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Jim Norton
an interview by Mike Melville

You do pretty confrontational humor and your shows are fairly rough edged. Was this the type of stuff you started out doing or was there a point where you shifted to it?

Norton: I’ve always done this kind of comedy. I wasn’t really that good at it then, but it is something I developed over time, so I wasn’t just a hack telling dirty jokes.

And a lot of people can be surprised at how well read you are. At your show Saturday, I heard a few people remark about how literate you seemed, and listeners of the O and A show can agree, sure you can tell someone that you hope they fall in a bucket of A.I.D.S., but you can also quote philosophy…

Norton: NO, well, that’s just me- Sometimes I can say really smart things, and other times I’m just a babbling retard. It’s just another facet of me. And if I say facet again, feel free to punch me in the face.

Did you have trouble getting bookings early in your career because of the type of humor you do?

Norton: I hung with the comedians it was so helpful to be a comedian in New York, the problem I had with getting work was, when I was new and a part of it, they were scared of the dirty humor. I started in 1990, and that faggoty fucking awful 80’s shit, schleppy fucking nonsense was so popular .But, if you’re funny man, you will work. If you’re funny, and you work hard, and you’re not a lazy baby and you write, you will work.

Do you see this as more of an opportunity for the out of the mainstream comics, or does it make you more optimistic or pessimistic about the future of stand up as an art form? The more people you see, as you say, the weekend warriors, they don’t write or try new stuff, do they help the scene out by making everyone else look good that takes the time and effort to write and practice, or are they more of a hindrance to it, because they make crowds feel like” I just spent $10 to see a show, and it sucked, screw this.

Norton: They go to a club to see great comedy. What happens is they make it harder, they see these dog shit hacks doing fart jokes, we all have hack jokes, I have hack jokes, I’m certainly not above hack jokes in a theater, I’m talking about guys being just generic, they make it harder, because hack is funny, they become hack because its funny- They take no risks, they just go with that easy shit, people go to enough shows and believe that that’s comedy, and then you watch a guy like Colin Quinn, who I think is just great, who’s not dirty and they’re bombing sometimes because these fucking morons want “boom boom punch line, boom boom punch line”, I mean they don’t like anything that’s in their face. I’ve watched people give some of the best lines in comedy, and they’ll just groan because its objectionable. One of the things I like about Colin, one of my favorite things bout him is he does trip on lines, to me that s honest, that’s what comedy is- Sometimes you’re great, other times you’re an ass. I kind of like the nakedness of that. There’s something very attractive about that.

Do you still watch yourself on video? Do you still critique yourself?

NORTON: You should never get beyond that as a comedian. At the Comedy Cellar, my home in New York, They have a vcr hooked up and every time, I’ll take the video tape, I’ll come home and watch it, burn it on to a DVD, for my own reference. I mean I have so many sets burned onto DVD, the quality stinks, but you can see what jokes are working, what’s not working, especially when you’re doing something like the Tonight Show, where you have to be 4 and a half minutes, you HAVE to be timed, you have to pace yourself a certain way, so it helps to have that, it keeps you in the act.

How long did it take you before you finally walked up on stage, knew what you were doing, felt confident, and was like “here’s my act”?

NORTON: Sometimes I’ m still not sure. Sometimes I am frightened going up, sometimes I feel like I’m incompetent, it took a few years before I actually felt comfortable at all, if there is a thing as comfortable. There will always be times when you walk up there and feel completely lost, you never really walk up there and feel completely comfortable. You shouldn’t. It’s okay to feel confident, when you know what you’re doing. You don’t need the audience, you don’t need their approval, that’s a problem, you start wanting their approval on everything, and that can mess you up, when they don’t approve of the content.

You do a style of comedy that is situational and more story-oriented than relying on jokes. It is more acting and narrative in nature. Is this the style you've always worked in or is it a later development? What led you to this style rather than the more usual stand up type of delivery?

NORTON: The better you get, the more comfortable you get, the more you don’t mind making them wait a few more seconds for the laugh. I don’t fell a desperate need … Like when I’m working on new material, I always do it low energy, I purposely slow down to where its almost uncomfortable for me, to test out new material, because if its getting laughs then, its definitely going to get laughs when I put more energy into it. The story telling comes with being more comfortable on stage. If you’re telling the truth, because that’s all I have as a comedian, is my life, my awful self ,is what you want to talk about, and what I want to talk about is something no one else is talking about besides myself.

Do you find the current conservative bent in the country now an obstacle to your comedy or a benefit in that it provides so much material?

NORTON: the conservative side that I agree with, I mean like the problem with John Ashcroft going after the media, I find repugnant. It’s the liberals I seem to have the toughest time with, like dealing with Comedy Central ,what happens is anyone that’s in the practices and standards part it just seems like its mostly liberals ,that’s just the way it is in entertainment ,the majority of people involved- not all, the majority, are liberal ,and I would constantly run into problems there doing racial material, doing gay material- “ Oh you can’t do that”, They’re stupid and extremely hypocritical, with the FCC regulations, it’s a personal Ideology. think its easier to bash Bush, yeah , Bush is dumb, we’ve heard it, but I have a lot more respect for someone that’s trashing Islam, which is not a favorite target, people aren’t comfortable with that,

What is your biggest piss off point with local hosts?

NORTON: Someone that has to be dirty thinks they have to be shocking because they think that’s what I do. I hate that. I also despise some hack up there, spewing garbage. I like working with a guy named Sean Roushe,I’ve worked with him many times, he’s a headliner, man he’s just a great comic, an original comic, he does completely the opposite of what I do, as far as our political views go, he’s just a funny fucking comic. I love to see a guy like that kill, I don’t care about their political ideologies, if you see a comic, and they’re killing, it’s just encouraging.

Who is the biggest asshole in show biz? (no names needed)

Don Herzog, the head of Comedy Central. He’s the one I think of right now, He cancelled “Tough Crowd”…In show biz as a whole? Sean Penn is a horses ass, that self righteous fucking bore, he has no sense of humor, he tries to be this person he’s not. when he after Chris Rock” Jude Law is one of our finest American Actors…”You self righteous mother fucker, he makes me sick, he spends his life, just saying things people have written, like his life isn’t satisfying enough, now he’s going to be this political ranting… He’s a fucking ass.When he did that thing from Iran, it made me physically ill.Sarandon and Robbins are predictable and boring,but I don’t hate them. It’s got to be Sean Penn. Madonna makes me wretch as well.

Jim Norton can be heard daily on the Opie and Anthony shoe on XM satellite radio channel 202, and can be seen this fall on the HBO Comedy hour and “ The Eric Neagle Experience"