I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk to four of the Bay Area's up and coming comics. All four of these guys are personal favorites of mine and are very respected on the local scene. I've written about all of them in previous reviews, so now it's time for us to learn more about them. Joining me were Kevin Shea, Kristopher Tinkle, Jason Downs and Louis Katz. Here goes my bumbling attempt at an interview.

Jason Downs: (Laughter) Haha, I'll go, I don't give a fuck. I wanted to do it when I was a teenager and then uh...(guys laughing in background). So anyways I wanted to start when I was teenager but didn't have the balls to do it. And then I met a girl when I was 19 who is now currently my fiance. She told me 'You gotta fuckin do this' and so she pushed me into it. And ever since then I just started doing it.

Kevin Shea: I lost my job. I got laid off and I broke up with my girfriend and I was down in the dumps.

(Talk about other comedians comes up, as well as whether being happiness or depression led them to comedy) How'd you do stand up anyway?

Louis Katz: It was weird. I wasn't really a big fan of stand up ever in my life. I just liked funny shit and being funny and watching things that were funny and doing things that were funny and it seemed like the easiest way to do that was just me on a microphone being funny. And I think it's helped me cause it hasn't influenced my style and then right when I was about to graduate from college I started to do open mics and that's it, and I was happy at the time. ("Awww's" from the rest of the boys)

Kris Tinkle: I started doing it...I kinda did it a little when I was in college and I did it when I was way younger. I tried a couple of times and it was fucking awful...I made an ass of myself. And then one time I did it real clean and stuff and then I tried to do it again in college and then after I graduated like a month after I realized I didn't want to work an office job. I just started doing it full time every week. Now I hang out with these fucking losers.

JD: That's what happened with me. I played around with it while I was in college and then right about the time Kris graduated, the both of us got serious about it at the same time. That was like 2-3, two years ago, three years ago?

KT: Yeah.

KS: You all have college degrees?

KT: We do? Oh shit.

KS: Thats's crazy.

JD: Yeah it's not like comics get college degrees.

KT: I'm not paying that shit back. (Laughter erupts)

JD: I don't have a degree. I was in fucking debt. And so...

LK: I just think that it was stupid that all we waited until it was over to fuckin' do comedy.

KS: Yeah I wish I had started it when I was younger.

KS: Tim Tyak. Local asian comedian who moved to the Phillipines and I hadn't seen too many asian comics and I saw him at an open mic and I went up to him and he told me to buy this book, uh, Stand-Up Comedy by Judy Carter. Remember that book?

JD: Yeah.

KS: And then I read that book. And that's where it all came from.

LK: All the funny jokes comes in 3's.

KT: My favorite comic is Sam Kinison by far so I just like, I remember the impact he would make on my friends and I when I was little, like the fact that he was saying all that shit that was so wrong and afterwards it was really true, so that just made it more funny. To tell stories that are so...like the one about the gun, where his wife put a gun in his face. Dude that shit was so terrible but it made it like, it was my favorite bit. If you can be raw and honest, I like that. That's like how I wanna be too.

JD: I loved Eddie Murphy when I was kid and Kinison and stuff like that. I used to be 10 years old and I would not go to school cause I would stay up late watching Letterman and honestly I would drink Coke until like 3 in the morning at 10 years old. So I would watch comics on there and that's what I always wanted to do.

LK: Like I said, I wasn't too into stand-up when I was young, so I didn't watch that much. I liked Saturday Night Live. I loved Saturday Night Live. I used to like staying up watching that. And Eddie Murphy coming out even though it was before my time. And Mel Brooks' movies, uh, I don't know what it has to do with stand-up but I love Mel Brooks movies. Spaceballs and Naked Gun, cause I think, you know, my age, that's right when I was in junior high and I just think those are the funniest things ever, that was it.

KS: I'm from the east coast so...

KT: Bitch.

JD: I respect the east coast comedy a lot although I love San Francisco comedy cause it has uh, an intellectual side to it. And uh, I know west coast comedy gets a bad wrap a lot of times, they think that everyone's trying to be Hollywood and shit, but up in San Francisco we have a lot of good original comics and there's an emphasis on being original cause we have so few comics but we still have enough to keep a strong comedy vibe in the Bay Area. And I think it's great what we're doing up here and I do love what's going on in the east coast like how they pump out comics nothing other.

KT: That was like a fucking essay.

JD: Haha, yeah I should just email Patrick, but yeah, it's great.

LK: They seem to support comedy a lot more over there. I hear there are so many clubs. I think in New York it's a thing that everyone does. Like up here it's almost like it's not cool anymore to do. That kinda stuff, but as far as the comics, you get a lot of real diversity.I don't know what New York's all about. I'm gonna go out there for about a month and try and just do comedy there. I heard you can get like five sets a night, like every night.

JD: But are they bringer shows or what?

