Go See Christian Finnegan!

When I first saw a picture of this blond-haired, blue-eyed dude who would be coming to the Improv, I thought he looked kind of familiar. Then I realized, he's one of those talking heads who make comments on that VH1 show, Best Week Ever. We talked to Christian and he turned out to be a super-nice guy, and wicked funny to boot. (Sorry, I TRIED uploading a picture so that you would recognize him, too, but the blog program is not being my friend right now and won't let me! Ah well, visit www.christianfinnegan.com)


Okay, you’re a comedian. So why did the chicken cross the road?
Thechicken cross the road because…because… to get one more step… because hewanted to get further away from me. Gosh, I didn’t know this was going tobe comedy pop quiz. I thought we going to have a friendly conversation…

Okay, we can save that one for later if it’s too hard.
(laughs) Okay.

So I heard you got married. Congratulations.
I did get married, in August. Thank you. I had her shipped over in a metal shipping crate from the Ukraine.

I saw her picture – she’s very pretty.
Yes, but that doesn’t mean she not a mail order bride.

And you married an older woman! A cougar!
(Laughs)Yes, she is older – although I’m not necessarily sure she would be thrilledabout pointing that out. I just think [she] brings as much to the tableas I do… I got lucky.

So career-wise, what’s going on?
I justreleased an album on Comedy Central records – it’s called Two for Flinching.That’s pretty exciting – maybe not for younger people, for them the CD isa dead medium – they have iTunes, Limewire. But for me, the physical CD,the album with my name on it, gives me goosebumps. Even if nobody buys it,it would be the biggest accomplishment – especially for me being a musicgeek and whatnot. I grew up listening to CDs and reading liner notes andstudying the artwork.

Well, hey, Larry the Cable Guy’s CDs outsell, like, billions of actual musicians…
Whoknows what sells and what doesn’t – I’m just happy and fortunate to havea career where I’m not having to temp right now. I can’t fathom why somethingsells and something else doesn’t – why some people who are so incrediblytalented languish in obscurity while others become superstars. You just haveto work hard doing what you do – and be ready.

So, I was pretty impressed to read that you can name all the members of the Scorpions.
Well,more than being a Scorpions fan, I was a sponge for music related trivia– and growing up when I did, metal was what I was into. In fact, I can namea couple of members from any metal band of the 80s. I even won as a callerinto a show called Name That Video on VH1. I won a car. Then I sold it, paidoff 15 grand in debts – I had rats in my living room where I was in Manhattan,so I moved to Astoria.

Are you from New York?
I was born outside Boston – in Acton, went to high school in Natick, then went to NYU and stuck around New York.

How did you get into comedy? Did you hope to do stand-up all your life?
No,it was probably a couple years after college. I was adrift after school.I went to school for acting and playwriting but I wasn’t a disciplined enoughwriter and I wasn’t enjoying the process of being a cheesy actor. It wasbecoming stale. So I started doing open mics and performing my own stuff,and I just stuck with it.

And did you have the proverbial big break?
Oneof the things that I constantly remind self about, even now, is that it’snever about one night or one big break. It’s more like a bunch of littlebreaks – and those are mostly fool’s gold. You’ll still be slogging along…I think it’s better if I set small, immediate goals – What can I accomplishthis week? This month? If I start out saying I want my own TV show, I’lljust be overwhelmed and play PlayStation all day.

So how did you end up on Best Week Ever?
Iwas just doing open mics – That’s how I did it – I set my first goal as “I’mgoing to do an open mic before the end of April. Then I said, ‘I’m goingto be on a booked show – with my name featured – by the end of July. So thenI’d convince the bookers to give me a spot. Then my next goal was to getpaid to perform, whether it was in free beer or $10. For the VH1 thing –they have a talent person who goes around and sees shows. If you kick aroundNew York long enough, at some point, you’re going to be asked to auditionfor VH1 or MTV, and if your segment does well, they keep using you… Theyshoot internal pilots – like, if you have a great idea for a show, they filma low-cost test version of it, so they can say ‘Here’s what it’s going tobe like.’ They do a show for the executives to look at. And when they shotI love the 80s, they used a bunch of nobody comedians like myself. Then theyget rid of the nobodies and bring in semi-nobodies, like Hal Sparks. Whenthey did Best Week Ever, they decided they wanted to use their own core ofpeople. I was just lucky they remembered me.

Do you have to read People and Us Weekly voraciously?
Not really. The writers and producers tell us what we’re going to be asked about.

Yeah,I figured. Because you’ll have a whole episode about “Remembering the PunkyBrewster era” and you’ll go into detail about some Punky Brewster thing.I’m like, ‘Nobody could possibly remember all that Punky Brewster trivia.Somebody must be showing them a clip and then they just comment on it.’
Exactly,you got it. They sometimes give is an info packet the day before, or sendus links to reading material s so we can know what we’ll be asked about thenext day. Of course, half of it will be changed or cancelled – but for someof it, we can write jokes ahead of time.

Except for “Why did the chicken cross the road?”
I’mgoing to ignore [that]… That’s like me testing you, because you’re a journalist,by asking “Hey, what did you think of Funky Winkerbean this week?”

HaHahhha hahha aaha ha ha – I can’t believe you just made a Funky Winkerbeanreference! I’m dying. Okay, so tell me what your stand-up is like – isit all Paris Hilton jokes?
I would say that sometimes people are surprisedit isn’t all pop culture – that that’s not the only thing in my life. I actuallyshy away from that. I think some people expect it to be a live episode ofBest Week Ever. But I like to think I cover a lot of things that people canrelate to. Like things that I’m kind of annoyed by, and people think thatthey’re the only ones who are annoyed by it. I certainly think there’s aslight bit of darkneesss. Dirty, edgy stuff. The sad day-to-day spiritualnutpunches we receive from life. What people are and who we pretend to bein public. What people mean when they say certain things. The acts we putup to seem to seen normal – when we aren’t. And of course I talk a lot aboutpoultry crossing intersections. That’s the last twenty minutes of my set.

(Laughing) You get a lot of mileage out of that word “nutpunch.” I’ve seen you use it a lot.
Oh,yeah. Dickpunch, nutpunch. I find myself going to that word during timesin life where you feel just pummeled, like you got the wind knocked out ofyou, where you’re feeling miserable about yourself and your fellow man.

Didn’t you just call Paul McCartney a nutpunch on your website?
Iam a huge Paul fan. I am one of the few Paul McCartney apologists – the fewwho will admit he was better than John Lennon. People think they love JohnLennon but then you ask them what’s their favorite Beatles song, and it waswritten by Paul. But his Christmas song? It’s shades of awful – it’s an unholymélange of awfulness! Poor Sir Paul.

So you’re off from Best Week Ever to do your standup tour?
Well,it airs periodically. It’s on hiatus for a few weeks – we’re doing a BestYear Ever, then we’ll reconvene. In the spring, I’m headlining a collegetour. I’m going to a bunch of schools late January to April. 20 or 30 schools– some of them I’ll meet up with Lewis Black, Charlie Murphy – it’s awesome.

Is there anything else you’d want the people here to know?
Ijust want anyone to come out to the Improv shows. And if they come up tome and mention you, Deirdra, they can get a long, awkward hug from me.

Do you get recognized in public a lot?
It happens – some days more than others. It depends what situation I’m in. Or whether I’m wearing a hat.