Chomping at the Bit | Christopher Corrado | The Dap and A Hug Podcast

On this episode of The Dap and A Hug Podcast, I sit down with comedian and producer Christopher Corrado for a real conversation about comedy, creativity, horror films, podcasting, and life experiences.

Christopher talks about his 16-year journey in stand-up comedy, learning how to handle hecklers, bombing on stage, producing shows, reading the room, and balancing confidence with humility in entertainment. The conversation also explores horror movie nostalgia, podcast culture, second chances, independent media, and the importance of supporting people while they’re building their dreams.

Topics include:

• Comedy and crowd work
• Hecklers and bombing
• Horror classics like Freddy, Jason, and Creepshow
• Podcasting and authenticity
• Cancel culture and comedy
• Ego vs humility
• Building community through entertainment
• Creativity and storytelling

Featuring conversations surrounding legends like Joey Diaz, George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, and horror films including Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Follow Christopher Corrado / Corrado Show:
Instagram: @christophercorrado
Instagram: @corrado_show

Follow The Dap and A Hug Podcast:
Instagram: @thedapandahugpodcast

#TDAPHUG #Comedy #Podcast #StandUpComedy #HorrorMovies

Peace and Love at The Dap and A Hug

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We didn't talk a lot about comedy. It was mentioned. And then uh so I'm gonna probably mention what we discussed on that as well to kind of get some clarification or some ideas that I have. But um have you ever had to deal with a heckler?

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Doing a comedy show? How did that work out?

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I mean every everybody's gonna have to deal with a heckler at some point. Uh I think early on in comedy, I learned I learned to deal with people, and sometimes it's not even just heckling, like they're they're just they like the interaction. So basically, a lot of times instead of necessarily arguing with people and insulting them, you just talk to them and have a little bit of a dialogue, and then it ends up being fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Has anyone ever gotten like blatantly disrespectful?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've seen some people uh uh get like that, and you know, one guy, not me personally, but he got he got threatened, but he got escorted out by his girlfriend.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

By his girlfriend. Well, how would you handle that if you was at a show and somebody started like heckling you? And at first it's like, you know, friendly banter dialogue, but then they get like disrespectful, like they cross the line. Like, what do you do? You just like think that the bouncers are gonna take care of it, or is that how it usually happens?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

It's usually very easy um to diffuse, believe it or not. If you just kind of like I said, kind of keep that dialogue with somebody. Thank you. Keep that dialogue going with with them and uh just chatting with them a lot of times instead of like roasting each other, you kind of just like maybe just agree with them. Yeah, you know, I suck, but you know what I'm trying. Stuff like that. Just don't let them know it bothers you.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, because you gotta keep it moving. Right. Right. That's I got so much respect for you for being a comedian, though, because like I I kind of compare y'all to MMA fighters because I mean, you out there, you're by yourself, crowds watching, you know what I mean, and it's all on the line. You know what I'm saying? Either you're gonna kill or you're gonna bomb, you know what I mean? So early on, can you think back to one time where you like had like a huge bomb? How did you recover from that?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, uh just tried to look back and try to figure out what happened, you know. Um was it just was my timing off? Um were the jokes just not that creative? Uh and I don't like I don't like to blame the audience yet. I this one specific time I feel like everybody was having trouble. I don't like to blame the audience. You know, if you're funny, you're funny, you know? Right. Um, but it seemed like everybody was having trouble that night. Uh and that doesn't necessarily even mean that you're bombing. Sometimes people don't laugh. Sometimes people just will smile, and that's their way of showing you that they enjoy it. Uh they're enjoying it, they're not even laughing. Because there's been plenty of times where I'm like, God, that was terrible. And people are like, oh, you had a good set. I enjoyed it. I'm like, I you didn't laugh at anything. So a lot, but yeah, I've had some times where it just didn't go well. And I just try to just go back and look and see what what was it? Was it the timing? Was it uh the setup, punchline? Was I just not was I off? Was I not likable? Because likable is is huge.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, like ability. Unfortunately, you know, you can't please everybody, right? That's right. That's not what we're in this business for. Well entertainment. I guess what I'm doing is kind of entertainment side as well. Um when it comes to comedy and you personally, like I feel like I haven't known you that long, but just by how you carry yourself and your demeanor, that it's not just about getting laughs, that you have like an underlying purpose within your comedy. I don't know if that's like to tell a story, to get a point across, to give your side your perspective, or is it like partly um therapeutic to you? Like what does comedy mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I I would say all that, yeah, you want people to laugh, you know. Um I can't really say I've been down in the gut anytime recently that it was uh therapeutic necessarily. I mean, of course, it does feel good when you have a good set and people enjoying it. Uh, but I can't say a lot of my comedy, you know, especially as of late, is based upon feeling angry or or sad or anything like that. But ultimately, I'm just trying to since I produce a lot of shows, it's just getting good comedians on and helping them build some type of brand recognition to the point where people start coming to my shows more often. I have a reputation that even if they don't know the comedian, they know it's gonna be good because we built that reputation that it's always gonna be good. And people aren't so um hesitant to want to come to a comedy show, especially when they don't know anybody who's on the show. I think that's what happens a lot in the beginning of comedy, because like if you see my name somewhere and you don't know me, and then you see three other people's names, you don't know them. Why are you gonna come see that comedy show? You know, a lot of times you gotta realize people are just starting to build themselves up, and it could take a long time to do that. So sometimes it just like music, you know, a DJ, maybe. Maybe if they're not famous, so what? You know, go support them because everybody needs to start somewhere with those first few fans.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Absolutely. I could totally relate to that, man. Um, how long have you been doing comedy?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

