A father, a fanboy and a “fartist,” comedian/actor/writer Brian Posehn is many things, but a grown-up isn’t one of them.
Currently co-writing Deadpool for Marvel Comics, and working on a comedy/metal album with Scott Ian of Anthrax, Posehn is now living out his inner adolescent dreams.
He first came to fame as a writer for HBO cult favorite “Mr. Show” in the mid-‘90s, and not long after gained household recognition on the NBC sitcom “Just Shoot Me!”
Numerous TV, movie and voiceover appearances followed, before he emerged on his own as a stand-up, following the success of the “The Comedians of Comedy” tour, featuring his close friends Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis.
He’s since released two comedy albums (2006’s Live In: Nerd Rage and 2010’s Fart and Wiener Jokes), has appeared regularly on Comedy Central’s “The Sarah Silverman Program” and helped out with Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse.”
In 2013, he released his third comedy album, and first-ever hour-long DVD special, The Fartist.
| Brian Posehn (SOLD OUT!) The Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids March 13 & 14, (two shows each night: 8 p.m. & 10 p.m.) $25, 18+ laughfestgr.org |
“I feel like I kind of exhausted that area,” Posehn said about telling fart jokes. “I mean, once you call an album The Fartist, unless you’re going to call the next one The Fartist 2, it’s time to move on.”
Posehn said the fresh material he’ll be performing as part of LaughFest will eventually be turned into a new special, which he plans to record sometime this spring. And before you ask: it’s not going to be called The Fartist 2.
“It’s like going back to when I was on ‘Mr. Show’ where we would hit areas in these sketches, and after a while you had to put a note on the board, like, ‘No more Hitler.’ We’ve done enough of those jokes, it’s time to move on. Farting is like the Hitler of the body.”
Naturally, Posehn has shared his love for superheroes and bodily sounds with his five-year-old son, who has become another big part of his life and his act.
“It’s not surprising that at five he finds farts hilarious,” Posehn said. “I’m just worried that he’s going to mature and I’m not. If I haven’t done it at 48, it’s never going to happen.”
Over the last 15 years of his career, Posehn’s comedy has gotten more personal, taking influence from the real-life humor of comics like Louis C.K., while not losing the absurdist side he first developed as a Steve Martin fan and avid pot smoker.
“Before I had my son I never wanted to be one of those comedians that isn’t real onstage,” Posehn said about how parenting hasn’t changed his comedy. “I didn’t want to do the superficial, ‘Oh, my son fell from heaven and he’s made of muffins!’ I wanted to tell the good parts, but also tell the bad.”
That reality allows Posehn to revel in sharing his love for science fiction with his son, and his fans, while also worrying that his nerdom fatherhood fantasy might eventually come to a crushing end.
“We’re connecting and I think it’s just going to get better until he gets to the point where he’s 15 and he’s like, ‘You know what, Dad? Farts aren’t funny, Black Sabbath kind of sucks and I don’t like horror movies.' But right now, we’re having a blast.”
