This is not your older brother’s Tom Green.
The pop-eyed, gangly, maniac who all but invented reality-based shock humor with his ‘90s time capsule program “The Tom Green Show” has been replaced by an older, wiser, and more socially and politically aware satirist who looks at the world around him and wonders how the hell it got this way.
As incredible as it sounds, Tom Green has grown up. Long gone are the elaborate pranks on his long-suffering parents and the goofy antics with his friends. Fresh off the success of an acclaimed Showtime comedy special, Green called us from his home in Los Angeles to discuss his more sophisticated style of comedy. Green will be appearing at Connxtions Comedy Club on November 9 and 10.
You recently did a Showtime comedy special that was really well received. Were you surprised at how well it went over?
Yeah I was really happy that people liked it. I worked really hard on coming up with the ideas for it and I’ve been touring for the last few years putting it all together. It was a really great feeling to have such a great response. It was awesome.
You’ve been doing standup comedy practically full-time since 2010. Are you ever going to go back to doing your Internet talk show?
Well, I’m starting up a podcast and it’s going to be a new style of Internet show. It’s not going to be in my living room anymore. It should be up pretty soon. We’ll be streaming the video of the podcast and it’ll be similar but a new version of the show.
So what’s the word on your long-delayed movie “Prankstar?” Is that ever going to come out?
It will. It’s a work in progress, man. It’s gonna be a crazy film. But for the time being I’m just going to be touring and doing my new web show and I’m not sure when that’ll come out. I also just shot a movie with the Trailer Parks Boys as well; that’s gonna be cool.
Your show is hilarious but you’re talking about some pretty heavy topics.
I think people who come to my show should understand that this is an alternative form of entertainment to what we’re being force fed on television everyday. My show is focused on highlighting some of those inaccuracies that we believe to be true just because we’re so brainwashed by the mainstream television and entertainment business. There’s no real competing view to what is considered “the norm” now in this world. I’m talking about political issues and I’m approaching it from a different perspective. They all have an agenda, which is to promote their side of the argument. Maybe CNN’s agenda is to appear unbiased, but when you’re trying to appear unbiased you critique both sides equally. But maybe both sides don’t need to be critiqued equally. Maybe one side really is worse than the other. Maybe the whole system is messed up.
Why are there only two political parties in this country? Is it so we have less choice? Are we not allowed to have more choice? I’m starting to get more and more upset and angry as I get older because you actually see how this stuff affects your life. When you’re a kid, you’re like “Oh, who cares? There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. I’m just going to try and make enough money to pay my rent and my bills and hopefully get a job.” Then you get older and you realize there’s so much stupidity in the way the system works and you want to actually say something that might change it, even just a little bit. even if it’s just raising awareness with a thousand people in a comedy club. That at least makes me feel better that I’ve spoken my mind and said what I feel about things. The world has gotten very frustrating for me.
Views like that are the antithesis of Hollywood and big media. Have you gotten any flack from the suits in show business for expressing those views?
I don’t talk to the people in show business, man. I got nothing to do with those people. Everybody knows what’s going on. It’s bureaucracy. You can ask any individual in show business, “Hey, are you addicted to your cell phone? Did you like the world better before you had text messaging? Remember when you used to go out to dinner with people and you’d actually sit and talk with somebody instead of being distracted by your cell phone and texts and have every single person they’ve ever known in their entire lives trying to chat with you while your dinner companion is trying to have a conversation with you?” At what point do we stop encouraging it and start discouraging it?
How are your parents doing?
Oh, they’re doing great, man. It’s been excellent to have great parents like I have. Obviously they put up with some silliness when I was younger doing my show but they were always able to separate our true relationship from the TV pranks I was pulling. They’d get frustrated and angry with me on camera because I’d get them at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. But I have a great relationship with my family and I see them all the time. They’re great.
Tom Green is performing at Connxtions Comedy Club on Friday, November 9 and Saturday, November 10. 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. $23.50. 5319 Heatherdowns Blvd. 419-867-9041 / connxtionscomedyclub.com
