Joe Pera Starts From Scratch
The genial comedian begins his run of workshop shows amongst the wood panelling & velvet wallpaper tonight - and spoke with us about what to expect, what brought him here, and why he's walking a lot.
If you see Joe Pera waltzing around your Pittsburgh neighborhood this week- don’t be alarmed; he’s just out writing new material for his week-long stay at Bottlerocket.
Following the early October release of his independently produced stand-up special Joe Pera: Slow and Steady, Pera now turns towards the Steel City and Bottlerocket Social Hall to ignite a future comedy project. The only thing is, he’s not entirely sure what that will look like.
Pera has sold out six shows over five days and is preparing to build a show from the literal ground up, live on stage, in front of us. When we say the ground up, we mean he just began preparing material yesterday. I had the opportunity to sit down with him during a break in his writing, and Joe told me that he sees this week as both a challenge, and an exciting time to experiment with the crowd.
“This is a very fast turnaround for me. A new hour of stand-up usually takes a very long time. I’ve been doing stand-up for a decade and a half; I’m hoping I’ll be able to figure it out and make the shows entertaining. It’ll be fun; it’s a fun experiment. I’ve never done anything like this before. On tour, I got more comfortable working through material and ideas on stages with the audience, and it was the most fun I had,” Pera said.
A glowing review of Bottlerocket from friend and fellow comedian Conner O’Malley, who performed with us almost a year ago in November of 2022 - led to Pera’s choice to test material here, and he says Pittsburgh has just the audience he is looking for to begin his workshop.
“Conner O’Malley reached out and told me how great a time he had here. I had a great time when I did my tour last year in Pittsburgh; I thought the audience was great. I had fun being in Pittsburgh for a few days. So, what can be more fun than trying to work on new material here, in front of an audience that I trust has good judgment,” Pera added.
Pera said Bottlerocket’s wood-paneled walls should serve his new material well, and that a confluence of factors lead to his decision to try something entirely new for both him and Bottlerocket - an extended residency.
“It was a bit of a leap of faith. A lot of friends who performed here told me that it’s a nice place to perform and also drink. It seemed like the size was great, the intimacy. I feel that I knew Bottlerocket had a smart audience, and the venue itself was a place where I could shape good material- feeling comfortable in the brown interior,” Pera said. “Also, it’s fall in Pennsylvania, which is lovely.”
But Pera isn’t coming empty handed to the shows, he’s invited a wide variety of some wonderful local comedians and bands to open for him, something he says was probably just as exciting for him as it was for the local performers who were tapped to join him.
“It’s exciting to expose the audience to people who I think are extremely funny that they may have not seen before. A lot of what makes this venue and what I’ve heard about it special is how it is quite a part of the Pittsburgh art scene. I thought it would be very cool to have audiences exposed to the people who are doing really good work in Pittsburgh that they may not stumble upon otherwise. It’s exciting for me to see what is going on in the Pittsburgh scene,” Pera said.
In terms of what to expect from the show itself throughout the week, Pera says he wants the new material to discern itself from Slow and Steady - while maintaining his core vision.
“I still have similar tastes in what I want to do, goals, creatively, standards, stuff I’m attracted to. I feel like I want whatever the next hour is to feel like a new show and feel different, and I don’t exactly know in all the specific ways yet. Just performing an hour will help pick directions towards what the next thing can be. I want the audience to know that they’re getting a good show, and that it’s going to be exciting and surprising” Pera said.
Joe also elaborated on what would make this week successful for him.
“Nobody throws anything at me. Nobody asks for a refund. But also that I get to learn about Pittsburgh, I feel like the place is really important to all the comedy that I’ve done so far. I hope to incorporate what I learn this week into the show. I find that the more time I spend walking around a city, the better, that’s how I do a lot of my writing. Hopefully, I get to straighten out some ideas while walking and strengthen up my glutes by walking uphill,” Pera said.
And yes - tickets for these shows so fast (under 5 minutes for most shows) - but there’s always the standby line. Bottlerocket staff (myself included) have been hard at work the last 2 days adding seating and tightening logistics to help as many fans get in as possible. But Pera had a message for those willing to brave the line.
“This is all new material. You should make sure you know it’s good; it could be bad. Before you wait too long,” Pera said.
If you have tickets for any of the Joe shows this week, we hope you’re as excited as all of us these shows, and hope you don’t mind if things get a little off track onstage. As a venue, this is exactly the type of show you dream of getting - a wonderful performer and a wonderful person - arriving with nothing but raw creativity, and watching them figure it out in front of you. It’s really impossible to describe how awesome it is to have Joe come and take this leap with us, so please - come take a leap with him!
Joe Pera’s residency begins tonight, October 24th at Bottlerocket Social Hall. All shows are sold out. A standby line will be offered for all shows.
So hyped for this. Is Joe someone who WANTS tomatoes thrown at him on stage?