Comedy and Everything Else Episode #137: Jimmy Pardo

Jimmy Pardo: (talking about ignoring requests from headliners when you're a feature not to do crowd work) I ignored one guy.

Jimmy Dore: I thought it was in general that you were like, "Hey, this is my act. This is what I do."

JP: No, because nobody ever said anything to me because nobody ever really had trouble following me. Even though I did crowd work for 30 minutes. Only one time did somebody say 'hey, I'm having trouble following you..." Two times. One guy I did say, "That's my act." And then that guy and I... it was tense the rest of the week.

This other guy... I wish I would have understood what he was getting at. He was not, he should not have been headlining and I should not have been featuring. And because I should not have been featuring...

JD: You should have been headlining?

JP: Oh yeah, over this guy, yes. I shouldn't have been opening. I should have been open miking! So I went out and didn't have an act so I worked the crowd for 30 minutes. And by the way, 25 is plenty. 30 minutes in the middle... that extra 5 means a lot.

JD: I know! People don't realize that. People don't...

JP: So this guy, Mike, I don't even think he's a comic anymore. After the first night he said, "I really need to ask... don't do that crowd work. I'm treading water myself." But I'm insecure and I have that mindset, "You can't follow me! You can't follow me!" I go, "That's my act. Do what you gotta do." 

It wasn't until maybe a year later that I was like, "Oh no. He needed me to not work the crowd because he didn't... he shouldn't... he couldn't fill the time either." He needed to work the crowd to fill the time. Like we both were in the wrong spot. And I didn't set him up well on a show. I didn't do him any good by going up and working the crowd in front of him. And if I ever see him, I'll tell him that. And I will! Because there are like five things in my life and that's honestly one of them that are like, "When I see that man, I will apologize for being so self involved that I have to do well at Lassen's Comedy Club in the basement of a bar in Homewood, Illinois that I sandbagged this other performer."

Comedy and Everything Else Episode #137: Jimmy Pardo / aprox 1:04:00

(thanks Mark)