Brian Regan: The comedian you don’t have to bleep

Most comedians sell out Radio City Music Hall after finding success on a TV series or in film, but comedian Brian Regan has made it to the top of stand-up by doing just that for the last 35 years.

In September Regan became the first comedian to perform a live – as in real time – Comedy Central special. Saturday he performs at Ovens Auditorium.

It’s not that Regan has avoided sitcoms and film (he’s done the occasional cameo).

“I do like the stand-up side better, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be interested in a TV show. I’m very cautious of the TV side of the equation,” Regan says from his home in Las Vegas. “I’ve always been careful not to get involved in anything unless it’s about my comedy. I’m not interested in being a star, but I want my comedy to be a star. I know that sounds weird. If a network would let me do a show around my comedy, I don’t want a show where they say, ‘OK, funny boy’ and you come out like a funny monkey.”

He likes that the absence of celebrity means that audiences are there for the show.

“I do like the fact that if people come out to see my show it has to be because of the comedy. I’ve done a handful of other things, but nothing that has trumped the stand-up,” he says. “It’s fun for me to go out in front of a group of people who are leaning toward liking my stand-up comedy. There are people that can draw a crowd based on not just their stand-up, but their star power.”

Regan, 58, has been praised for his skill at unreeling a joke, his use of timing, and space in his set, but he hasn’t got it down to a science, he says.

“I try to be careful to never think I’ve figured it out. It’s a never-ending quest. I learn every time I get on stage. You can learn things about how to write, about performing,” he says. “You like to be open-minded enough, to think maybe I’ll change this at some point. Every show is different. The material might be the same, but little nuances and changes people might not recognize.”

Although he cringes at the term “clean,” Regan is a rare breed of comedian who doesn’t litter his act with profanity and sex, though he doesn’t embrace the label.

“It’s something that I can’t get away from. I guess you could describe what I do as clean. I don’t describe it that way. I just like to think it’s just funny. One of the weird things about being clean, if you will, is that sometimes people incorrectly assume that there is a mission statement involved: ‘Wow, this person must be trying to make a point about a loftier type of comedy.’ I don’t feel that way at all. There are blue comedians that are great.”

It helps that Regan’s role models were not as foul-mouthed as, say, Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor.

“I liked Steve Martin a lot because of how silly he was. I like to have a silly component to my comedy. I liked George Carlin because he was very interested in words and fine-tuning (language) and how he was going to convey things. Seinfeld I liked because his ability to get comedy out of things that people wouldn’t normally find any humor in,” he explains.

“Seinfeld picks up a bag of cotton balls and thinks, ‘Here’s five minutes of comedy.’ ”

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 6:58 AM with the headline "Brian Regan: The comedian you don’t have to bleep."