LK: Well I'm not bringing anybody cause I don't know anyone there so fuck it.

JD: That what I like about San Francisco. We got no bringer shows here.

LK: We also only have two comedy clubs man. They've got like eight.

JD: I know, but we have no bringer shows. They have a lot of open mics where they work shit out and I think a lot of people are supportive in this area of comedy.

LK: That's all we ever get. No one gives us any press. No one gives us stuff about the shows. Now comics are getting cool again, but for a while no one gave a shit.

KS: With the west coast, it's a lot of actors who think they're comedians.

JD: That's L.A. though. Up here we have a lot of lawyers who think they're comics.

KT: We get the whole L.A. thing. People think that the whole west coast are wannabe actors and stuff. That' not true.

LK: If we wanna be actors we're in the wrong fucking place.

KT: Just be fucking funny on the mic on stage.

KS: I didn't realize there was an east coast, west coast thing. Real men dance. (Huge eruption of laughter)

I didn't know of any rivalry. When I go out to New York they're real nice to me.

JD: I do feel like when I go out and perform with someone from like Minnesota or from the midwest or east coast, I feel I represent San Francisco comedy and that's why whenever I perform I try to do my best. Cause I love San Franciso, it's a bad ass town.

LK: East coast comics do seem to have a certain style about them. I wanna go out there and see if there's more...cause what I like about here like I was saying is the diversity of style. And from the comics I see on TV is one type of kind of comic that comes out from there. A little more abrasive, quick and witty. They all have a similar rhythm all out of them. So I wanna see if that's really a New York thing or it's just the ones I happen to see on TV.

M: More of an in your face kind of comedy.

LK: Very snappy, very quick. But the rhythm is similar, kind of a New York speak kind of rhythm which I...I'd like to see if they have the same diversity.

KS: But people who stand out in New York don't sound like that.

LK: Yeah they do man, they all sound like that.

KS: Really? I don't think Attell or Todd Barry are anything like that.

LK: Okay, those two, but I mean, uh...you can hear the rhythm. I'm not saying they have the same...I'm saying their rhythm is similar.

KS: I feel they have more of the social qualms where they feel like they're angry about something. It's a different crowd. San Francisco's a little more liberal.

KT: People whine.

LK: They're probably less PC over there.

KT: Yeah definitely.

LK: There's definitely a problem with audiences out here. People are fucking uptight. Need to relax. San Francisco, Berkeley.

KS: They're all trying to be independent film, fuckin...

LK: What does independent film have to do with this?

KT: No, no, I wanna see him talk his way out of this.

JD: Getting back to the whole east coast, west coast thing, I went to a comedy festival and there was a group of San Francisco comics there and they had a group of New York, Chicago and everything else. And so all us SF comics were coming together eating dinner together and shit like that and so we're all eating togther and we had this gang of people from other cities going 'You guys eat together?', and we're like 'Yeah', and they're like 'You guys hang out together?, and we're like 'Yeah', that's the way it is in San Francisco. We help each other out and we're really supportive of each other. That's the way it is in San Francisco. I don't know if that's the way it is in the east coast. But they painted a picture that it was really that you're on your own and you gotta pick what you can up there and stuff like that. So that's what I'm grateful about in San Francisco.

LK: I mean, on the plus side everyone is real supportive and I think people here help each other and they're cool with each other more. But it's the thing with that PC shit. It's all a front you know. People definitely talk shit behind people's back. It's not like it doesn't exist here.

KS: A lot of comics won't sack up and say what they feel. They just talk shit behind each others backs. Maybe because it's a small community, you don't wanna stir up shit whereas the east has a thousand comics who don't give a shit.

KT: [sarcasm] Nobody talks shit around here.

KS: Cause everybody loves each other here.[sarcasm]

JD: Well I got called a hack recently and I think we all fucking witnesed that. But you know, I don't give a fuck if that person thinks I'm a hack. She could try to...(laughter)...well then try to follow me Louis.

KT: Do a dance for him. (Laughter and inside references fill the room)

KS: Who called you a hack?

JD: They didn't call me a hack until she got a bad review. Then she called me a hack.

M: Okay, we'll just keep it at that. Let's not dig a ditch. Let's go with some basic shit. What advice would you give for others starting out, say in San Francisco?

KS: Stage time.

M: What do you mean by stage time?

KS: Get as much stage time as possible. The more comfortable you are...even if your writing is great, if you're not comfortable, you're gonna look like an ass. I know a lot of comedians who can write but they get on stage and it's like 'What the hell are you doing?'.

JD: I actually have to give props to Kevin cause I thought I was a pretty good writer and I had pretty clever material but I would get so tense up there and I remember Kevin saying 'Fuck man you're really funny, but you need to fucking relax', and then pretty much when he said that, I started relaxing and things started turning up for me. Maybe Kevin's not such a dick.

