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Published on March 14th, 2013 | by StandUpTalk

Run The Light With Matt Ingebretson

In this edition of Run the Light, we interview comedian Matt Ingebretson.

Ari: You created the webseries “Matt’s Game Chamber”, how did that show come about?
Matt: David Schilling, a nice guy who produces a lot of web content, asked me if I had any ideas for shows. I lied and told him I did and said I would send it to him later (a ploy to buy myself more time — like in the movies) . Then I went home and sat in my room and thought of an idea and then sent it to him, and then we brought on funny friends of ours like Brandie Posey, Brock LaBorde, Zach Ames, Behn Fannin, and Allen Strickland Williams and fleshed out the series and then shot it.

Ari: Who would you love to have as a guest on the show?
Matt: I wish we could have gotten Johnny Carson. What a curse to have made this show in an era where Johnny Carson is dead.

Ari: What are your favorite video games?
Matt: I love playing this game called Angry Birds. It’s where I go down to a retirement community in Orange County and throw rocks at old ladies (who I refer to as “birds”). The old birds then get angry and try to chase me but can’t catch me because I am young and limber and they are old and fragile. Then I escape and speed down the highway with my head sticking out the window scream-singing “We Are Young” by Fun over and over again.

Ari: You run the successful alternative stand up show art fuck — What advice could you give other comedians about running their own comedy show?
Matt: Find a venue that is good for comedy that you can reasonably expect to fill. Book comics that you think are funny. Make cool fliers. Promote the show online. Tell people you know that you are running a cool show with cool fliers. Be nice to the comics who perform on your show. Don’t let the show run longer than about an hour and a half. Respect that the audience took time out of their day to go to the show. Respect what the show is — if 5 people show up to watch, put on the best possible show for those 5 people — do not be dismissive of the fact that there is not much of an audience — it is not the audience’s fault that there aren’t more people — it’s your fault for not doing the first steps in this list good enough — your flier probably sucks. Thank everyone for coming. Thank the comics for performing.

All that being said, Art Fuck is at the Downtown Independent Theater, which is a massive venue and super difficult to fill, so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about.

Ari: You put out a lot of good jokes weather that be on twitter, funny or die, or stand up, do you have a disciplined writing process?
Matt: It depends on how much I have going on in my life. When I have a lot of time on my hands I will set aside 2-3 hours a day to write. I also make to-do lists most days that will have things like, “write three jokes” or “write two pages on [X] script.” And then things like “nap” and “haircut” and “go for walk” will be on there as well. I always feel kind of psychotic writing everything out like that but I get more things done that way. For me I find it really valuable to be regimented in what I do, but I also find that a lot of my best ideas just occur to me when I’m doing something other that sitting down in front of my computer. But those moments are unpredictable, and in order to have a consistent, high volume of output I try to not just rely on moments of inspiration.

Ari: In both your web series and stand up you joke about being single and loneliness, how much truth is there to that? Should we send our female readers your way?
Matt: I would imagine that most people who are ambitious within their field experience a good deal of loneliness, just insofar as they have to allocate large tracts of time and brainspace to working on their craft. Standup can help combat that because performing at shows or open mics forces you to go out and be around people, but the way your set goes can swing your mood. I can go have a great time hanging out with friends at a show, get on stage and have a lackluster set, and then feel totally isolated for the rest of the night because I’m in my head disappointed in myself and getting sucked into an inferiority complex. It’s an irrational and counterproductive thought process, but I think it’s pretty common amongst people who perform.

Don’t send your females readers to me. Send them here.

Ari: What celebrity would you love to go on a date with?
Matt: Dead Johnny Carson.

Ari: You seem to be a busy guy, got any secret projects to leak on StandUpTalk?
Matt: I’m working on a handful of things right now, although it’s hard to say right now which ones will end up panning out. Hopefully I will finish writing the screenplay for Angry Birds, a movie adaptation of the game I described above.

Ari: Ok I think that’s all I can think of from googling your name and hearing about you on the hard streets of Los Angeles, anything else you want to tell the world?
Matt: Johnny Carson’s dead corpse makes love like a banshee.

You Can Find Matt At,
Website

Twitter

Matt’s Game Changer