STAND UP TUESDAYS: Dan St. Germain

May 21st, 2013

Angie Frissore

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Dan St. Germain’s comedy career. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

Dan St. Germain is having one hell of a year. The Best Week Ever regular just debuted his first “The Half Hour” special on Comedy Central on May 17, and has recently announced a script deal with Comedy Central and a new radio series launching on Sirius XM radio next month based on his podcast “My Dumb Friends,” co-hosted by Sean Donnelly.

A truly self-aware comic, Dan St. Germain isn’t afraid to poke fun at the darker side of life as he turns to his own battle with bipolar disorder to create levity. In talking about his friends’ triumphant Facebook status updates, St. Germain bemoans his own attempts and painting his daily life in a prettier picture: “’Found an interesting rock on the way to the liquor store. Got through a whole night without crying.’ Then I have to like it two hours later because no one else will.”

In celebration of his new Comedy Central special and, well, generally kicking ass and taking names, Dan St. Germain recently took some time to chat with me about all of the wonderful things that are coming his way.

UTG: Congratulations! You have some really exciting news, eh? You’ve signed with Comedy Central on what, three projects?

DSG: Yeah, I sold a script to them, so we all eagerly await that as a pilot, and then we are doing six episodes of an animated web series with Dan Powell, who’s running Amy Schumer’s show. And I’m doing a podcast on Comedy Central Sirius with Sean Donnelly – ‘My Dumb Friends’, and my Half Hour special’s coming out. So Comedy Central has been great to me, and I love working with them. Nothing but good things to say about Comedy Central right now.

UTG: That is fantastic. And your new CD’s due out this year, too.

DSG: Hopefully around December. We’re doing some special things; Ryan is awesome; we recorded it in Boston, and we’re also going to record at Meltdown in September. Sometime around September 11th or 13th, but I’ll keep you guys posted.

UTG: Tell me a little bit about the pilot.

DSG: Well, I used to be an employee bartender at Yellowstone National Park, and I kind of went there to find myself. What I found was the most broken-down, crazy, drunks ever. So it’s kind of that feeling of going to escape and realizing you can’t escape the place that you were trying to escape to.

UTG: I read somewhere today that someone’s suing Yellowstone because of rat droppings.

DSG: Well, yeah. Yellowstone’s obviously gorgeous, but the area I was in – how can I legally say – the area was I was in was not exactly heaven on earth.

UTG: It was like nature’s restroom?

DSG: Yeah, that’s a pretty good way to put it.

UTG: I can’t wait to see that.

DSG: If it comes out! Let’s hope we both see it.

UTG: Yeah, fingers crossed. How’s your head right now? Is it just a whirlwind?

DSG: It’s pretty good. It’s stressful, but you know a lot of this stuff is out of your control. You just put the best foot forward. I mean, I did an open mic this week. You know what I mean? I don’t take anything for granted. I mean, of course when something like this happens, there’s a tendency to be like, ‘I AM COMEDY!’ But the truth is, I got a nice opportunity and hopefully it works – you kind of find that level thing of like, ‘Oh it’s not going to work out,’ or it’s going to be amazing and I’m going to be the male Lena Dunham or something. But the truth is, you kind of just put the work in and you hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

UTG: And you’ve definitely put the work in, that’s for sure.

DSG: Yeah, I mean always try to – like, I’m working on other stuff, now, besides that. I have ‘Best Week Ever’ every week and always trying to get a new late night set together. You work on other stuff. I just started headlining on the road which has been an awesome experience. Especially now, you never want to be the guy who puts the one thing in – I’ve heard so many horror stories of how Aspen and Montreal used to work. I heard one horror story from a guy who went to Aspen and beforehand he bought a fucking convertible, and he didn’t get one meeting while he was out there. The important thing for me is to just make it funny, you know? I’ve had to work on some stuff for money that I don’t love doing, and I’m trying to force a position now where everything I’m working on, whether it be my projects or ‘Best Week Ever’, the stand-up, its all stuff that I really like doing and that’s a real rare thing in this business. I’m very lucky.

UTG: Well it sure sounds like you’re keeping your feet on the ground throughout the process.

DSG: Right? Yeah. Nobody’s making Eddie Murphy money, you know what I mean? You kind of have to keep your feet on the ground.

UTG: But still, to be getting all of this done is still a huge accomplishment.

DSG: Yeah, you know it’s good…it’s one of these things – there’s that nerve-wracking thing of ‘All right, well you’ve been wanting your shot, here’s your shot!’ That doesn’t come around a lot, so if you’re not ready, you’d better get ready.

St. Germain has been seen on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Electric Company, MTV, MTV2, VH1, Fuse, and Spike TV. He’s written for the Onion Sports Network, Onion News Network, Hoppus on Music, Silent Library and has been featured on WTF with Marc Maron, Keith and the Girl, and Sirius Radio. Dan’s web series Kicking Dan Out can be seen on My Damn Channel. His shorts have appeared on the front page of Funny or Die, Best Week Ever, and The Huffington Post. He played right wing blogger Kane Phillips during Comedy Central’s Indecision 2010 as well as been featured on Jokes.com and College Humor Live’s standup showcase. He’s been in ad campaigns for Bushmills Whisky, Pre-play, and Fins. He appeared as a “New Face” at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival in 2011 and has also been part of the Eugene Mirman, Bridgetown, New York, UNC, Moontower and Boston Comedy Festivals. He’s a 2009 ECNY nominee for Best Emerging Comic, a 2010 ECNY nominee for Best Male Standup, a Finalist in the NY Comedy Contest, a Semi Finalist in the Boston Comedy Festival, and selected as part of the Young Playwrights Festival in 2002.

Check out Dan St. Germain on Best Week Ever, on his podcast “My Dumb Friends,” in the upcoming film Wifed Out where he plays a party bus driver featuring Meta World Peace (totally true), doing standup at SXSW and in John Oliver’s 2012 NY Standup Show on Comedy Central. If you didn’t happen to catch his Half Hour special, highlights from the episode can be viewed at Comedy Central’s website. Keep your eyes on Dan St. Germain as he is poised to take over stand-up in a huge way!