LK: Stage time is key. Just get as much stage time as possible. Sometimes people are not likeable, and not very funny. And they're trying to do stand-up comedy and my advice to you is if that's how you are, go home. That's what I wanna say. (Tons of laughter) It's not even about being funny. I you don't have a little bit of charisma, if you're the kind of person I wouldn't even wanna talk to at a party, why do I want to sit in the audience and listen to you talk only, for five minutes. No, no, so don't perform. Stop it.

JD: Yeah seriously.

KT: The thing is, talking about stage time, you don't even realize how it happens for the first six months then all of a sudden one day you're like 'Wow', and people come up to you, and you do it and you keep doing it and doing it.

JD: And that's the best I can do, be honest with yourself. If you suck, say you suck. Admit to it. I hate these fucking people who have semi-good sets and they get off stage and they're like 'Yeah I did well'. NO! The standard is killing. If you're not killing, get the fuck off the stage.

KT: I think definitely, without all the agro and the Korn soundtrack. Like you said with our little group, the best compliment is that we can be honest with each other. Cause you see a lot of people come off stage and they're high fiving people and they just fucking ate it dude, and they're all like 'Whooo!' and they're all proud and you're like 'Oh jesus did you just fucking see that?'. And it's the other way around.

LK: To write comedy, the second most important thing is editing man. Edit your shit. You gotta get to the funny, be honest with yourself to the point where you say 'This line isn't working, I'm gonna take it out'. You fall in love with your material. You like it, you think it's gonna work, but a lot of the times it's not working, you gotta take it out. You gotta shorten it and take out, cut out all the fat. That was the biggest lesson I learned when I first came into comedy was fuckin' editing. Editing, editing, editing.

KT: One of the most heartbreaking things is when you think something is fucking funny and you write it down and you're so fucking proud and you skip up to stage to do it and it just fucking eats it dude and you're like 'NO! That was so funny, that was so fucking funny it was great', and other shit you think is dumb you just tie it down...

KS: You're gonna see some shit like that tonight but not from me.

JD: Well the reason I like to see comics only kill and just kill is because I remember one night here Dave Attell just happened to pop in and he was doing a set and he's freakin' destroying, more than we'd ever hoped of destroying, and fuckin' killing the room and he walks off stage and he happened to walk by me and I was all 'Hey good set', and he's all 'I fucking sucked'. And I'm like, well if he's that hard on himself, I should be half as hard on myself, because if that's his standard, then that's what I should be shooting for. And I don't think enough people shoot for that standard, they kinda just dream it.

KS: I like people who suck. It makes me look better.

KT: I like when people laugh when people suck.

KT: I got to meet Kevin Shea (laughs).

KS: Well apparently I turned Jason Downs' career around. Just getting on stage. That sounds cheesy as shit, but just doing it, my material. I mean, that's what you like about it.

LK: Every time you've killed.

KS: There's no certain moment.

JD: Well I got a threeway in Winamuka. That was great.

KS: Yeah, the girls are good.

JD: Nah, I was talking about two guys.

KT: I think definitely like one of the coolest things, well there's a lot of cool things, but I think definitely one of the coolest things is like at a movie theater or at a random place like a super market and someone will be like, it happened to me yesterday, like this dude was eyeballing me and I was like what the fuck is your problem man, and he's like 'Hey I saw you at the Punchline'. An immediately cause I'm fucking neurotic I was like 'Did I suck that night?' (laughter) And as soon as I have some business cards made that shit will pan out. It's like I had to write on the back of the receipt saying I have a website.

LK: Once that happened to me. I was in Brazil at a concert. Some people came up to me and said they saw me at the Punchline. And that shit was just fucking awesome man. Another fucking country. That shit was so crazy. And the other thing that was my highlight was I did a birthday party for the manager here at the Punchline, and just doing that was cool but also the band jammed with the original keyboard player from Parliament, Bernie Wuhl. I'm a big fan of his. And to end the band said thanks, they thanked Louis Katz and Bernie Wuhl. To be in the same sentence as him was pretty cool. That's kinda lame but...

JD: My highlight was going on with Mitch Hedberg and doing the joke-off. That was awesome.

M: That was really cool.

KS: I've never seen anything like that.

M: That little dance you did at the end. That was cool.

KT: You know how many dance references we have in this interview? We are so gay.

KS: We're the San Francisco comics! (tons of laughter)

M: Haha, okay. We'll move on. Who do you guys...who are like your favorite guys in comedy today and who would you like to work with that you haven't worked with yet?

KS: Oh, Mitch Hedberg. He's one of my favorites. Cause he just seems real laid back. And it just seems like he's cool and stuff. He writes his stuff, he goes on stage, does his material, comes back or he hangs out. He's a good guy. I like Mitch.