16 years this March. Wow. A long time.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Got your black belt. Yeah. For real, man. Have you ever um we talked briefly so about this like yesterday, I believe. Um, I really hope that you shoot a special. You know what I mean? Because I was talking to a mutual friend and um I was like, man, I can't find anything. We was talking about like finding your comedy online and stuff. I was like, yeah, I don't think he's put out a special yet. I was like, I'm trying to motivate him to do it now. Like that's part of my repertoire. Whatever I can do to help you, you know what I'm saying? Let me know. I know I'm I'm new to the game or whatever, but seriously, just whatever I can do to help.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

I think a special would be really good. Not not even to have necessarily me headline, just uh a special of me and myself and uh a few other comedians that I think would would would compliment it well.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Kind of keep the same structure that you got going on now. Yes, I have multiple people on there.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

And it's not that I'm against headlining, it's just I always feel like I'm just better as the host producer, although I do like to do stand-up myself. I've just become more accustomed to, you know, kind of like you'd watch, and I'm not comparing myself to him because he was he was he was awesome, was Rodney Dangerfield. A lot of times you'd watch his stand-up. He wouldn't do a long set necessarily. He might do five to seven minutes and then he he hosts and brings people up. So he has jokes, but he's not the headliner.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah. That's a funny dude, man. Yeah. They go uh back to school or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

The one-liners were killer.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Man, like for real, bro. Like, they don't make them like that. No more they can't, unfortunately. But I don't know what the internet, bro. I feel like, you know, the cancel culture and all that, man. Have you ever had to worry about anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Uh well, I mean, I can't really say I'm big enough to cancel just yet. You know, and it depends. I mean, some venues, they don't want certain type of language or innuendo or anything like that. Like I've had to do comedy, not had to, but been booked to do comedy, a retirement community. So you could be sitting there with people in their 70s, their 80s, and it's not they don't know these words. Of course, they know these words, they know this this content. And it might be more the company itself wanting you to tone it down and not necessarily the the seniors in there. So, you know, you've had to be very careful with everything from politics to religion to you know cursing and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

