THE BRAINS BEHIND BINGHAMTON COMEDY CRAWL: AN INTERVIEW WITH GIORDI DEANGELO

Endicott native and local comic Giordi DeAngelo is organizing the Second Annual Binghamton Comedy Crawl, slated for April 1st. In a recent interview, he gave us the scoop on the Binghamton comedy scene, how to get started in stand up, and high-quality hilarity.

TRIPLE CITIES CAROUSEL: So, where did you get the initial idea for the comedy crawl? I know there was an event last year - the first Binghamton Comedy Crawl in 2016. And you were instrumental in getting that started.

GIORDI DEANGELO: Yeah, so - it kinda all started with me. Years and years ago, I had an idea to actually do a music crawl. Instead of comedy, it was gonna be bands. But, I talked to a couple of restaurants. They were worried about a lot of different stuff. It just didn’t pan out. We put that on the back burner, and a couple years later I got into comedy and I started doing it and I got close with a bunch of people there. I told a bunch of my comedy buddies - Bill Lake, Mike Ciurzynski, and a few others, ‘Listen, I have this idea - what if we did a comedy crawl?’ And everybody was like ‘Yeah, sure! That sounds great.’ And then, April 1st last year we were like ‘holy shit, this is crazy.’ It was jam-packed everywhere. We had standing room only at every venue. We just did not anticipate that kind of a turnout. You know, we might have been lucky to have forty, fifty people. But we had probably three hundred people. We were really happy.

TCC: And so you have bigger venues this year - and bigger names.

GD: Correct. Bigger names. Bigger venues. We tried to do it on a much larger scale, because the one thing that people said last year was just that it was so packed - and honestly, a lot of people said that it was so hot. I mean it was April 1st. There were people complaining about that. So, we got bigger venues. Our headline venue for last year is actually our first main venue this year - which is at Atomic Tom’s. We have a free show before that, which is still part of comedy crawl. It’s the pre-show. It’s at Water Street [Brewing Co.]. Atomic Tom’s is now our first venue, TerraCotta, and then Double Tree has stacked up to be our headline venue. Yeah, we’re stoked about it.

TCC: You know, I was kind of interested in why you decided to split the show up between multiple venues - like a crawl, instead of having one comedy event. Was the idea that it would be like a bar crawl with jokes?

GD: Exactly. Well, a while back - when I first came up with the idea to do a crawl event, everybody was like going from bar to bar drinking tons of beer and that was really all they were doing. You know, the bars have their own stuff that they do, which is not organized or themed. I thought, it would be really cool if we had more of a reason to go than to just drink alcohol. So, that was kinda how it came together. We had no idea how it would work with comedy. I thought it was a fun idea, and you couldn’t convince me otherwise, and we did it.

TCC: Yeah, it’s great! I mean, we hear a lot about the revival of Downtown Binghamton. Do you see this event as part of that?

GD: I hope that it is. I hope that people see it as that. We want to be a part of bringing life back into Downtown Binghamton.

TCC: Do the comedians riff on Binghamton a lot?

GD: I mean the comedians that we have… everyone jokes on it pretty lightly. But I will say, the people who hate Binghamton the most are people from Binghamton. A lot of people who come from out of town, they don’t hate it - we have beautiful seasons here; it’s not a bad area. Some people just have a negative mindset. But, you know, everyone loves a good Binghamton joke. So, there’s plenty of those.

TCC: Some people say there are some topics that are too serious to laugh at. Do you think that’s true?

GD: Well, there’s an audience for everything. Like we have a couple comedians who - one of them is gonna be at the after-party show - he just has a darker sense of humor, and some people would probably be turned off by it. Other people would laugh out loud. There is somebody to laugh at anything. I mean, you see some of the crazy stuff that’s on Facebook nowadays that some people think is funny. I’m like - Christ, that is messed up. But, like I said, to each their own.

TCC: Yeah, honestly, I love dark humor. But, there are so many different types of humor. You know, there’s neurotic self-deprecating Woody Allen humor, there’s puns and knock knock jokes and slapstick and dry British wit. Do you have a favorite brand of humor?

GD: I don’t have a favorite brand. I mean, I am picky. I could probably laugh at just about anything as long as the quality is there. I guess that’s always a big thing for me that I look for. But, if I had to pick a comedian nowadays, Brian Reagan is probably my favorite stand up, but Jason Bateman - he is one of my favorite, I just love him in everything. I like the straight humor.

