Brian Regan: Standing Up

I didn't know Brian Regan, but this show is great! He has a good eye for the plainly ridiculous. Such as a warning sign on a horse trailer: "Caution: Transporting show horses!". And then with great facial expressions and character goes on on what that means to him as he drives past it.

There is no real political or moral inclination. He plays out American situations and characters in a sharp, mocking way. He has some great laughs and some very funny visualizations, but he won't have you roll out your seat laughing. Although I did do so almost on stressed out guy working at the butterfly pavilion!

Brian Regan grew up one of eight children in Miami. Funny runs a bit in his family. His brother was a writer on the sitcom "The King of Queens." Regan attended Heidelberg College in Ohio, majoring in accounting and playing football for the school. His football coach noticed his creative bent and encouraged him to explore theater. As a sophomore, he discovered stand-up and began to pursue it.

From his first performance at a Fort Lauderdale club he was hooked. By senior year he had quit college to pursue comedy full time. He finally completed the last ten credits to his degree in 1997.

By 1981 he had immersed himself into the world of stand-up, even taking a job as a greeter and cook for the Comic Strip in South Florida. He worked out his stuff for over two years in the club, even occasionally flirting at the beginning with prop comedy. By the end, Regan was ready to tour as a middle act.

A move to New York followed in 1986 and two short years later he was a headliner as well as the winner of the K-Rock/Miller Lite Funniest Person in New York Contest.

Brian Regan enjoys the reputation as a clean comedian, but the lack of profanity doesn't come from any particular moral bent and he is widely respected by his peers. His material is still incredibly sharp and engaging, focusing on creating not just laughs but good laughs.

Regan made his first appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1995, become a regular guest every year since. 1996 saw him winning the American Comedy Award for Best Comedian. In 1997, he released his first CD, the simply title "Brian Regan Live." Brian Regan received his first half-hour special from Comedy Central in the year 2000.

In 2004, Regan taped a live performance at the Irvine Improv and released it as a DVD entitled "I Walked on the Moon." Though he was not a regular performance on television, Brian Regan has been able to grow the audience for his act to a degree that he was able to move his act from the clubs to theaters.

In 2007, Comedy Central made a large commitment to Regan comedy with a deal that included not only a live tour but two hour-long specials.

Since a couple months I've been watching a lot of stand-up comedies, discovered plenty of new talents, comedians that I will keep an eye on. Also some very lousy stand-up comedies but this one from Brian Regan is certainly not in that category, on the contrary he's going in my favorite list as his show was just hilarious. A slow starter is what I would call him, not necessarily a bad beginning of his show but he needed some warming up, but once he's warmed up it's a rollercoaster of laughter. The second part of his show had me in tears, maybe the weed was kicking in or so, but the truth is that it's been a while since i did laugh like that. His mimics and impersonations are just the best thing of his show, very talented in that section. I will for sure look out for more of his shows.