WHEN: 9 p.m. Feb. 13
WHERE: N.C. Comedy Arts Festival, Cat's Cradle, 300 East Main St., Carrboro
ADMISSION: $10
ON THE WEB: www.nccomedyarts.com
BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN
dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563
The stand-up comedy headliner for the N.C. Comedy Arts Festival this month is a man who is not only funny in his own right, he picks out comedians to perform on The Late Show with David Letterman. Eddie Brill has warmed up the crowd for Letterman for the past 13 years. For the past nine, he has also booked all the other comedians on the show. He performs during "The Late Show," too, and on tour. Brill doesn't slow down.
"I'm a workaholic because I love, love, love what I do," Brill said.
He is creative director of the Great American Comedy Festival in Johnny Carson's Nebraska hometown, and helped create the Emerson Comedy Workshop. He also does voice-over work and is a comedy consultant for Readers' Digest.
"I'm never bored. It's always fun for me. I'm really honored and don't take it for granted," he said.
The passion N.C. Comedy Arts Festival founder Zach Ward has for comedy drew Brill to North Carolina, as well as tapping the market here and checking out other comedians performing at the festival.
"For me, I'm a comedian so I understand a comedian in the developmental stage. I can see that oomph and will keep them in mind," Brill said. "It's that sense you have. Since I was a child, I've had that sense of comedy, a rhythm in the room. There's a vulnerability, a transparency to how they see life, what they find funny. You see their soul."
Brill believes being a comedian is innate.
"You can't teach someone to be funny. You either are or you aren't," he said. "You've gotta have the rhythm, the funny, in you already."
Brill travels the world as a performing comedian and sees thousands of comedians, many of whom have become his friends. Those friends recommend other comedians they've seen; Brill checks out clips and goes from there to book them on Letterman. He travels with a laptop so he'll watch clips and give feedback to comedians coming soon to Letterman. Comedians on "The Late Show" get a four and a half minute set. It's their set, but Brill gives suggestions. He likens it to being a director for a play. And when he is going to perform, he has friends critique his planned set, too.
Brill dreamed about being on Letterman just like the comedians he books do.
"It is fantastic. It is a dream come true. He's a respected broadcaster. He has so much integrity, is so funny, so intelligent. He treats us like gold," Brill said.
The recent drama with "The Tonight Show" was great for "The Late Show," he said, but all they had to do was keep being funny. Jay Leno isn't the same kind of comedian as Letterman, Johnny Carson and Conan O'Brien, Brill said.
"With Jay, it was time for him to move on, and he said it was OK. He went back on his own word," he said. "Conan was classy. Leno seemed like a kid with his lollipop that wanted it back."
If O'Brien moves to another network for a show in a competing time slot with Letterman, Brill isn't concerned. "There's room for everybody. You don't compete against somebody else, you compete against yourself. Just because you're popular doesn't mean you're good."
George Carlin was Brill's comedic hero, he said. Richard Pryor is up there too. Chris Rock is the best comic of his generation, Brill said. "He's very smart, vulnerable and funny. He's a great combo of smart and silly." Other comedians on Brill's list of favorites include Norm McDonald, Brian Regan, Joe Wong, Jim Gaffigan, Lily Tomlin and the late Billy Hicks.
Brill never knew he'd be a comedian or work on Letterman.
"I ad lib my life every day and instinctually go toward what's right. My plate is full with what I love and there's always room for more," he said.
Stand-up comedy is one of the biggest challenges of his life, and biggest reward when it goes well.
"When you start out and get that first laugh, you chase it the rest of your life. It's like a drug. There's no better feeling than making people laugh," Brill said.
