And Featuring ... Larry XL
Larry XL (real name Ernest Humperdink ... OK, Larry Nichols) has the physical dimensions to get your attention no matter what he's doing. But on stage he goes the extra mile, serving up animated, fast-paced diatribes on pop culture, dating, current events and more. Born and raised in Baltimore, on June 2-4 he hits up his hometown -- he'll be the feature act at the Comedy Factory with headliner John Wessling. He took the time to answer a few questions via e-mail from Dcstandup's Chris White.
With a nickname like XL, you have to live up to billing ... how tall are you, exactly?
6 feet, 6 inches.
And you play basketball, right? Because we all know that tall people play basketball.
Actually, I get asked all the time if I play for the Ravens.
You joke on stage about your country-ass relatives. Where's the Nichols clan really from?
My relatives come from Mississippi, Alabama, and Northern Florida. I was born and raised in Baltimore so the most of the "charms" of the south are lost on me. I'm a city boy. Don't get me wrong. I like nature as much as the next guy. But when you plunk me down two hours away from any major town in some backwards-ass county where liquor has been banned, people live in crippling poverty and the churches look like Puff Daddy's crib, I'm counting the minutes until I get to leave.
So have they bugged you to perform at any family reunions?
Yeah, but they won't let me cuss and talking about drugs and deviant sex goes waaaay over their heads.
In addition to comedy, I understand that you rock. And not in the "hey, you rock" kind of way. Actual rock. Is this true?
Yes. I'm a musician. My life from the time I was twelve has revolved around music. I've played drums and sang in a bunch of rock bands in my time. Being in a band is cool.
Really? Because I was in marching band for four years and it wasn't exactly chick city.
Are you kidding me? Once you get over the fact that you're never getting a cheerleader or a bad girl, you have your pick of flag girls. I mean, they may not be a Halle Berry or Angelina Jolie but they can make up for with low self-esteem and pure slut skills.
No comment. Please continue.
Being in a good band is great. Playing in front on an audience that is really into your band kicks ass. But it only takes one ego to muck it all up. I was in two bands when I started doing comedy and after those bands broke up, I poured all that energy into comedy. Yeah, I rock. I dig all kinds of music, except country and go-go. If I'm not in a comedy club, I'm in a rock club or concert.
Sounds like you have a Yoko story in there somewhere.
I wish. In any band, you have a partnership between three to five people. In my experience, most bands operate like this: one or two people in the group are doing 80-90% of the non-glamorous work. So you have problems brewing right there. But it's a labor of love so they suck it up. Then there's at least one person in the group who's trying to control everything regardless of what the group wants. Now if that person isn't one of the people doing 80% of the work or is a total douche-bag, the group will eat itself alive.
What's the personal drum set like?
I used to play a Pearl Export kit. 12, 13, & 16 inch toms, 22 inch bass drum, 13 inch snare. I sold it after my last band broke up and I moved into an apartment. I still have my cymbals. Sabian AAX 16 and 18 inch crashes, 14 inch Sabian AAX hi-hats, a 10 inch AAX splash, a 21 inch Zildjian mega-bell ride, and a 18 inch Wuhan china cymbal. Someday I will buy a new kit, which will either have one big bass drum or two bass drums.
Time for the stock “best ever” questions: Best drummer ever?
Damn, the best drummer? I can't decide on one. Here are my favorites: John Tempesta (Rob Zombie); Dale Crover (The Melvins); Morgan Rose (Sevendust); Sean Kinney (Alice in Chains); Tommy Lee (Motley Crue); Charlie Clouser (Nine Inch Nails); Joey Jordison (Slipknot); Amir ?uestlove Thompson (The Roots). Note: To anyone who wants to give me grief about not mentioning John Bonham or Neil Peart, BITE ME!
Best concert you’ve ever been to?
Oh…the can of worms you have opened….
Best show ever? That would have to be Rammstein at Nation. Rammstein is an industrial band from Germany. They don't speak English. Their stage show is absolutely sick with pyrotechnics and flame-throwers shooting in every direction. They all but burned the club to the ground. It was amazing.
