Out comedian and actor Kevin Allison is bringing his show, "Risk! Live," to the Up Comedy Club with a special recording for his podcast. Past guests have been Margaret Cho, Rachel Dratch and Sarah Silverman, to name a few.
His MTV show, The State, catapulted him to stardom back in 1994. On that series, he played a variety of characters.
He appeared on HBO's Flight of the Concords, Reno 911!: Miami and VH1's Best Week Ever.
He spoke with Windy City Times by phone to give insiders a look at his upcoming gig.
Windy City Times: Hi, Kevin. You are from Cincinnati, originally?
Kevin Allison: Yes.
WCT: Did you study performing there?
Kevin Allison: Cincinnati is the most conservative city north of the Mason-Dixon line so I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could because I grew up super aware that I was gay. I knew I was gay when I was in diapers!
I always dreamed of moving to New York City. I did and went to NYU. I went there for film school but within a few weeks I met the group that would be in the sketch comedy group The State. We started doing shows there together at NYU. I realized I didn't want to be a movie director that I wanted to act and write. The group was spoiled by good luck and fortune because it wasn't even a year after we graduated that we were on MTV. First we were on a series with Jon Stewart called You Wrote It, You Watch It. After one season he got his own show and so did we.
WCT: Describe The State to people who missed it.
Kevin Allison: It was a sketch comedy show. It was on for three years. A ton of the people from the show are now doing a whole bunch of other things. It was transformational and formative to people in the group.
When the group broke up I really didn't know what to do with myself. Other people in it were in little cliques so they went on to do Reno 911 and Wet Hot American Summer. I was a loner in the group. I thought I might just go solo and get up on stage playing kooky characters. I tried that for over a decade and I just wasn't getting anywhere. I did my final show in 2008.
Michael Ian Black, another member of The State, saw my show and told me he felt the audience wanted me to drop the act and start speaking as myself. I thought I was too gay, too Midwestern, and too kinky for that. My humor is absurdist and abstract. I'm too many Jekyll-and-Hyde things. Hollywood doesn't get me and they don't know what box to put me in. It felt risky and he said that means I should do it. People might like it because it is juicy.
The very next week I tried one of the true storytelling shows. I heard about this place called Stripped Stories at the UCB Theatre and they wanted my stories to be about sex. I said, "Great, I will talk about the time I tried to prostitute myself!" I was worried about it but it was night and day for me. For the first time I was looking into audience member's eyes. I saw energy there and could feel it. I was conversing with them at some points and getting their feedback.
WCT: Sounds like a discovery time for you.
Kevin Allison: There were times I thought it was a little too gay or kinky. The inner voice in my head would pop up. The audience didm't care. They liked it because I was being me. I started to force myself to do it on a regular basis. Podcasts were just becoming popular at the time. I would have a deadline every week. The theme would be the subject that night. It could be about family, God or drugs. The storytellers just needed to get on stage and not tell something that is too polished or rehearsed. It is like talking to a therapist or a really close friend. I decided to call the show Risk. People immediately wanted to come see the show and be in the show. It had momentum behind it from the very beginning.
WCT: I listened to Cameron Esposito's section and yours as well. So this will be a live version of it.
Kevin Allison: Yes, and every story has a beginning, middle and end. It is designed to center in on one moment that they were especially wound up. It was either the most mortifying thing that ever happened to them, or the time they were head over heels in love, or furious. That is the sort of thing that we want people to delve into.
WCT: So this is the not the Joan Rivers tell a joke stand-up; this is more Kathy Griffin, who tells stories.
Kevin Allison: It is a different version of stand-up. Stand-up comedians get very uncomfortable with the show at times because storytelling is now what folk music was 1960. There are about 40 storytelling shows in New York. You can go to a sstand-up show or a storytelling show. Generally, audiences know that with storytelling it will not be many laughs per minute.
There may be laughs in the story but at Risk there is no place that we fear to tread. It can be a lesson at five years old or attempting to murder their mother. Some of the stories can be downright shocking. They are themes that you could not hear on NPR. We share our stories with some outlets but have to censor them. For Risk, our podcast people are used to the fact that it is uncensored.
We do one show a month in New York and one in Los Angeles for the podcast. The New York continent tours so I am coming to Chicago. We also do radio style stories. Sometimes that is me in my apartment or someone over Skype. Those stories tend to be even more intimate because the person is just talking to me. Sound and music is added later.
WCT: You mentioned a guy who called you names in your story. Have you talked to him since the airing of that episode?
Kevin Allison: No, I have a restraining order on him now. It is interesting that I have not seen him since. I am pretty sure he has left the neighborhood. I finally feel I can walk down that stretch to the subway.
WCT: This is now taking your show on the road and should be a fun night.
Kevin Allison: Yes, we are good friends with storytellers in Chicago so we have reached out them to get a juicy story. The story that night is "tumultuous." I listen to pitches then I work on that person's story with them.
WCT: Where do they reach out to you about this?
Kevin Allison: Risk is at risk-show.com . There is a submissions page on it. Someone can fill out a form to pitch a story there.
Look for Allison at the Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North Ave., on Wed., Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.upcomedyclub.com .