‘Nerdy’ comic
Brian Posehn stays busy with stand-up, film, TV and writing
Brian Posehn never misses a beat.
If he’s not traveling from city to city performing stand-up comedy, he can be found working in TV or film. And he has a flourishing writing career. In fact, he took most of last year to write “Forever Nerdy: Living My Dorky Dreams and Staying Metal.”
The 53-year-old comic is putting together material for a comedy special, which will be recorded this winter. He will make a stop at The Stage at Santa Ana Star on Saturday, Aug. 10.
“I have no idea how it all works out,” he says of his many projects. “Whenever I’m working on a project, that’s where my focus is.”
Posehn always keeps his eyes open for potential projects.
In March, he was part of the 311 Caribbean Cruise VI.
“That wound up being really fun,” he says. “It wasn’t a total fit musically for me. I liked (311) when they first came out, and I met them years ago. I’ve been friends with some of the guys for a long time, and we had always talked about me joining the cruise. I had two comedy sets, and then I was able to get to get some downtime. I did completely relax on that cruise. I wasn’t worried about political jokes on a boat.”
Posehn is best-known for his time as a series regular on Comedy Central’s “The Sarah Silverman Show.” He’s also been in “The Big Bang Theory,” “Lady Dynamite,” “New Girl” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” among other shows.
In the past few months, Posehn has focused on comedy.
“It’s mostly been selfish,” he says of his recent comedy work. “I get really excited about jokes when they are new. When they aren’t new, it’s hard to fake it. It’s really about keeping and staying creative for
myself.”
Posehn says his writing process for comedy and his book is similar.
And he says he edits himself harshly. “The book was the same in the fact that there has to be some storytelling while being funny,” he says. “I used some of the bits that I learned over the years. In the book, I’m reflecting on my life. It’s a lot, and the scope is broad. There’s only one chapter in the book about my career. I really focused on identifying as a nerd and seeing where that came from.”