Jeffery Garland
After years of touring the country doing stand-up, Brian Regan has achieved one of his life’s goals: appearing in a TV series. He currently stars in the Jerry Seinfeld-produced sketch/stand-up/audience Q&A hybrid series Stand-Up and Away! on Netflix.
“To me, a comedian getting a sitcom was sort of like an NFL team winning the Super Bowl: It meant they were good,” says Regan, who is performing at the Orpheum Theater on Jan. 25. “I thought if I ever get on TV, I wanted it to be something that's interesting and creative. If it's successful, that's gravy, but I don't really care about that,” he tells Isthmus in a phone interview.
Regan is so personable and down to earth it’s good to see him getting his shot on TV. For more than 30 years, he has been touring basically non-stop. Now, in addition to Stand-Up and Away!, the comedy connoisseur signed a contract for two hour-long specials on Netflix, one of which, 2017’s Nunchucks and Flamethrowers, is currently available. Material from his current tour will make it into a second show, which is being filmed in May. That one will be released at the end of this year, and will be his eighth hour of released comedy content overall.
On top of all that, he’s acting in Oscar-winner Peter Farrelly’s dark, drug-addled comedy series Loudermilk as Mugsy, a foul-mouthed, recovering addict absentee father, which is about as against type as you can imagine. He says he is given some “pretty serious stuff” to handle in season three. “When I read the script, I was like, ‘Boy...I don't know if I can do this,’” he says. “But I like to think I pulled it off in a pretty decent way.”
For all his recent success, Regan isn’t the kind of guy to forget his live comedy roots. He says he misses the days of rubbing shoulders with fellow funny folk. “I miss the cuddling!” he says. “As much as I enjoy making a large room full of people laugh, I miss the camaraderie of hanging out with other comedians.”
Regan says he strives for authenticity in his stand-up shows. “When I get on stage, I want people to see the real me,” he says. “I enjoy the audience knowing who I really am, and I feel like they're more willing to go on my comedy ride if they know who the real person is.”
[Editor's note: We corrected the performance date in this article. Regan performs on Jan. 25.]
