Today we’d like to introduce you to Dean Lewis.
Dean, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I knew at the age of 5 I was going to be a comedian. Nothing was better than watching masters like Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor when they worked their magic at taking any topic and making it hilarious!
I took my time learning about the craft by studying my heroes and putting together my first set. It was a disaster! But it didn’t matter because my goal was clear and I knew failures were just experiences I needed to understand how to be successful. I got a job at the Dallas Improv as a bartender and was able to hang out with and watch great comedians like Jerry Seinfeld and Ron White. I kept working on my set and in my career, I’ve gone onto winning an Emmy for writing, and appearing on Last Comic Standing and Ellen.
My career has also gone beyond performing live. I’ve been on morning radio with The Jagger Show on The Edge and 105.3. I’m also currently on The Oddcast Podcast with Mondo Mike and Melissa Plaskoff. It’s available on iTunes.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
The best comedy is about telling the truth with a funny perspective. The worst thing to do is to start off wanting to talk about something I think is funny. The reason I say that is because everyone’s sense of humor is quirky. It may be silly or dark or angry. It’s unique to you. So, the odds that it’ll appeal to a room full of strangers are very low. It’s much better to look at what is true, and maybe a little hard or scary or confusing. By starting with this approach, you are much more likely to connect with almost any audience because the truth is recognizable. One of my mantras is Your sense of humor is quirky, but emotions are universal.
So that is how I create. I find the truth that causes an emotional reaction first, then I look for the funny perspective. I’m truthful first, funny second and that approach has worked perfectly. It how I develop new material and it’s how I approach creating a customized show for my corporate clients. I find out about what they want to talk about and use that to create comedy. That way it’s recognizable and relatable to them. They would much rather hear about their industry than material about what my crush in third grade was like.
What I hope audiences take away from my shows is understanding how to see their lives in a funny way. No matter the struggle, if you can laugh about it the problem will lose 90% of its power!
This approach is also what I teach in my workshop. I believe it’s successful because graduates of my workshop have appeared on HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central and one had her own special on Netflix!
Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
This is the time with the greatest opportunities for artists. There is no gatekeeper on the internet or with social media preventing you from sharing your talents. I’m sure if it had been around back then, Michelangelo would’ve been on Instagram!
There are so many ways to get exposure and express yourself. You can self-publish a book, build a webpage promoting your talents, create a YouTube channel, start a podcast or create a blog with no problems.
And the way of the world will always be that the best will be noticed and rise up. If you put yourself on YouTube and get a million fans then you’re onto something. If you get 9, then you are just being shown you learned one thing that won’t work. And while there is so much more competition because EVERYBODY gets a chance, the important goal is to do what you do without worrying about what anyone else is up to. You will eventually find your place a reap the rewards you worked for. The only mistake an artist can make is to quit.
For stand-up comedy in DFW there is a great surge of talent and there are so many opportunities to perform. Currently there are at least 3 open mics every night of the week. With all this valuable stage time available and so many comics in the game, someone big is going to come out of this scene.
The only mistake I see is a lot of open mics allow comics to work really dirty. This is great because I believe there shouldn’t be any censorship of speech, BUT, the price to be paid for being too crude is many audiences don’t want to hear that type of material. They come out to laugh, and too many comics think sex or body function jokes are funny. Some are, but too many of them end up being more shocking than funny. So, the problem is while there are a lot of comics to be seen, some may be turning audiences off and if people don’t like what they see, they’ll stop going.
I think it’s best to be funny and remember this great advice from Sean Traynor, an Improv Comedy Club manager…” If you work dirty you can work in a limited number of places; if you work clean you can work anywhere.”
So, go see comedy because there’s a lot of it. Plenty of open mics and comedy clubs like The Improv and Hyenas that bring in national acts.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Most of my shows are for corporate clients, so unless you’re at a company I’m working for, I’m not that easy to see!
I don’t appear at the local clubs very often because I’m busy with corporate events and my workshop.
I do have a show I developed titled On the Spot. 6 comedians will do their regular material and also perform sets based on topics they’ve never seen before. There is also a part where the audience interacts. I love the show because it’s such a challenge! It’s a mixture of stand up, Improv and career suicide! lol This Show has been
presented at The Comedy Arena in McKinney and I eventually plan on getting in some larger venues.
You can join one of my workshops. They are not just for aspiring stand ups. I’ve had speakers, youth ministers sales people and business folks who want to learn how to punch up their presentations. If you take the stand-up workshop you’ll perform your set at the Addison Improv. And the joke writing workshop will not only teach how to write jokes to punch up your social media, blogs, presentations or stand-up act, but I’ll also show you how to create a writer’s packet that could get you a job on The Tonight Show or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
I know everybody can be funny, it’s just a matter of learning some techniques to tap into your talents!
Contact Info:
- Website: deanlewiscomedy.com
- Phone: 888-884-8028
- Email: dean@deanlewiscomedy.com
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
