{"id":10773,"date":"2015-07-10T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=10773"},"modified":"2015-07-14T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T16:17:28","slug":"comedian-brian-regan-on-his-long-road-to-laughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2015\/07\/10\/comedian-brian-regan-on-his-long-road-to-laughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian Brian Regan on his long road to laughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is exactly one comedian who has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman<\/i> 28 times: Brian Regan.<\/p>\n

The American has explored his talent in various avenues, including TV specials, corporate gigs, and film, but it\u2019s his stand-up that really stands out as being the defining aspect of his career. All the while, Regan maintains a down-to-earth quality that\u2019s accessible to audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person who is on stage is me, but it\u2019s an amplified version of me,\u201d says Regan. \u201cSometimes in a punchline you might adopt a character that\u2019s dumber than you really are, or angrier than you really are, but in the set-ups I keep trying to come back to ground zero, so that the audience is looking at a real person. Comedy works best if it\u2019s rooted in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Comedian<\/a>
Comedian Brian Regan completed his college degree after 20 years off (photo by Jerry Metellus).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From an early age Regan knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life, was a model student, and woke up at the crack of dawn each morning to work towards achieving his goals. Well, kind of. Okay, fine, so he slept through his classes and switched majors partway through his degree (perhaps that narrative rings a bell?).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little disillusioned as to why I was in college because I was not enjoying economics,\u201d he says about his major. \u201cMy football coach was the one who said, \u2018Have you considered the communications and theatre arts department?\u2019 That was the first time that even popped on my radar, that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before Regan realized comedy would be his career path he was being shaped as a comedian. He says his predilection for socializing was an education in itself, even though it often occurred at the expense of his academics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to write a column for the school newspaper; I had a cartoon strip. I started being known for being kind of funny, you know,\u201d he says. \u201cSo even though when I looked at my report card I wasn\u2019t getting good grades I was still learning how to move forward on my path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly 20 years later, Regan, who left college during his final year in dedicated pursuit of his comedy career, registered for distance education in order to complete his theatre degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually wanted to go to campus to do the graduation, like I wore the robes and the hat and the whole thing. I had my mom and dad up in the stands. Here I was, this grown man walking with all these 21-year-olds. The other students didn\u2019t know who I was. They were like, \u2018Who is this guy?\u2019\u201d he says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

And all his life journeys have led to him performing his stand-up here in Victoria in July. He\u2019s looking forward to returning and remembers his last visit fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great time,\u201d he says. \u201cWe took one of those speed boats from Seattle [the Clipper] to get out there. I would say half the people on the thing got sick. I was like, \u2018Where the heck are we going?\u2019 Then, sure enough, you get there and it\u2019s like Shangri-La.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Regan
\n8 pm Saturday, July 11
\n$51.25, Royal Theatre
\nrmts.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is exactly one comedian who has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman 28 times: Brian Regan. The American has explored his talent in various avenues, including TV specials, corporate gigs, and film, but it\u2019s his stand-up that really stands out as being the defining aspect of his career. All the while, Regan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10775,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions\/10775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}