5 QUESTIONS WITH ABBI CRUTCHFIELD

by Ryan Meehan

Abbi Crutchfield is a comedian at CollegeHumor named one of the 18 Funny Women You Should Be Following on Twitter by Huffington Post Comedy. Her jokes have earned her a place as a contributor to Witstream. She is a UCB alum and produces two live stand-up shows, Positively Awesome and The Living Room Show. She has been featured in national commercials, and tours with improv team Nobody’s Token and stand-up group Pink Collar Comedy.  She’s also our guest this week in 5 Questions.

FOH: What was your first experience with standup comedy? Do you think you’ll always be making people laugh in some form or another?

AC: If staring at TV counts as an experience, and IT DOES, I learned to love stand-up by watching it on Comedy Central as a kid. I will always be making people laugh just like everyone else on the planet. No one gets through life without making someone laugh. No matter how hard you try. Nice pants loser. HAHA. See?
FOH: How are “The Living Room Show” and “Positively Awesome” like each other? What are the basic formats of each show?
AC: Both shows feature a small line-up of the best stand-up comedians I know. The Living Room Show is in a Park Slope coffee shop called Postmark and always has an audience full of regulars. The comics are asked to work clean, and the vibe is super friendly. Positively Awesome has a rowdier, more transient crowd since it’s at the People’s Improv Theater underground. The comics are asked to share something positive that happened to them that week. Life’s hard and comedy is supposed to be fun. The similarities are that I am a cornball supreme.

FOH: How does one go about teaching a class on how to use Twitter? Would you say that it’s a class where you teach other people how to effectively Tweet by being funny, or that you use humor to teach people how to use Twitter? In your opinion, do you believe that people can be taught how to be funny?

AC: I DON’T ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT TWITTER FOR FREE. TAKE THE CLASS. The class is offered by The PIT which is a training ground for aspiring comedic performers. The people who take the class should already care about comedy, but they can have any level of understanding of Twitter. From there I help them troubleshoot if they want to learn how to promote themselves, sharpen their writing, overcome writer’s block, or if they just want to see my hair up close. It’s lovely.

FOH: Who are some of your influences amongst working comedians? Which of those comics do you feel your style most closely resembles?

AC: I like watching Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan, Hannibal Burress and Chris Rock (have you ever heard of them?) They remind me that it’s important to care about the craft, and as a result I am dogged about being ridiculous.

FOH: What’s the best advice you would give to someone who is considering pursuing a career in standup comedy? Any warning signs or red flags about anything to avoid?

AC: Try it! The first time you don’t get laughs quit immediately.

FOH: For those who aren’t familiar with WitStream, could you explain what that is and how you came to be a part of it?

AC: Witstream is a website that curates funny tweets so people can read nothing but comedy if they want to, and learn about new comedic writers to follow. I was invited to be a contributor after their Twitter account followed me for about a year.

FOH: What’s next for Abbi Crutchfield in 2013? Anything big in the works that we should know about?

AC: 2013 has been fun so far. I’ve toured new towns with Pink Collar Comedy, I’ve joined a diverse improv team called Nobody’s Token, I’ve become a staff member at CollegeHumor and shot some pretty funny videos with Morgan Spurlock’s project Mansome and Shorty Award-nominated channel BarelyPolitical. Audiences will have tons of ways to enjoy my comedy in the coming months.

Abbi’s Official Website: http://curlycomedy.com/

Abbi on Twitter: @curlycomedy

Abbi on Facebook: facebook.com/abbicrutchfield

Once again thanks for visiting First Order Historians and enjoying more of the internet’s finest in user generated content.

Meehan