Comedian Steven Wright is counting coughs.
During his talk with the Sun, Wright jokes about his interviewer’s lingering cough from a bout with the flu.
“That’s five coughs,” he declares, with a giddy laugh. “I just like to count things.”
An icon cited by dozens of comics as their biggest influence, Wright doesn’t exude any hint of celebrity aloofness. As he was interviewed, he broke from the questions about his career and comedy legacy to ask about the welfare of the community in Santa Barbara and Montecito recently devastated by fires and floods, offering genuine concern and empathy. It’s a glimmer of sweetness that permeates through his notorious deadpan facade that’s made him a comedy legend.
Fans of the comic know him as the king of impassive one-liners, a torpid persona punctuated by razor-sharp observations and scream-out-loud funny jokes. Wright doesn’t open up much about his personal life or make fun of celebrities on stage, and that has served him well for nearly four decades. On Feb. 2, Wright will bring his unique comedy stylings to the Chumash Casino Resort’s Samala Showroom for a one-night performance.
Wright was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1985 for I Have a Pony as well as in 2007 for the follow-up album I Still Have a Pony. His film credits include everything from Reservoir Dogs to Babe: Pig in the City. In 2017, Rolling Stone named him the 15th best stand-up comedian of all time. He can even call himself an Academy Award winner, thanks to a 1989 short film he co-wrote and starred in called The Appointments of Dennis Jennings.
But Wright calls much of this meteoric rise nothing more than luck—good timing afforded to him by being in the right place at the right time with the right people.
“I just got lucky, lucky, lucky,” he said.
He began doing stand-up comedy at a young age, inspired by Johnny Carson, host of The Tonight Show, a famous breeding ground for up-and-coming comics during its heydey. Wright began watching Carson in his teens and became enamored.
“I loved him and loved the stand-up comedians he had on there,” he said. “I had never seen stand-up comedians before. I saw a guy come out for five minutes and he’d talk about life and say funny things and I thought I’d like to do that. So that’s how I got it in my head.”
After college, he tried his hand at open mic nights in Boston, determined to see if he had the talent needed for the rocky journey into stand-up. But Wright, who names George Carlin and Richard Pryor among his favorite comics, said he never really discussed his comedy ambitions much with friends, fearing he would somehow jinx himself.
“I was superstitious,” he explained. “I thought if I talked about it it wouldn’t happen. I really didn’t think it would happen. It’s like a kid wanting to be an astronaut or a baseball player.”
What happened to the young comedian next is nothing short of a miracle, according to his own words. Wright was working at shows in Boston, carving out a humble reputation as a local comic. One of the spots he worked in was Ding Hos, a Chinese restaurant that also hosted comedy shows.
“Some freelance writer wrote an article about it because it was such an odd situation,” Wright said. “And I don’t why but the article went into the LA Times. One of the producers of The Tonight Show, Peter Lassally, saw the article.”
About a year later, Lassally found himself on the East Coast touring colleges with his sons. While in Boston, the producer remembered the article and phoned Ding Hos to tell them he would be stopping in and wanted to catch some of the comics.
“I was one of the comedians on that night that he saw,” Wright said. “And three weeks later, I was on The Tonight Show. It was like a fairy tale.”
Carson had the unique ability to help make a stand-up comedian’s career with a few simple gestures. Getting invited to come sit next to Carson after a set was considered a major honor that many comedians didn’t enjoy their first few times on the show. Wright snagged the invite after his first set.
“I had another miracle,” he said. “They told me when I’m done, put the mic back on the stand and walk back to the curtain. So I did but there were guys in front of me who were waving at me to go sit down.”
But as much as he wants to dismiss his success to luck, it’s clear Wright’s pure talent propelled him past chance encounters. After his 1982 Tonight Show gig, David Letterman invited Wright to be on his show, and an appearance on Saturday Night Live soon followed. In 1985, he recorded the landmark stand-up comedy album I Have a Pony, and an HBO special soon followed. Wright then hit the college circuit and quickly became a household comedy name.
“It was a lot of fun, and it was weird,” he said. “I don’t really think about it anymore but it was like getting on a ride. I just kept focusing and trying out material. … That stayed the same even though all this madness was happening.”
As for other comedians’ complaints that a new era of political correctness is damaging comedy, Wright stopped short of agreeing. He pointed out that much of his material doesn’t fall into the realm of controversy but said he had noticed a shift in the way recent audiences react to certain jokes.
One of the other ways politics and social issues have seeped into his life is through his work with comedian and actor Louis CK on the show Louis. Wright worked as an actor on two episodes and as a producer on eight. After years of rumors had swirled about CK’s sexual harassment and abuse of women, The New York Times ran an article on Nov. 9 outlining numerous accusations against the Louis producer and star. CK issued an apology statement shortly afterward admitting that the women’s accusations were true.
Wright, who called his work on CK’s show one of the highlights of his career, was firmly outspoken in his condemnation of his friend’s behavior.
“It was a weird, freaky, wrong, screwed-up thing to do that,” he said of CK’s actions. “I don’t condone that at all. … I think the ‘MeToo’ movement is great. I think it’s horrible that he did that. But he’s still my friend, absolutely.”
Wright said that in his early days of comedy, he promised himself he would never use profanity, discuss celebrities, or mention politics. That changed significantly last year, when Wright began working some political jokes into his act to reflect his feelings about the current climate.
“This is really either happening or someone put acid in the water in the U.S.,” he said. “It’s like we’re on a roller coaster that went off the tracks and we’re just hoping it hits a hay field.”
Wright said the audience in Santa Ynez can look forward to a lot of jokes from his abstract perspective on life and the everyday things that plague the world. He also said he plans to perform some musical numbers on guitar as well.
“I just love doing the show,” he said.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is always on a roller coaster. Contact her at rrose@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 1, 2018.