I could see that, given, you know, the audience. So I guess that that works. Well, you know, I'm a huge fan of Joey Diaz. I got Uncle Joey up on the wall. Well, he over there. But um, I don't know how much of his stuff you've seen. I'm a huge fan of his podcast. Uh, but believe it or not, since I started my podcast, I rarely watch him. Okay. But uh The Church of What's Happening Now, the New Testament, I love it. He's raw, so he probably wouldn't have been able to do that retirement home show, you know what I'm saying? I just wanted to kind of just say that he's one of my favorites, and I actually met him, and I mentioned that before, but I'm gonna go ahead and give some a little bit of history on like us meeting. It's nothing like that, but I had gone to see him live at the comedy zone. And I I went to the bathroom and um, you know, did my business or whatever. Then I went and started washing my hands, and I looked up in the mirror, and back, you know, he was standing at the urinal. At first, I looked at the mirror and I just looked down. I looked back up, like, you know, I could tell that it was him by like the back of his head, you know what I'm saying? And he walked up beside me. I kind of stood there, just like still, like rinsing my hands off, like kill sometime. And then I made the one mistake. I was like, How you doing, Mr. Diaz? He's like, No, no, no, don't call me Mr. Diaz. Call me Uncle Joey. And he said that in his podcast a million times. It's just, I guess I was a little starstruck in a way, to meet him. But we was talking for about 11 seconds or so. Then this fratastic dude came in with nothing to I I won flip-flops with khakis on the collar straight, but this dude was just doing too much, man. And I just felt some kind of way because he interrupted my conversation. So I just walked out. But it was cool seeing him, dog, and like having like a little down to earth conversation for as long as it lasted. And then like we took a picture and stuff, but that's why I love podcasting, bro, because to be able to be creative, you know, you don't want to say certain things. I'm not trying to disrespect nobody, call out people by their name or nothing like that. I'm trying to promote and shine a light on the positive things that people are doing in the community. You get what I'm saying? Yes. But I do have to be kind of be careful at the same time and be mindful of what I say. But yeah, that's my guy. So Joey Coco Diaz. But anyway, um, have you met any famous comedians? Anyone that comes to mind?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

No, uh, I mean, definitely going to see some shows, but I haven't necessarily met anybody famous, like, you know, face-to-face.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

What um what stand-up show kind of sticks out in your head from when you think about like hey, I remember seeing this one, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

I would have to say Sebastian Manascalco, uh, Joe Coy, and Andrew Dice Clay.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

But you remind me of him. Which one? The first one. I've heard that a little bit. Yeah. Y'all have some similar features, you know what I'm saying? Okay. In my opinion, I don't know. I guess take it as a compliment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bro, me and my cousin Kiki, shout out to Key Sherry Chisholm. We went to go see Godfrey. You ever seen Total Recall? Oh, yeah. You know, at the beginning of the movie when he has the Jack Hammer, he just up there just bam bam bam bam. That's what that's what Godfrey did on stage, though, with his joke style. He went up there and just annihilated, bro. It was shit was awesome. So, as far as the comedy scene now from when you started, you know, I mean, 15 plus years, you said 16, right? Yes. Like, I know it's a lot has changed and on the scene, I guess, possibly, as far as maybe being careful of what you got to say, but like what has changed in you as far as you have gone through life, you have experienced this, you know, relationships, different jobs, different, you know, meeting different people, and seeing how people's like behavior has changed through the course of when you were younger to now, especially after COVID. Like, has anything changed in how you approach the comedy? Like when you're writing or the topics that you choose? Did you have any material on COVID and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah. Or were you kind of like being careful with that? You see what you see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

No, I definitely have material on it. Uh just just getting better at knowing, like I say, you know, you gotta read the room, getting better at reading the room and trying to figure out what people want. Do they want the jokes? Do they want the crowd work? And you know, I guess how clean or dirty they want it to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Right. Gotta read the room. And you know, I have to do that every day. Like right now, I can tell you trying to sniff out some bullshit the way you're looking at me. Hey man, I want to go ahead and say this real quick. Um, I went camping. You know, me and Carrie went camping. You used to work with them. Or as you say, Carrie.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Carrie.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

And um, I don't know if I'm gonna take this out of this podcast or not, but I'm gonna at least probably like make like a little animated series, like a little animated show. You know what I'm saying? Um, but I think it should be rules of camping, dog. Do you do you camp?

