TALL TALES with BRAD WILLIAMS •

Pound for pound comedian Brad Williams is one of the funniest comedians in the country right now, and though he may be small in size he stands tall in stature as one of the most in-demand comedians working today, routinely selling out prestigious venues nationally and internationally.

Williams just taped his 5^th stand-up special which is scheduled to air in early 2026.  His 4^th special Brad Williams: Starfish premiered on the streaming platform VEEPS in December of 2023; and over the years his live performances have graced the stages of such esteemed television shows as The Tonight Show, Dave Attell’s Comedy Underground, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.    His first one-hour special, Fun Size, was the highest rated special on Showtime, and his last groundbreaking special on Netflix, which was called  The Degenerates, garnered more huge ratings and rave reviews. 

Also an accomplished actor, Williams has appeared on numerous TV shows and feature films, along with memorable roles in a plethora of films, including most recently Spinal Tap II: The End Continues along with Little Evil, as well as the Netflix original Christopher Guest film, Mascots and Reno 911: It’s A Wonderful Heist.   In addition to stand-up and acting, Williams co-created and co-hosts the Heightened Babble with his friend and fellow comic JB Ball.  

In 2022, Brad also became the first stand-up comedian to headline a Cirque de Soleil show in their 30 year history, when he agreed to launch—and do a three month run of—their newest show Mad Apple, at the magnificent 1200 seat New York New York Theater in Las Vegas. The show became an immediate smash hit to rave revues, singling out Williams for his incredible ability to captivate his audiences with his extraordinary performances.

In April 2011, Williams released his first full-length comedy album called Coming Up Short. His humorous and inspiring observations on disability, relationships, sex, and race consistently win over audiences; proving anyone can overcome their shortcomings. His high energy live performances frequently produce standing ovations from audience members; which prompted the late Robin Williams to call him “Prozac with a head.”

Now Williams will be making an appearance at Saginaw’s Dow Event Center on Sunday, February 15^th as part of his current Tall Tales Tour, which will start at 7:00 PM.

Last week The REVIEW was fortunate to chat with Williams on a variety of topics pertaining to the world of contemporary comedy, his evolution as a gifted stand-up entertainer, as well as a few of the ‘pet peeves’ that bug him the most about the world we live in today.

REVIEW: It’s fascinating that at the age of 19 you attended a Carlos Mencia live comedy show and while sitting in the crowd Mencia made jokes about dwarves. People sitting close to you were afraid to laugh and appear insensitive, so noticing this he asked you to join him on stage and you impressed everyone so much Mencia asked you to be his opening act on the road. At what point did you know you wanted to pursue comedy professionally?

Brad Williams:  Before that night I knew being a  comedian obviously was a job. I was a big fan of comedy and big fan of comedians, but it's a job in the same way you watch The Avengers and being a Superhero is a job - like yeah, Iron Man exists, but no one gets to be Iron Man, or Batman exists, but no one gets to actually be  Batman.

I had done high school theater along with improv comedy, but until that night it was an experience and one of those cases where they say, ‘How do you become a Director? You start directing. How do you become a comedian? You start doing comedy. No one’s paying you or asking you to do it, you just start doing it and that will get you the journey where you want to go.

Even as I started doing it, I thought okay, I'll do this on the side.  This isn't gonna be my job. This is gonna be like how some guys go and play darts or have weekend golf games, so my hobby was gonna be doing comedy and I thought I would do an open mic night occasionally.  Now here we are 22 years later and I’ve been this professionally for a long time. I mean, I bought a house with jokes, which is very weird.

REVIEW: When you were growing up did you find that you had an innate sense of humor, or at what point did you realize you could make funny jokes?

WILLIAMS:   I was required to have a sense of humor. Being in my family, you’ve got to have a sense of humor. My Dad had an amazing sense of humor. He was a trial attorney and would explain to me how he would put humor into his trials because then it makes the jury like you more and it makes them listen in case they're starting to nod off.

But as a trial attorney, the humor has to be really well placed, because if the joke bombs  it's devastating.  

He would tell me that, but in a way where he goes, “Brad, if you make a joke about your dwarfism, and if you're the first one to make  the joke, then it will put everyone else  at ease and disarm them. That was taught to me very young because my Dad knew I'd be bullied,  because kids are who they are.

So what he would do is make fun of me in a controlled environment in our home and then say, “Okay, hit me back.”    And he and I would literally write comebacks together. People think, “Oh, I’m gonna go to a Brad Williams show and say something to throw him off.”  But they say this not realizing they don’t have a shot. That’s literally like saying Lebron James has never seen anyone like me to do a crossover shot. I’ve seen it brother, so that’s when I knew I was funny - back in childhood.

REVIEW: Obviously,  there’s different styles of comedy. You've got everything ranging from The Three Stooges variety of slapstick to comedic philosophers like George Carlin and Stephan Wright, to comics specializing in gutter poetry like Andrew Dice Clay.  How would you define your own style of comedy?

Brad Wlliams: It's autobiographical, but my style of comedy is very kind of old school where the good guy has to win. The good guy can be put into challenges and bad situations, but  people want to see me win. If you see the person with the disability lose it's a real bummer, because the audience needs to know the person with the disability Is okay. That is in my mind as I write jokes and craft  things, because I never want the perspective to turn mean. It’s a question of setting the tone for the character I’ve created, but the character is just me with the volume turned up.

