![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/HooknoseHotz.jpg\")
<\/a>Hotz turned his struggles into an asset\u2014his anxiety played a pivotal role in developing his stage persona early in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got bad attacks my hand would go up in front of my mouth,\u201d says Hotz. \u201cI didn\u2019t notice it. When I was on stage it kept happening and my friends were going, \u2018Get your hand away from your face,\u2019 but I didn\u2019t even notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hotz says the involuntary hand movements began about two months before his first appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in 2002, and persisted on what was at that point the biggest stage of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the hit of the Montreal Comedy Festival is what fucking happened,\u201d says Hotz. \u201cI just looked different than everyone else and people wanted that. It didn\u2019t have to but it all worked out. Life is funny that way. You never know where you\u2019re going to end up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just his demeanor that separated him from his peers, says Hotz. All kinds of opportunities came his way, because he had no intention of being a talk-show stand-up comedian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t running home, like the other comics, to watch Leno and Letterman and all that shit,\u201d says Hotz. \u201cI think a lot of the things that happened in my career happened because deep down I don\u2019t want to do those shows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hotz says that because of the restrictions around live events, it was impossible to continue as a touring comedian during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cCOVID screwed everything up and we just kept rescheduling,\u201d says Hotz. \u201cWe\u2019ve just done it again. It costs a lot of money to go on tour, so we try to get four or five shows together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frustrated by the unpredictability of the past two years, Hotz says he had to reinvent himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden I\u2019m a stand-up again and then I\u2019m not,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to change to keep working because touring was so unpredictable. I ended up doing a radio show called The Hilarious House of Hotz that got picked up by Sirius [XM, satellite radio]. It started as a lark but people were listening so I had to do it for real. We\u2019re on Sundays at 7:00 and we got picked up for a second season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hotz says he\u2019s ready to get back to what he does best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t bother with segues. I think the audience is so impatient they just want me to tell the fucking joke,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m kinda all over the place. Sometimes I\u2019ll do half of the joke and then I\u2019ll forget and way later it hits me and I\u2019ll do the second half. It feels like it\u2019s by design but it\u2019s by dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n