WTF with Marc Maron / Episode #255: Big Jay Oakerson

Big Jay Oakerson: Its interesting you said being influenced by (Dave) Attell... especially when you start off, when you're one of the new guys, there's always people like if you're doing well at all, or you're getting better, all of these people come out of the woodwork that hate you and they tell you why you're doing so good. And Keith Robinson gave me advice in the beginning. He goes, "Look, you don't have to worry about like writing your manifesto yet of what you're going to do." He goes, "Get your 15 minutes that works and work it. Like work it hard. And then when you're in everywhere and there's a confidence in you, you can do whatever you want."

I barely do material at comedy sets in the city. I just talk to the crowd and see where it goes. But um, and Kurt would tell me, "Jay's getting into the comic strip now in Stanton, NY." And they'd be like, "Yeah, doing the same 15 minutes." And he's like, "Yeah, but he's getting in. He's getting the work now." 

 And all that kind of hatred comes your way... That was the big dig on me, "He's just doing Attell. He only sounds like Attell." And maybe one of the reasons why I was able to kind of develop my own voice from it was my first instinct on that when they said that was to attack the problem. I went right to Dave Attell and I said, "I keep getting told that I sound exactly like you and I'm just doing what you do. Like, can you watch me and if you have any thing, please, I love to hear it." 

And he watched me at the (Comedy) Cellar and he was like, you know, in his own way, giggling, 'cause you could still smoke inside of there. I remember watching him intently because I admired him so much. He's like 'mnh, mnh, mnh' cause he's so nonchalant. And I went out into the hallway and I go, "Whadya think?" And maybe because he thought I did sound like him, and maybe because he thought I didn't, but he goes, "What are you doing two weekends from now? You wanna open for me at The Stress Factory?" And I went, "Yeah". And from that point I became like one of his staple guys that would go on the road with him. 

WTF with Marc Maron / Episode #255: Big Jay Oakerson / aprox 00:17:00

WTF with Marc Maron / Episode #255: Big Jay Oakerson

Big Jay Oakerson: You know, I always say that as a comedian your innocence is so lost... that's the shittiest part about being a comedian is that your innocence in comedy is lost. It's hard to just sit back and laugh at a...

Marc Maron: Oh yeah, I talked about that last night on stage. Where its like you're so jaded the only time you can enjoy a show is when someone is struggling.

BJO: Yeah, you wanna go see someone have a rough time so that they can dig out of it in some way. You really have no interest in going in there and like uh... as much as I like (Dave) Attell I don't go in the room for Attell every time anymore because I just know he's going to do good. But when they go, "This guy turned on Attell and he's down there doing it." Now I want to see what he does. 'Cause that's when I think the magic kicks in. 

WTF with Marc Maron / Episode #255: Big Jay Oakerson / aprox 00:17:00