SPEAKER_01 12:26

It's been what I had before, though.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Like, and then so yeah, this will be perfect to circle back on the podcast that's releasing tomorrow. So doing that podcast, you know, I told you that I was working on a bit, you know what it is, and everything. I was kind of skeptical. Because what if I do want to like take it serious and come up with a minute? Well, five minutes, ten minutes. Do I want to go ahead and let that out? Should I say it right now, you think? Like, seriously, should I say it? You should if you want to, I suggest you just come to an open mic and try it out. Yeah, and not say it on the podcast. No, go ahead. Yeah, well, so this is this is my thing. So being 41 years old now, man, like I feel like once I turned 40, things started changing. Like, all men say this, even women, like you go through changes. But and uh the one that I would say as far as a rule with camping is you shouldn't be able to go if you have hemorrhoids. I say that because you know, you got all these like scary movies, these horror films about I'm gonna talk about horror, that'd be a good segue, about like Dracula or vampires and stuff like that, right? Oh yeah, but if you have hemorrhoids, you are just welcoming a nature's own actual like vampire, like mosquitoes, bears. So let's say you got hemorrhoids, you got a licky ass and it's blood, the the the bear's gonna smell that. So y'all been hiking, fishing, whatever, you get back to camp. The bear smells it, you get comfortable, you climb in your sleeping bag, you go to sleep, then you wake up and there's dead bodies everywhere, blood all over the place, because you led that bear back to camp. So, what if you survive that? Do you get hit with like involuntary manslaughter charges and shit? You know what I'm saying? Or negligence? If you're a Boy Scout leader, a Girl Scout leader, all the kids, you know what I'm saying? How would you live with yourself, dog? Like, how many charges would you be facing? I think it's hilarious. And then, like you even said, uh, you gave me a tag, it was like, well, what if the mosquito bites the hemorrhoid and then bites the bell? Like, that's just crazy to be, dog. I I think it's hilarious. But um quite the mutation. Quite the mutation. Some serious shit. Appreciate you. Um but anyway, that's neither here nor there. Maybe I should come to her up and mic and do it. I get so nervous when I say I was I was telling my cousin that over the phone, I was just nervous saying that. But over time, I'm sure like you started out nervous, right? But over you probably still get a little nervous, but once you get going, I'm assuming it's just like riding a bike. Right? Because it's good to have a little bit of nerves at the beginning.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Not really so much anymore, no.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Uh 16 years to do that, huh?

unknown 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I mean, I'm not saying that uh I get more excited than nervous, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Okay, yeah. So maybe you'll see me doing a minute or two on an open mic one day soon. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Good, I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Um so I mentioned horror, and um, you're a huge horror fan. Yes, like throwback-wise, what was your go-to horror film or character?

SPEAKER_01 15:29

So probably the two first horror movies I remember watching as a kid back in 1985 when I was four was an American whale from London and Creepshow. Creepshow.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Oh, Creepshow was crazy, bro. You remember the one I think Leslie Nielsen played in it, and Ted Dancing. Yeah, and like it has something to do with him being on the beach.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yes, I just I just watched it with my fiance the other day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

I love those movies. Yeah, dog like the Crip Keeper and all that. Um, I think that one with Leslie Nielsen. Was that the one? No, it was a different one. It was like a bunch of like roachers or something, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:03

That's the last one, the guy in the apartment.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yo, you remember the one when the teenagers or the whatever they was out on the lake. The raft, that's part of it. The raft. And then like the black stuff in the water, like the the tar-looking stuff came to him.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Oh, I mean, a lot of people probably don't even know about that. You know what I'm saying? But um, that's some scary stuff, bro. I remember one time I was very scared, dog, as a child, and I remember them little shortbread cookies, like you know, the little cookies, it's like a like a little hollow circle in the middle, and then outside it's like a flower petal, kind of. Yes, bro. I remember I don't know six, seven, I don't know how old I was, but being downstairs by myself at home watching it, the original it, eating them cookies, like why what am I doing? Like, watching.