Any show that might erupt into a near riot is a show you want to witness and I have seen many in my time.
There was the time I saw Pantera, Sepultura, and Biohazard at Merriweather Post Pavilion. They never had a real heavy metal concert there before so the security they hired was the same as the security they hired to work the Jimmy Buffet shows: teenage girls with walkie talkies. Every time one of the bands started to play, the people on the lawn and in the back rows would stampede into the pavilion to the open mosh pit up front.
Marilyn Manson at the old 9:30 Club on Valentine's Day was absolutely insane. No barricade, minimal security. People were going ballistic. I was dodging flying bodies and projectiles the whole time. That was one of those shows where when you're in the car with your friends on the ride home, you barely say a word to each other. We were stunned.
I could talk all day about this kind of thing, but I won't because I'd kill your bandwidth with my endless babbling.
Last “best ever”: You have to drive 1,000 miles in a day (oh, let's say, to deliver cash to a mobster so he won't kill your best friend), and you can only have one CD, set on repeat, in your car. You pop in ...
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume 1.
So as someone who’s had the experience of performing in both a band and as comedian, what gives you the bigger rush?
Apples and oranges. In a band, its a bunch of people on stage and most of the time you're only mildly aware of how good the show is going. With comedy, the show is all focused on you and you know immediately if it's going well. So on those occasions when you are torching the place, the rush is intense. But it can be that way in a band too so, under the right conditions, it can be a tie.
Pop culture feeds a lot of your material -- you claim to have a "crippling addiction." How much pop culture do you consume in a day?
Too much. If I go a day without internet access, I get irritable. TV too. There's a bunch of shows I try not to miss: Chappelle's Show, Family Guy, The Wire, Justice League, CSI, and Law & Order. Damn, I wish I had TiVo!
Ah, Justice League. I sense a slight hint of dork. We can sense our own, you know.
Guilty as charged. But I like any show that can make Aquaman a badass. Remember Superfriends in the 1970's? I see that on Boomerang and it makes me want to vomit. They made Aquaman into a little bitch. All he did was ride shotgun in Wonder Woman's plane. HER INVISIBLE PLANE? And then they decided that they had to get all multicultural. So then they had to invent some ethnic heroes: Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, and Samurai. There were good intentions but DAMN, how lame!
The Justice League rules now. The government doesn't trust them, they had Aquaman kicking Green Lantern's ass, and Batman is the most dangerous member of the team.
So yeah, I'm dorky. What are you going to do about it?
Since you’re 6’6” and know where I live, absolutely nothing. Where does the fascination with pop culture come from?
Where do any addictions come from? To fill a void. I like to analyze the patterns in which trends rise and fall. Most artistic and media movements have a life cycle you can set your watch to.
What made you want to get on a comedy stage for the first time?
I think every comic eventually sees a comic doing comedy that they know they can run circles around. Then you go to an open mic night a find out it's way harder than you ever imagined. You either quit or keep at it. My first time on stage was at Winchester's open mic in Baltimore. I was nervous as hell. I remember watching guys like Erik Myers and Mike Storck go up and kill and thinking I would never be that good. But then things started to click and within the next year I was being asked to open for these guys.
I ask this of everyone -- comedians sometimes get a bit jaded from overexposure to comedy. Who or what still makes you laugh out loud?
Chappelle's Show, Dave Attell, South Park, Henry Rollins (spoken word), Kathleen Madigan, Margaret Cho, Earthquake, Cedric the Entertainer, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Lewis Black, and Reno 911.
Last question: You're from Baltimore ... how do you like performing in your hometown?
Performing in Baltimore is great because it can all at once be arty, ghetto, country, white-trashy, intellectual, affluent, etc. You never know what you're going to get. I especially like the Comedy Factory because it has become that place where comics show up just to hang out and the crowds are generally good and borderline out of control.
Larry XL is at the Baltimore Comedy Factory June 2-4 with John Wessling. Visit www.baltimorecomedy.com for more details.