REVIEW: That leads into my next question because they say in comedy timing is everything, which is also very true about life in general.  Is your talent natural and intuitive or did it take practice and experimentation to hone your talents?

Brad Williams: It's 10,000 hours, man. One of the reasons why I got into comedy and why it really spoke to me is because when you are someone who's being stared at all the time,  the notion of going up on stage and having a room full of people stare at you suddenly became an advantage when I started because people staring at me was ‘normal’.

Like, I am in total awe of your average straight white male that goes on stage and just demands attention,  because when I see your average straight white male go on stage there’s nothing to grab your immediate attention. You have to get my attention, whereas if someone from a different ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, or disability  walk on stage there is that innate curiosity - like, what is this? What’s this guy’s story?

REVIEW: You’re  really well known for your successes with comedy. What about failures? Have you ever bombed in front of an audience or have you ever experienced an audience that you couldn't really connect with?

Brad Williams:  If any comedian tells you that they've never bombed immediately end  the interview because they're a liar and then you know you cannot trust anything they say after that. I have bombed horrifically. Sometimes you bomb just a little bit. Sometimes you bomb in terms of where you just suck that night, you get no laughs and you can't connect. Sometimes you just have mini bombs throughout the show where you go, oh, that one joke didn't work, but then recover after that.

My standard is really high for the result I'm looking for in a show, but sometimes I don't meet that standard so in my mind I bombed, but if some other comedian that had been doing it for 6 months went on stage and had the same set, they'd be like that's the greatest set I've ever had in my life, if that makes sense.

The most epic bomb that I've had is a great lesson in comedy, and just life in general, One time I was booked to do what is called an urban show. I'm guessing you can imagine the audience at an urban show. Urban is a fun code word. So I  go on stage, and this is not my normal audience, and I've got to let them know that I'm with them, and I speak their language, and I'm down with their culture. So I made my act try to be like, “Hey, look -  I can break dance. I can talk like I'm from the streets. No, I really can’t.  And as an audience they smelled me as a fraud from the moment I walked on stage and came off as patronizing. And when you're bombing for an urban audience, they do the worst kind of thing to you, which is flat out ignore you. They'll just turn to their food and turn back to their drink and their conversation and they'll act like you're not even there.

That was the worst bomb, but a very valuable lesson. I  have to be my authentic self on stage, and that is what I've tried to be ever since. And I've been back to urban rooms, urban nights, whatever. I'm just myself and it works.

REVIEW: In terms of your show or your podcast or anything sre there any topics you feel are off limits when it comes to material for your comedy?

Brad Williams:  No. I know that's kind of a brash thing to say, but I will explain why. I'm a full supporter of say absolutely anything you want on stage, no topic is off limits; but I'm a realist and know some topics are harder to make work, so I always tell every comedian you could say whatever you want, you could joke about whatever you want,  but there are some topics that will immediately turn a lot of people off by just hearing a word, a name, or a premise, making it harder to win them over.  

It's harder to make it work, but you could name almost any topic in the world and I'll find you the comedian that could made that joke or topic funny. And in a way that is not  hurtful, because all great comedy is just showing the light on the thing.  Not actually promoting the thing or saying this is a good thing. It's showing a light on the thing. So as long as your comedy is showing a light on the thing, you can make it work. There's topics I go into  on stage that I wouldn't be ready for when I started, but now that I'm 20 years into this I know myself.

REVIEW: Can you tell me three things about contemporary society and culture that bother you the most or find most disturbing?

Brad Williams: Um, wow. That’s a good question. One of the things is ‘Tribalism’ and by that I mean whenever people get locked into something - whether it be a political party, a religion, or a certain philosophy - to the point that when presented with logic or facts that are opposite of their philosophy, they can’t see it because they’re so locked into one way of thinking.

If you walk around going, ‘All Democrats are bad’, or ‘All Republicans are bad’, or your basic philosophy is whatever the Orange man says is wrong or whatever he says I great, that’s not good because there’s no room for any understanding.

As for the second thing that concerns me, and this may sound weird coming from a stand-up comedian, but the second thing would be the lack of shame in our society.  It used to be you didn’t do certain things because you were afraid of how it would affect your family or reputation, but now there are literally people out there in this Tabloid Culture where they do things with the single goal of making people angry, or creating rage. Their goal isn’t authenticity or accuracy, it’s engagement. If they make enough people angry their views will go up and the money they earn will go up and they have no sense of shame about it.

You see this both in politics and in sports culture where they’ll say something like Lebron James is not a good basketball player, which is objectively insane because he’s proven over and over again that he’s great, but they’ll push it just for the engagement, which I would not be able to sleep at night knowing I was pushing misinformation, of any variety. At least I can go to bed knowing my goal was to make other people happy.

So Tribalism and the lack of Shame re two serious ones, the third thing is something dumb, which is close to tribalism but is actually the Sports fan who is not objective - they guy who every single time something happens to their team, it’s never the team’s fault - it’s the other team’s fault. That drives me nuts. The non-objective sports fan drives me insane.

The Brad Williams ‘Tall Tales’ Tour rolls into the Dow Event Center on Sunday, February 15^th at 7:00 PM.  Tickets start at only $30.00 and can be purchased by clicking this link.