected other areas of your life? (ed. Yes, David is also an accomplished student of Taekwondo). How long have you been practicing the art? Have you found yourself utilizing the lessons, either subconsciously or consciously, in your comedic art and the culture it exists within?
I think everyone should have to learn martial arts. The general public are wimpy cry-babies completely devoid of self-discipline. I started taekwondo when I was 7 years old, and really got into it in high school. It's a way of life. I'm a totally different person in the dojang - it's all respect, no joking around. Taekwondo gives me an opportunity to be serious; which I think I need sometimes. When comics live in a constant state of irony and silliness, I think they can lose sight of goals pretty easily. I have a rank, so there is a leadership element in that which makes me immune to peer pressure. Also, practicing taekwondo gives me a lot of confidence, which definitely translates to my act.
You've also mentioned in vague terms an upcoming "world tour". What does the "world" consist of in this case? Can you go into any further detail on this particular piece of hearsay? Did your recent travels to Europe influence the genesis for this idea?
Well, 'world tour' is a bit of hyperbole. We will do the US and maybe some Canada, so I guess it's more of a NAFTA Tour. That stuff is still sort of secret, but we have dates and I think it's going to be a big thing.
Anyone who was at your recent Lincoln Lodge stint a few weeks back saw a slew of new videos, some produced by yourself and some produced in conjunction with local filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts. What has drawn you to working in this kind of multimedia environment? Will the Internet world at large ever get to see these films? Do you think you'll continue to develop multimedia projects for the stage in the near future? Any word on new projects in the works?
Well, hilariously enough, most of those videos are several years old. I dusted them off to see if they are still relevant; which of course they are. I majored in Electronic Media at college, so I consider multimedia my hometown. Video, photography, computers, websites; those are my pals. I think PowerPoint can be funny on stage, but videos are more for websites/DVDs. I would like to do more with that, but it's such a pain in the ass to get the equipment together and set up. Who knows?
So, perhaps someone not already formally introduced to your work has read this interview and is mucho curioso about this David Angelo character and would like to see for his own eyes what the commotion is all about. How can people learn more about you? Where can he witness the spectacle for himself?
Well, I am certainly not a very popular booking in Chicago. I have no stage dates ahead of me right now. I do maintain several websites, www.davidangelo.info and www.ridiculousparadigm.com, the latter being a more content-driven one. I have a couple web projects in the works that will be hilarious, no doubt. I also poorly maintain a USPS-based fan club called Jokeaholics Hilarious which is sporting about 100 members. There is also a local terrestrial radio program I will be working on with a really smart guy, so I am excited about that. I am always on the Haha Board annoying people, so there’s a good chance to find me there. I guess if you really want to get to know me, we can hang out sometime and grab some slices.
