Dave Ross is a hardworking
comedian in a city where the stand-up comics that don’t keep going just go
nowhere. To Hollywood, it’s a gold mine of comedic talent to choose from,
and the talent that makes it can make it can make it big…but until then for
the performer who just wants a stage to play on it can feel like they are
just another shiny rock in a big, dark hole.
Ross spends most of his waking life touring around L.A. and across the
country as a professional comic. In addition to all that, he hosts and
organizes Holy Fuck at the
Downtown Independent
theater, a show that draws some of the hottest names in comedy without
charging a dollar at the door.
Usually, if you want to play in L.A. you have to pay in L.A., but for fans
of real stand-up comedy, there are hidden hideouts where you can find free
entertainment.
While that’s enough good news to get any unemployed, underemployed or
underpaid adventurer out of their apartment, Holy Fuck actually has free
parking on the street if you get there early enough, in addition to not
charging you at the door to get in since there’s a concession stand inside
where the house makes all it’s money.
Every night at Holy Fuck is like waking up in the morning and finding your
stockings stuffed by mysterious goodies from Santa Claus. A veteran of
the scene, Ross knows good comics and great ones, so for the price of a
bottle of Corona Extra you can see A-list comedians like Matt Braugner, Aziz
Ansari, Dimitre Martin and Nick Kroll, to name just a few.
Ross was able to take time from a work schedule that would kill a
decent-sized bear to talk about surviving in the business, performing on the
top of a roof under the open sky, and how he has been able to keep the faith
for the last two years with Holy Fuck.
How long have you been organizing Holy Fuck?
The two year anniversary was on Tuesday, November 17th. The first show was
in 2009.
How did you get the idea for Holy Fuck?
It has always been a work in progress. When first I started I didn’t know
what I was doing. I just wanted to help my friends perform. I was doing a
lot of open mics at the time, and I met a few people who had an art gallery
in downtown L.A. and on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights they’d put on
shows and illegally sell booze.
It made you feel cool…you’d get an email with an invite and a password.
You’d pay the cover, walk inside and there’d be bands playing and everything
when you got in. It was just regular folks hanging out all night long.
The Downtown Independent theater
But they ended up getting busted. When that happened they couldn’t do it
anymore, but they still had the lease to the place. At first we were going
to put the show on there, but then they lost their lease. I met the owners
of the Downtown Independent theater at the last moment. They wanted me to
put on a show with new comics and they asked me to run it. It was a chance
to help my buddies who were looking for stage time, so I told them I’d do
it.
What was the first show like?
The headliner was Matt Braunger. I
really loved the guy as a comic and as a person. I was so new at comedy at
the time and I couldn’t believe I was talking to the guy.
It was supposed to be, “Holy Fuck BYOB Comedy At the Downtown
Independent” but I changed the name. They were just going to make money
charging for beer, and I wanted to make the show cheap. The stage time was
enough for me.
Aside from Matt Braunger, what are some of the other big names who have
shown up at Holy Fuck?
Aziz Ansari did the third show. It was nuts. He was just getting big at the
time. A month later his album came out, and it was on every fucking
billboard in the city. There have been so many other comics, like Louis
C.K., Margaret Cho, Todd Glass, Ron Lynch…Louis C.K. was such a big name to
have.
Damn, that’s cool. I’ve noticed that that there’s a whole community based
on Holy Fuck because of you. Isn't that a lot of work to put together?
There’s so much to it. I get to help my friends get stage time, I get to put
on a free show...I mostly just like entertaining people. Like I said, we’re
all broke, and there are so many things that cost too much, and the ability
to help everyone be in a room for a whole night for nothing and we’re all
just laughing and getting drunk is worth the work.
Considering how popular the show is getting, have you thought of ever
charging people to get in?
People tell me all the time that I should start charing. I don’t want people
to think the show has no value even though we don’t get paid for performing.
But I don’t want to be a producer. I want to get paid for my stand up and
for performing. My goal isn’t to be a comedy producer.
You’d rather be a professional performer instead of being a big
producer?
That is what we are all going for. Getting good stage time is impossible in
L.A. There are so many comedians out here. We are all trying to get better
out here and the travel comics still want to practice their new jokes, so
for them L.A. is a gym. For the rest of us, it’s also a gym, but the battle
for us is actually getting good stage time before you can get paid for stage
time at the big clubs.
Read part II of
Dave Ross and Holy Fuck interview right here.
Holy Fuck, 9 pm every Tuesday at
the Downtown Independent, 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90012.
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