The Daily Orange chats with John Pinette about his comedy methods and how he plans to put them to use onstage during his ‘Still Hungry’ tour. He will perform at the Oncenter on Oct. 7.

The Daily Orange: Would you consider yourself a comedy legend?

Pinette: Oh, my goodness, no. I think there’s pretty much a consensus on the comedy legends. Yeah, I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Maybe if you’ve been doing it for 25 years and you can still get a laugh and tell a few jokes, then maybe you’re a legend. Charles Manson is a legend. I would like to think of myself of somebody who’s made a little history in the clubs and stand-up comedy.

Do you have any influences in particular?

Many. Some of the older style comics — Buddy Hackett is a storyteller. Cosby was so clean and he was for everybody. It wasn’t unkind and it didn’t hurt, so I like Cosby a lot. But then on the other hand, I appreciate the Lenny Bruces and the Sam Kinisons, too. If you say you like one comic, then you really don’t like comedy because there are just too many kinds of great comedy out there. It’s ring toss, you pitch until you win.

Do you have one or two jokes that you would say people define you by?

The Chinese buffet bit. But I stopped using it for a while because I do want new material. I’m basically an entertainer. 

How has the tour been so far? Have you gotten any new material along the way?

Yes, but we’ve been so busy that I just want to kind of get it together. I kind of scatter my material, and I’m pretty good at organizing it. I really like to be as free-flow as possible because I think that’s where you learn.

Is every show the same?

Oh, God, no. I’d kill myself. I would feel like I wasn’t trying. I would feel like I didn’t care enough about you to think of other funny things. I couldn’t do that to my audiences. There is an element of the comedy of just being funny around the living room kind of thing. A very big living room.

sfanelli@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm