Writing comedy from truth and anxiety is hard to do well, but for Joe List, working through what ailed him onstage has finally paid off. For a clinically anxious guy, List has a great ability to find humor in it.
“I went to a therapist because I kept having panic attacks. The therapist told me that a panic attack is a ‘fight or flight phenomenon.’ That’s when your body prepares to fight or flee from whatever you’re afraid of. But I get panic attacks when I’m talking to girls so it’s a little awkward. After the show some girl will be like ‘you were really funny tonight,’ and I’m like, “I might have to fight this bitch,” he jokes on his half-hour special on Comedy Central, airing this weekend.
List has been doing stand-up for fifteen years, but it’s all come together over the last two years have been the best for him. He was a memorably funny semifinalist on this year’s Last Comic Standing, and now he’s making his Comedy Central half-hour debut. List co-hosts a weekly podcast with Mark Normand called Tuesdays with Stories; it’s become so popular that Sirius is giving the boys airtime to test out the show for their subscribers. We recently talkd to List talked about grappling his anxiety to find what’s funny about it, and why it’s easier to follow Chris Rock.
Paste: Who would you say influenced you, comedically?
Joe List: George Carlin. I knew Carlin’s special by heart as a kid. I didn’t know half the things he was talking about. He did a blowjob bit, and I had no idea what a blowjob was.
And then there was Seinfeld—and then the TV show Seinfeld, which was the biggest influence in my life. Watching that as a kid I saw stand-up comedy as a job. And I wanted to have a wacky neighbor and a great apartment in NYC. That was a huge inspiration. And then the humor of Seinfeld bleeds into everything I do onstage and on my podcast as well.
Paste: Do you have a dream to make a sitcom?
JL: Not too much a dream but more of it would be nice to have a show and sell a show.
I always wanted to be fictional Jerry Seinfeld—do comedy and have funny friends and a sweet apartment in New York—and I am getting there. But it would be nice to have a show. But it just is not as big of a dream as having an hour comedy special for me.
Paste: You do have a show that is popular, Tuesdays With Stories. How has that evolved?
JL: My podcast with Mark Normand is very much a tribute to Seinfeld—it’s a very George and Jerry kind of relationship. The podcast is doing well. We are doing a month trial with Sirius and hopefully we will get picked up. It’s going great so far!
Paste: That’s excellent. I don’t mean to be a downer but I want to talk to you about anxiety. It seems you’ve made your anxiety work for you. You make anxiety feel cozy. How did you manage to work through your anxiety to create material you were satisfied with?
JL: It’s weird because I have been riddled with anxiety and panic disorders my whole life but onstage is where I am the most comfortable. I think it is a control issue. I know what I am doing, I know what I am saying and I feel like I have confidence there. I have been doing comedy for fifteen years now and have spent so much time onstage now—it’s definitely the least amount of anxiety when it is going well. People who try to call me out and say, “You don’t seem anxious up there!” they don’t understand. I am anxious offstage, talking to them. I have a lot more anxiety offstage. I do yoga, and I got sober and I’m in a good relationship. I am having some success. So my anxiety has gone done but I have enough experience with it to write about it because I was riddled with it for so long.