A version of this was originally posted on cpluscomedy.com in 2019.
Smoke wafts around the stage located in the Northwest Cannabis Club in Portland, Oregon. Comedian Matt Besser waltzes around the packed club filled an already giggly audience. Are they laughing at the truly silly, Willy Wonka-esque song Besser is chirping through or is it something else? In actuality, it’s both.
Our conversation was hearty. After niceties, Besser said he had just finished shows from the previous weekend. He also spoke about his a few of his previous specials -- Besser Breaks the Record, in which the comedian vows to break as many records as possible in the time allotted; Woo Pig Sooie, a comedy record covering atheism; and The 6 Most Important Sets in the History of Standup, a confusing title that is not at all self explanatory.
Besser took to the stage this past April for his latest standup special, Pot Humor -- a show entirely dedicated to all things marijuana, bongs, getting high, weed… you get the picture. The audience was invited to partake as the show went on. Some might have taken it a bit too far.
“When I’m talking about the loving act of cunninlingus, I’m talking to my wife and right next to her is this kid who at first I think is passed out because his eyes are totally closed. When I’m in the middle of doing the show, that’s obviously worrisome to me because I’m like I don’t want it to look like people are sleeping during my show,” Besser remembers, “but then I realize he’s not passed out.
“He’s just his eyes are closed and he’s like rocking back and forth the way you would if you’re kind of grooving to a song. I realize he’s just kind of grooving, just enjoying the comedy in kind of a front row at the Grateful Dead kind of way.”
Post production editing tricks would be employed to reference the audience goer a few times throughout the show. Speaking of editing, Pot Humor, Besser suggests, is a must watch while high. Though the show was a treat for live viewers, the final product will provide a trip in itself.
Most comedy specials are shot over the course of two or more shows. The earlier show could have a joke that fell flat where as it killed in show two. Similarly, the second set may have a disruptive member of the audience or better audience reactions. No two shows are the same. Beser would use this to his advantage.
“There’s this one bit I did where -- there’s a mirror like right next to the stage so I told the editor put this full bit of me doing the show, one have it be in the mirror and show two will be on the stage, he hints. “It’ll seem at first like it just is the mirror. But if you pay attention, you’ll see ‘Oh this is a whole different performance. He doing it slightly different.’ So my Hope is people will be really high watching that and go ‘Wait a minute. What’s going on with the mirror? Why’s the mirror doing different acts than the guy on stage?’”
Casual comedy fans will recognize Besser as one of the original members of the Upright Citizens Brigade which also includes Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. UCB is a mainstay in the comedy community. There are countless oral histories on the stalwart theater pretty much anywhere comedy is covered. However, Pot Humor is unlike Besser’s previous projects.
“We used to tell audiences to throw lots of weed on stage like when the theatre first opened almost as a joke and they did.”
The improv team would eventually realize it was illegal to do that and stop. But now, Besser puts it, it would be no big deal.
“Now, we live in a society where that’s a joke,” he chimes, “Well, at least in California.”
When asked about his origins of pot-based humor, Besser hardpressed to point to an exact time when it all began.
“I think in my early stand up I can’t think of any weed jokes I did. And if I did was caused by something like a play on words kind of corny thing -- not really talking about it.”
He’s done shows specifically aimed around the stoner’s holiday 4/20. Besser’s long running improv podcast -- Improv4Humans -- celebrates the date every year as the host and guests smoke up before and during the recording of the episode. Besides the podcast, live shows hosted by Besser were also held on the holiday or even just the specific time of 4:20 PM at festivals like South by Southwest and San Francisco Sketchfest.
Before a special like this could be shot, though, it would need to be shopped. A little before he recorded, Besser said he did a test run of the show at a smaller venue in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“I used Colorado as the testing grounds for the special and we made a demo for it which is also kind unique and funny in its own way because you never know what the audience got to do.”
Unforeseen challenges would erupt from the test show. A woman that was perhaps a little too far gone would go on to unknowingly interrupt the show. He recalls the interaction with her in jest.
“I was like a TV to her. That’s one of the things. First it’s entertaining and then it’s like ‘All right. I got to turn the volume down on you stonie. I’m taping here,’” he laughs at the thought. “Usually you can shut them down.”
It happened previously at Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival.
“This is years and years and years ago… [this guy] yelled out something very offensive.” Unable to remember what the line was, Besser carries on. “It was one of those grind-everything-to-a-halt-things, but then we made a scene of it and it was a lot of fun, but I don’t know if I’d want that moment in a special.”
He notes that he doesn’t want to “get into it” with audience members. It’s just not worth it. But Besser is quick to note that weed audiences differ from drinking audiences wherein they tend to have an entirely different, more mellow vibe. He searched for a stage that would cater to the audience he was aiming for.
The Northwest Cannabis Club was the perfect venue for Besser’s special.
“That club has a clientele that’s just there everyday that may not have any idea who I am or care, but they’re still at the show. And that’s cool having that kind of audience -- random audience. And then the audience is totally high and I mean totally High even whether they want to be or not because there’s so much smoke in the room including myself. Halfway through the special, my nose started running I was like why is my nose is running? I was like ‘Oh fuck it’s because there’s so much fucking smoke in the air that’s why.’”
A credit of Besser’s includes a prank show called Stung on MTV with Redman and Method Man in the early 2000’s. One prank had the rappers judging battling beatboxers with Besser as a plant in the auditions. When he walked in with his fellow beatboxer, Redman was asleep on the couch.
“No joke. Just fucking so high he was asleep. And we’re rolling. The cameras were rolling! It was like ‘Redman, wake up.’ He just rolled right into the prank. ‘All right, man. What’s your beatbox? Let’s hear it.’ And I’m like, ‘Holy shit. This is the life.’ Getting high, fall asleep, when you wake up actions already been called in the middle of a scene.”
Marijuana isn’t his only hobby. Besser is also a music connoisseur with defining opinions on the state of music today. When I asked him about a recent tweet he wrote about this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, he was ready to defend his viewpoint wholeheartedly.
“The Bad Brains in particular has-- my comment really didn’t have much to do with Whitney and Biggie as much as my continual disgust that the Bad Brains have never been honored. And they have been nominated and now I think twice but they didn’t get in and now they just off the ticket and it’s ridiculous,” he says. “They changed rock and roll. They changed Punk into a genre that-- a sub-genre Punk called hard core because of their speed and their energy and performance style. They truly innovated and influence the genre of rock and roll.”
Through it all, Besser remains lighthearted.
“It was definitely a fun experiment.”
Follow Matt Besser on Twitter. Like him on Facebook. Heart him on Instagram. Check out Pot Humor.