TCC: To a large degree it’s probably subjective, but, do you have an idea of what makes comedy quality?

GD: Well, sometimes there is a comedian that’s up there and they will tell you - ‘I’ve written nothing’ - and then just go off on a rant. But, then you have people, you can tell they are great - it’s not that it sounds prepared; it’s that you know it’s well put together. I guess you can just tell. And some people, they make it look so easy you would think they were just going up on stage talking to you.

TCC: Comedy is so multifaceted. It’s jokes, but there’s also the performance, and delivery, and writing. There’s just so much, which is why I think the prospect of going up there and doing it is so intimidating. I have wanted to do standup for years, but I’ve been too scared. Do you have any advice for me?

GD: The best advice I have would be the advice that my buddy Tim Mollen gave to me, and that was: just do it. The first thing that I did was I wrote a standup bit. I sent it to Tim. And he reviewed it, and he said, ‘Yeah, you know, this is some pretty good stuff. But the only way you’re gonna know though, is if you go up there and try it.’ So I went to the open mic at Matty B’s. I dunno if you know, but Matty B’s is kinda like the home of Binghamton comedy. Yeah, I just went up there. I did like a two-minute bit, maybe, and got off. I got a great laugh on one of my jokes. And I just kept coming back after that. I mean, that was definitely the most intimidating, because I didn’t know anybody. You just gotta do it. I shit my pants my first time, but it was totally worth it. I mean, I don’t do it anymore, I just promote now. But, I definitely love stand up - just that first time you go on stage and you get that first real laugh. There’s no better high than that.

TCC: Yeah, I was thinking about it. Maybe one day I’ll get the courage. You know what? I’ll do it. For you, I’ll do it. So, Matty B’s you say is the home of the Binghamton comedy scene?

GD: Yeah. My hope anyway, is to make Binghamton a destination for comedians at all levels. You know, I saw an article on Facebook, I dunno maybe a year ago, and it talked about how Binghamton was one of the best music scenes in New York - and I would just love if we could say that about our comedy scene.

TCC: So, you talk about the Binghamton comedy scene - do you feel like it’s a community? Are you all friends?

GD: Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. You know, we all go off and do our own things and some of us do things differently than others, but at the end of the day we all do our best to work together. Most of us are pretty tight and we have comedians that come from Syracuse and Ithaca, who say that we have one of the tighter scenes. And I don’t know if it’s just that we are not as competitive as some of the other scenes. I mean, Syracuse has the Funny Bone, so a lot of the guys are competing up there to get stage time. And they have bigger names coming through, so it’s worthwhile. But, down here in Binghamton, we’re just chillin’. Haha - it’s a good time.

TCC: So, what’s Backyard Comedy?

GD: Backyard Comedy - we call it the Backyard Comedy Tour. We do it in the summer and one Saturday a month we’ll go to somebody’s backyard and we’ll host a comedy show. It’s very, you know, homegrown - or grassroots, I guess you could say. It’s really cool. We had Strange Brew cater last season. We had free coffee and stuff. It was a good time.

TCC: Well, I can’t wait to go to more shows after learning about the local scene!

GD: No doubt. We’re getting there. I got a website, a Facebook page I started called the Binghamton Comedy Binge, which I haven’t had a lot of time to work on lately. But, hopefully, we want it to be basically like the Funny or Die of Binghamton. That’s the long-term goal. Any event that I do comedy-related will be up there. So, that can be your hotspot to go to check out any good events coming up.

TCC: Any last thoughts about the Comedy Crawl?

GD: Wristbands are twenty-five, we’re selling out pretty quick, so you probably wanna get on that. If you’re not sure about the event, you can go to the free show and see if it’s something you want to do next year. We’ll probably have extra tickets available at the headline show with Ben Bailey because it’s a much larger venue than the other two. Just come out check it out!

Emmy-winning host of Cash Cab, Ben Bailey, will headline for the 2nd annual Binghamton Comedy Crawl on April 1st. Ten comedians. Four venues. One after-party. Score tickets and swag through the event’s Kickstarter page. More information on the 2017 Binghamton Comedy Crawl Facebook page or bingcomedybinge.com.