AND ANOTHER THING ...
ACTOR MICHAEL RAPAPORT RETURNS TO THE STAND- UP COMEDY CIRCUIT OLDER, WISER AND WITH A LOT MORE TO SAY
Michael Rapaport started out as a comedian. He left his New York City home at the age of 19 — a “19year- old hip- hop kid from New York with a lot of attitude,” as he describes himself — for Los Angeles and started to build a career as a stand- up.
Rapaport, back on stand- up tour beginning at The Stress Factory in Bridgeport Feb. 13- 15, said those early forays were “a free- for- all.”
“I didn’t really craft bits,” he says. “I didn’t really understand how to put together a set but I was fearless, and I wasn’t afraid.”
Rapaport has matured. Where his act may have been unstructured, it’s now an extension of his biography.
“I think I had more to say, more of an understanding of the craft of it, the impetus to get a lot of things off my chest,” he says when asked why he returned to comedy. “Being a father, married and divorced, coming into my own as a man.”
Rapaport has had a diverse career. His IMDB page lists 115 acting credits, both on television, (“Friends,” “Boston Public,” “The Simpsons,” “Atypical,” “Pound Puppies” and “My Name is Earl,” just to name a few) and on film (“Hitch,” Bamboozled,” “Small Time Crooks,” “Inside Out,” “True Romance” and “The Basketball Diaries,” among many others).
It was, he said, a “passion for acting” that emerged after his arrival on the West Coast. But he’s also worked as a director, taking the helm on a documentary about ’ 90s hip- hip mainstay, A Tribe Called Quest.
He’s also made a habit of creating viral Instagram videos. One shows a cat with comically large eyes, which Rapaport comments on in a thick, New York accent. In another, two moose fight in what appears to be a suburban neighborhood while Rapaport yells for his “ma” to come see the spectacle.
He says the videos are spun up quickly, usually while he’s walking his dog.
“They take on a life of their own,” he says.
“The popularity of them is not something you can predict. I do them so fast.
It’s really just fun. Instagram to me is just a fun place.”
Now embarking on a nationwide tour, starting in Bridgeport before heading south to Tampa, west to San Diego and ending in Nashville in May — with stops across the country in between — he’s excited to be back on the stage.
Part of it, he says, is the measure of control. “You’re the writer, director, editor, producer and publicist in stand- up.”
Rapaport also speaks about the “immediacy” and “creativity” of the artform, as well as the “the unpredictability of it, the open palette of it.”
“It’s a never ending world that you can explore,” he says.
But he also recognizes that along with control, creativity and immediacy comes risk.
“You have to take the good and the bad on the responsibility for it,” he says. “The elation you get from performing in front of a crowd — it just keeps you sharp.”
“IT’S A NEVER ENDING WORLD THAT YOU CAN EXPLORE.”