Laughing Stock: Start the New Year with Greg Romero Wilson

Greg Romero is hard to characterize, because he is just so much himself. His family and ancestry are Mexican, but he doesn’t speak Spanish nor feel especially immersed in his ancestral culture. He’s rampantly energetic in the manner of his two Bible-thumping preacher parents, but it’s in service to irreverent jokes.
His smile and laugh are contagious no matter how frowny his subject matter has made his audience that day. He’s an actor, but somehow his effect is neither archetypical nor fraudulent.
“When I’m Greg Romero Wilson,” he said, “I just want to be as authentic as I can. What I lean into the most is being a Gen Xer, because I feel like they see things the way that I do. We’ve seen certain things over our lifetimes that I find extraordinary. When you talk about the journey of video games, when you talk about the journey of marijuana, when you talk about the journey of . . . ” Well, all that and 9/11, COVID, sexting and, of course, TikTok.
But Wilson said he is interested in “just attitudes in general toward sexuality, toward money, toward everything. So many things have moved and changed dramatically in our lifetimes. My material is meant for everybody, but if I lean into anything, it’s about being a Gen Xer.”
“Comedy has entered a new era,” he said. “I call it an era of ‘pop comedy’ in that what we need to do now is have a hit single, what you would call a viral video. Before, there was an understanding of mastery, that if you were headlining at a club, it meant, ‘He’s the headliner. He has to be good. Right?’
“But now people just want to see the person they saw for 30 seconds on TikTok. I couldn’t imagine any other career where an entire life’s work is reduced to whether or not you have a hit 30-second clip.”
The risk for the audience, and entertainment in general, is that people who pay good money for an hour-long show by a streaming star in a big theater or amphitheater may wind up wishing they’d just stayed home and played video games or channel-surfed streaming options.
On the plus side, where there once was a typical cohort for stand-up, the “pop comedy” era has given voice to practically the entire spectrum of humanity. The old cohort of comedy fans hasn’t gone away, it’s just been relegated to a market segment. Potential comedy audience members now include a wide spectrum of lifestyles, and those TikTok (or other social media) segments have delivered relatable comedic voices to new audiences.
Wilson isn’t sure how or where comedy got baked into his own humanity, but he spent a long time in denial. “I wanted to be this very serious dramatic actor, but I kept getting all the comedy roles, and everyone kept saying I was so funny. So, finally I was like, ‘Why am I fighting who I am?’, you know?”
Even after he started, it was a long time before he could watch his own videos. “I looked like my dad preaching except saying really filthy jokes!” he said. He credits both his parents for his giant-size charisma and says he still recognizes his father’s style in his delivery. It’s what Wilson calls his “fire and brimstone” effect. “I’m just telling jokes instead of trying to save your soul. I love it! You know we are saving lives, if only for an hour or two. Laughter is the best medicine,” he added.
Wilson’s full-body energy defines the many characters he integrates into his jokes.
“I’m very physical with character,” he said. “I only ever go at 11. Coming from an acting background, I love doing characters and accents. I love big facial expressions. I love storytelling. Acting lets me bring all those elements into stand-up.”
His characters bring Wilson’s observational writing to life. “My comedy inspirations were always Robin Williams and Sam Kinison — just two of the biggest energies on stage.” Watching them, he said, helped him see that there was a place for him as a comic.
Wilson also teaches comedy classes and workshops, and he has an all-video course available on the website for his comedy school. His “Mastering Stand-Up” comedy writing class is delivered online via www.teachable.com
“I always wanted to teach. In 2008, I started teaching, because one of the club owners here in Los Angeles noticed I kept talking to the open mic-ers, giving them tips.” As soon as the owner started talking to him about it, he started writing notes. “After a couple months” he said, “I had like a thousand notes.”
As of now, Wilson teaches several levels of stand-up comedy and offers private coaching lessons via www.thecomedyinstituteonline.com. Classes and workshops cover writing, characters, crowd work, hecklers, hosting, storytelling and a basics course, “Mastering Stand-up.”
Greg Romero Wilson, Laff’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28; 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, $15, $20 preferred seating; and 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 31, $25, www.laffstucson.com

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(Chuckleheads/Submitted)

Ryan Goodcase and Matt Ziemak are one chill bill.

Laff’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, www.laffstucson.com, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, $15, $20 preferred seating, Jeremy Coughlan, an amalgam of chaos and contentment in self-deprecating humor

Tucson Improv Movement/TIM
Comedy Theatre, 414 E. Ninth Street, Tucson, www.tucsonimprov.com, $7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, Improv 201 Showcase; 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, Improv Jam; 7:30 p.m. “The Soapbox;” 9 p.m. Headliner Stand-up; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, “Your Favorite Movie Improvised” and “Tootpole;” 9 p.m. “Ugly Sweater” and “Auld Laugh Syne”

Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E.
Speedway Boulevard, Tucson, www.unscrewedtheatre.org, $8, live or remote, $5 kids, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed (NBOJU); 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, “Elves Gone Bad – A Pirate’s Christmas,” $5 live or remote; 7:30 p.m. NBOJU; 9 p.m. NBOJU Uncensored; 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24, “Elves Gone Bad – A Pirate’s Christmas,” $5 live or remote