Stand-up comedian Brian Regan has performed on “Late Night with David Letterman” a record-breaking 28 times, released four stand-up specials in the past decade and goes on a nationwide tour 100 days of the year. Most importantly, on Sept. 11, one of those days will be at San Diego State’s Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre.
The material presented will be previously unseen by the amphitheater’s eager audience and entirely new from shows he has already recorded such as “All By Myself” and “I Walked on the Moon.” Much of the new material will appear on his Comedy Central special “Brian Regan: Live from Radio City Music Hall,” which will air on Sept. 26.
Regan is a clean comedian, meaning his jokes tend to be family-friendly. While many people appreciate this aspect of his work, he described it as a comedic style rather than intentional, in the same way music can be different genres.
“I’m not riding in on a big white horse saying, ‘Hey everybody, I’m bringing clean comedy to town,” Regan said in an interview with The Daily Aztec. “I just like talking about everyday things. So it’s not necessarily because I’m more wholesome, but it’s a way of doing comedy.”
He’s able to see the humor in almost everything, from emergency room visits to lost baggage at the airport to the self-depreciating notion that he isn’t even unilingual.
“All of Brian Regan’s skits are so true to life,” kinesiology senior Brandon Pierce said, a Regan fan who has seen him perform three times. “I can imagine them happening in my day-to-day life and he presents the material in such an animated way that makes watching him so funny.”
His love for stand-up comedy stems from hearing the positive feedback implied by an audience’s genuine laugh.
“I think of goofy, twisty things in my brain and I say them out loud in a sound system and other people react,” he said. “It’s a way of communicating through humor and they don’t laugh unless they get it.”
He first realized his comedic ability during a college speech when he got the whole class, even the professor, to howl in laughter. After that, he started to consider pursuing comedy as a career.
And he’s been quite successful, despite his reluctance to boast.
“I think most people don’t know who I am,” he said. “It’s a constant quest for a few more people, a few more people, and then maybe one of these days I’ll be on more people’s radar.”
Regan is widely respected by his fans and the comedic community alike, working with people like Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Maron and Chris Rock. Regan made his first-ever blockbuster movie appearance with a role in Chris Rock’s 2014 comedy “Top Five,” an experience that he hopes won’t be his last.
“I’m waiting for Steven Spielberg to offer me a trilogy,” he said. “If he calls me and says ‘You’re going to play a tadpole,’ I’d tell him I’m in.”
Though movies may still be on his horizon, fans will wait for the day a Spielberg trilogy is released in which Regan stars as the leading tadpole.
