The Telluride Comedy Festival featured
luminaries from the world of American comedy, like Rob Corddry, Ed
Helms, Rob Riggle, Brian Huskey, Jessica Chaffin, Jamie Denbo, Bob Dubac,
Will Franken, Jason Mantzoukas, A.D. Miles and Seth Morris.
The Brigade veterans’ first ensemble performance will be “No Posers,”
where they play an indie rock band displaying its creative process for
the audience, in a kind of Nirvana meets This Is Spinal Tap, “which
should,” Berrier grins wolfishly, “be very funny.”
Friday night features sketches – Jeb Berrier, who comes from the Boston
area, says he’s especially looking forward to “Kosher Comedy” from Denbo
and Chaffin, straight from the suburbs of Boston.
Saturday’s Night of Stand-up will feature Helms, Miles and Corddry;
Sunday night brings A Night of Improv, with Corddry once again, and The
Naked Babies.
Berrier, famous in Telluride for his star turns in a dilapidated baby
carriage wearing nothing more than a diaper, loves nothing more than
improv, so much so that he gets downright serious whenever he’s talking
about it.
The first rule of improv, he says, is “don’t miss a trick – don’t ignore
anything that happens in a scene.”
In a setting as intimate as the 250-seat Opera House, he explains, “the
audience sees everything, so any small detail you notice. If you use it,
it’s like gold.”
He gives an example: “You’re talking about a scene in a friend’s home
life, and you mention his wife.
“Five scenes later, you might see the wife.” The audience is right there
with you, he says, “and it makes for a more artful, more complex type of
improv.”
Good comedians have “a quick filter” during improv – something Seinfeld
star Michael Richard was in short supply of during his unfortunate New
York performance that left him lost deep in a racist rant, Berrier says.
Improv, he adds, helps comedians “with their writing; it helps them
write bits in a few hours that are hysterical. It’s a skill that gets
better as you do it.”
While he’s in a quiet mode, Berrier offers a few insights into what
makes for good comedy.
“What these guys tend to have is a very fast, very sharp, very
unexpected sense of humor,” he says.
“They tend to stay one step ahead of the audience; I guess it’s about
being quick, mentally fast – they’re so good – it’s less about thinking
and more about things just coming out, and reacting to them.”
A history of working together is helpful, and most of the comedians
Berrier has assembled for the weekend have become regulars at the Opera
House over the years.
“They come here, they hang out, they ski – they love it here,” he says
of the group he’s assembled. “We get people like them to come back
because they love Telluride.”
And like so many performers, they love the intimacy of performing in the
Sheridan Opera House.
“When you’re on stage in the Opera House,” Berrier says, “everybody’s
just right there,” in an intimate give-and-take setting that ultimately
encourages honest give-and-take.