Photo by Eric Michael Pearson.
In his new Netflix special Wyatt Cenac: Brooklyn, Wyatt Cenac‘s observations of somewhat strange things that take place in his neighborhood are familiarly funny to the Union Hall audience. But when he takes these stories to other towns on the Wyatt Cenac Live in Brooklyn in ___(insert city name here)___ tour, audiences will likely agree that odd things happen pretty much anywhere. It just takes a certain type of perspective to find the humor in it all, which is what Cenac has provided as a writer for King of the Hill and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The tour runs Nov. 13-23, but first Cenac talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about his special and how it might relate to people outside of Brooklyn.
Your recent Netflix special features stories and observations that are very specific to your home town. On this tour, will you be telling similar stories that are specific to each town in which you’re performing?
Yeah, it’s about Brooklyn. But I would argue that a lot of the things are relatable in any city that you live in. Just a weird experience [such as] seeing somebody bring a kid into a bar, I don’t think that’s a particularly Brooklyn thing. For me, part of doing the special is just talking about, yes, this is the place that I live. But I also think some of the shit in it is sort of relatable to any major city that has an artsy part of town where you see weird shit. As far as this tour, I’m just telling jokes about things from my life and things that I’ve seen.
I enjoyed the puppetry aspect of the special. Is that something you incorporate into your live shows?
No. That took a team of very talented people and it would be very expensive to try to take on the road. That was really more just for the visuals while watching the special. Watching a special on TV, you’re kind of seeing the most watered down version of it. The best version of seeing standup is actually being there. The second best is just listening to it. Seeing it on your TV, at any time you can check your email or do anything else and you’re just listening to it. So I felt like adding those elements with the puppets was a way to add some visual jokes that would keep you visually engaged with the special.
The Barclays Center comes up in your special. WWE held its TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs event there shortly after the arena opened in 2012, and has since returned there. Any chance you’ve attended any WWE events there?
No. I haven’t been to a pro wrestling event in a long time. I think the last time I went to one was when I was living in California because I had an agent at the time who was a big wrestling fan.
Do you happen to have any wrestling jokes or stories you can share with me?
When I was younger I watched a lot more wrestling, but I don’t watch it as much now. Every now and again I’ll get a few tweets directed my way whenever John Cena and Bray Wyatt are in wrestling matches against each other. The hashtag #WyattCena will come up and it’s a very strange thing because I’ll see tweets directed at me that will say things like, “Why is #WyattCenac trending? Oh, it’s not him. It’s a wrestling match.” That’s the one connection I have to it at this point in my life. One of the highlights of my time at The Daily Show was getting to meet Mick Foley. He’s a very nice guy.
A very nice guy who also now does standup. What was that experience like? Have you ever considered doing a comedy tour with him?
We met twice and didn’t really get to spend a ton of time together. Once he came in right before we were shooting and we talked him trough what we were doing. He was happy to help out and was really nice. The next time I saw him, The Daily Show went to D.C. for the Rally to Restore Sanity and he was there. We never really chatted too much beyond that and I’ve never had a chance to see him do standup. He was entertaining the idea when I met him, but it was after my experiences with him that he started doing the tours.
In addition to The Daily Show, you also worked on King of the Hill. What were those experiences like for you and how does working for a TV show compare to doing standup?
They were both great. They’re both very different in that it takes about nine months to make one episode of King of the Hill versus The Daily Show, which takes about nine hours. So I learned two very different ways of making something: a fast one and a much more drawn out process with animation, which I’ve always been a fan of. They differ from standup because standup is my own thing, it’s my ideas that I can take out and see how they work. Working on someone else’s show, it’s their show, so you have to be able to write for somebody else. To do things for yourself is a little more satisfying creatively.
Tell me about the film you worked on with David Cross.
I shot a film that David Cross directed called Hits. I’m not sure when it’s getting released, but it went to Sundance this year and got a lot of good attention. So hopefully it will be out soon. And I’m doing these tour dates for the new special, and we’ll see what the New Year brings.