KT: I would love to work with Doug Stanhope and Jim Norton. And fuck you Louis. Yeah, definitely Doug Stanhope or definitely Jim Norton are two I would like cause I'm a fan of their stuff and I'd like to work with them.

LK: Uh, yeah, I like Stanhope, who I'm gonna be working with. That's awesome. Marc Maron, Patton Oswalt, fucking Louis C.K. is pretty dope. I think he's really funny. I think those are like my favorites that I've seen. Attell, Stanhope, Marc Maron, Patton.

JD: I like Cedric the Entertainer (huge laughs), uh, D.L. Hughley...nah fuck it. I just happen to work with my favorite comic, and that's Hedberg and I would love to work with Attell or Lewis Black. Those guys are badass.

LK: [sarcasm]Do you hate black people?

JD: Yeah I do. You got me right on the head.

KT: You know I think it's kinda gay but we're also kinda racist too.

JD: Are they gay or racist? Wait, they're both.

LK: Gay people are particularly racist.

KS: I just don't want to be called Dat Phan. [sarcasm]

KS: Someone who steals jokes and who works on easy premises.

M: Such as?

KS: You know the usual like men & women...

M: So women comics?

LK: That's ridiculous. There are a lot of differences between men and women. I'm just saying, it's human thing, and if you can put your own spin on it, it's not hacky.

KT: Well can you give us an example?

KS: Do you have any men and women jokes?

LK: I have relationship jokes. That's different.

KS: You have horse hair jokes.

LK: In relationship jokes for example, there's a point of conflict where the girl wants to give me a handjob but I'm angered.

KS: You have elaborate penis jokes.

LK: Exactly. That's what people say, 'You only tell dick jokes. That's all I hear is dick jokes.' If it's funny and it's original then it's good. There are so many rules. Like oh, anything with a prop is a hack, anything with a song. You know I like Weird Al, I don't give a fuck. I don't play that shit. I like Weird Al. As long as you're original and funny and you don't steal shit...

JD: Stealing is the bottom line.

LK: And some shit that you've heard that's really played out I mean...

KS: And that asian voice. God dammit! You don't know how many people, how many fans that come up to me and are like 'Why don't you do the voice?'

JD: No way. They don't tell you that.

KS: I swear to god.

KT: If you did that you'd probably get a bigger crowd.

KS: It's not at comedy clubs, it's at one-nighters. It's at like bars in small towns.

LK: You don't even know the voice.

KS: Yeah, people that steal are the biggest hacks there are.

KT: How many times has someone been up there and you hear the first couple of sentences and it's like everyone in the back starts to roll their eyes. It's like certain subjects that have definitely been talked about a lot and there's really nothing new. I mean there's a lot of things out right now that I think are funny but it falls into the category of it's been done before and there's no way I could go out there and do it.

KS: You ever walk into a club and hear someone do your joke like on an open mic?

KT: No. I think I would go agro dude.

LK: I don't know what I would do. I can't really fight anybody.

JD: That's happened to me a couple of times, and I told Attell to get the fuck off the stage! (laughter) That happened to me a couple of times and my girlfriend pointed it out like 'That's your joke!', but I don't wanna make a big thing out of it, so I challenge myself tothink about more shit so I don't have to worry about it.

KT: Yeah man, Downs' girlfriend is crazy man, she'll call that shit out.

KS: kevinshea.tv.

JD: jasondowns.com, it's a hacky ass Indian-Irish singer who has my name and I can't get the fucking rights to use jasondowns.com.

KS: How big is Cringe Humor now?

M: It's pretty big from what it was. Uh, he's gotten to know a lot of comedians and stuff.

KS: I know Robert Kelly plugs his site all the time. What about other comics?

M: Well, Norton gave it props on his cd. I know Patrick hangs out with a lot of the guys he features on the site. So I don't know how many of them plug it or not.

JD: To all the Cringe Humor members, fucking, thank you guys. You guys keep real comedy alive. It's good.

KT: It's cool man. The first time I saw the site I couldn't fucking believe it dude I was like whoa, these are all the comics who me and all my friends like and there's actually a site for that shit and then I remember I told these guys about it. I told them there was this cringe site and they were so passionate And the first time I saw hack up there I was like dude, he can't be a comic calling these people hacks. I was like, no way, these people are huge names and I was like holy shit.

KS: Patrick, is he a comic?

M: Patrick is not a comic, he's just a big fan. His goal is just to make it the premiere comedy site on the web.

JD: It's ending up that way. It's getting pretty big.

LK: That's all I wanted to say is thanks. It seems like it's not looked upon, no one pays attention, no one even notices what we're doing.

Kevin Shea has a website under construction at www.kevinshea.tv

Kristopher Tinkle's offical website is www.ktinkle.com

Jason Downs can be reached at askjasondowns@hotmail.com

Louis Katz can be reached through me

-Vyse