JT Anderson
A man on stage with a microphone in front of a slide showing lava coming from a volcano.
Ben Miller is the first-ever comedian chosen as a recipient of a National Parks Arts Foundation residency.
Most comedians tend to follow the advice of Mark Twain to “write what you know.” Probably explains most of the relationship foibles, family drama, and personal failings we tend to traditionally hear about from stand-up comedians. Fewer comedians manage to work their educational backgrounds into their bits, incorporating specialized knowledge with the more traditional fare.
Ben Miller, an up-and-comer in the comedy scene, has managed to pull off the latter with aplomb. The New York City-based comic is on a new tour with an hour of stand-up on volcanoes, aptly called “Volcano.” Miller chatted with Isthmus by phone in advance of his April 21 performance in Madison at Crucible.
Born in the northern suburbs of Illinois, Miller is familiar with us Wisconsinites. He even opened the call by asking when the downtown outdoors Farmers’ Market starts up, and was happy to hear it should be going when he’s here. After earning a degree in materials science and engineering from Columbia University, he settled down in New York City, working in various labs. Those jobs led him to an interesting pit-stop: working aboard a science bus. Not driving the bus, but giving educational talks. “Driving in New York City is already really chaotic and wild and scary,” he said, “and [if] you’re driving a 40-foot bus that's got, like, a million bucks of scientific equipment in it, I’d rather not be on the hook for that.”
It was after his sophomore year at Columbia that he started doing stand-up comedy — at first for fun and stress relief. Over the next eight years, this side pursuit became more and more serious. A year-and-a-half ago, Miller started doing stand-up full time with his original set, Stand-Up Science. Miller sold out his slots at Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performing arts festival — an accomplishment for any comedian of any standing, let alone a fresh face.
Miller then applied to become the artist-in-residence at the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, becoming the first stand-up comedian ever selected by the National Parks Arts Foundation. “I was truly shocked,” says Miller. The foundation “is normally accepting painters, photographers, Grammy-award winning musicians.” He believes his science background, which he included on his application, may have given him that extra nudge.
His time in Hawaii was fruitful, enchanting, and enlightening. “It was such a unique experience to be able to immerse myself in the culture,” he says. He met members of the National Park Service, park rangers, Hawaiians, and the knowledgeable folks at the volcano observatory. “They were immensely generous with the level of access they gave me.” He spent a month at the park, learning history and science from those he met, and writing jokes.
Miller was new to Hawaii and the experience of writing for the residency with such focus was a different approach for him as well. “It was a more involved gathering phase in the writing, a deep immersion. It's a wildly different experience from living in New York City.”
Over the course of a month, Miller drafted his first full hour of material specifically on volcanoes, a demand of the National Parks Arts Foundation. “I had to present at 11 a.m., which was an immense challenge,” he says. “It felt less like an artistic residency, and more like a Food Network-style challenge.” He’s been honing the set over the last year, and is ready to debut a more polished version. You could say what started as molten rock has solidified into a piece of obsidian, ready to break your funny bone.
Miller is “immensely grateful that people come out to shows, especially since nobody knows who I am” and appreciates that “the audience is sort of taking a risk on this interesting premise, like ‘Let's see what this weird volcano guy has to offer.’” Even if the show doesn’t go well, he has a way to make himself feel better: “I like to say that on my good days, I'm a comedian, but if I'm bombing, I'm still a science educator.”
