Advice for the Funniest Person in the Room | Comrade Tripp

What happens when you sit down with a comedian who’s equal parts thoughtful and unpredictable?

Glenn interviews Minneapolis-based comic Comrade Tripp for a wide-ranging conversation that jumps from movies and the multiverse to how to get started as a stand-up comedian.

No character. No bit. Just Tripp being Tripp.

Whether you’re curious about stand-up or just here for the improvised ride, see where this 87.9 KWHO conversation lands.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well it's nice that you have a friend.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Uh uh if you ever want to hang out sometime, we go to Applebee's all the time. Uh there's one off of uh Highway 100. No, thank you. Um, okay. Just straight up no. No, thank you. Oh, no. Wait, so you're saying no, thank you, or are you saying no?

SPEAKER_00 0:18

No, but thank you.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Oh, okay. I'm glad I asked, because that was actually kinder than I thought it was. It's K Who Radio 87.9, and it's time for the K Who Are You interview. It's me, Ya Boy Glen Sheen. That's right. It's me and to my left. Unless you're looking at us uh on online, then he's to my right, or it's your right if you're looking on a screen. I actually have no idea how this lines up in the shots, but he's here, he's in the studio. His name is Comrade Tripp, local comedian and uh performer extraordinaire. Welcome, Comrade.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Oh, uh hi Glenn. I never really learned my left from I feel like I learned my left and right too late. Now sometimes I just don't know. How did you learn? My left from my right?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah. Um, um, I put an L uh uh uh with my fingers. But that's also an L if you do But if you do Oh oh shit Yeah, actually that is an L. And if I do that and the camera's looking at me this way, then I'm making an L to them. So this would be my left hand to them, but I know this is my right hand to me. Is it? Whoa, okay. Well, you know, your last name is trip, but I gotta say, this is pretty trippy. You know, you already got me questioning left from right.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

But I've heard that one You've heard that one several times.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Okay. Well, I suppose you're a comedian. Your your um uh your life is is comedy and jokes. Uh japeries, if you will.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I won't. I if I won't.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

No japes.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

No, no, no japing. Do you prefer uh any other colloquialism for comedy? Or do you just prefer comedy?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I prefer not to be colloquial at all.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Okay. I actually don't know what that means. I just used it, but I don't know. I don't know what colloquial colloquial means. Uh can you spell it? Absolutely not. Do you want to try? Sure. Colloquial C-O-L-O. No. No. Oh, you know how to spell it? Two L's. I know it's two L's. Okay. Well, you don't know left from right, but you know how to spell colloquial.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Yeah, I don't know my left from right, but I know my L's. That's colloquial.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Okay, there's the two L's. Colloquial is the same. That's how I learned how to spell um with your hands. Yeah. You just spell things out with your hands?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Do you ever learn do you know any sign language?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Uh no, just thumbs up and uh middle no finger. Is it it? Is it not? I feel like it could be. I mean, maybe it's just a universal, like, this is good, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Some people, it's I mean bad. Some people what's uh the gladiator, that's not good. Isn't doesn't that mean which ones they kill people?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I think the da I think they're like kill them, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Walkie Phoenix killed people, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Wow, that's that's one to watch for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

See you sound like a bit of a movie buff then. Uh that's the only buff I can be. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

It's the only buff? So you don't think you're ever gonna get jacked?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

No, I'm not a gladiator.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Oh well, what if what if you were?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I don't I don't think of what if that's another Marvel series.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Okay, so you know multiverse in which I am uh muscular.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I don't think well isn't the whole concept of the multiverse also kind of saying that there's a multiverse out there where like you are super buff?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

There might be a multiverse, uh a single verse in the multiverse in which I might uh have uh believed myself to be buff. I could have just lived in in the lie of muscular. Well, don't you think there's like there's so many variants, right? You know, I think if I was if I was that wouldn't be me then.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

I wouldn't think you wouldn't you would reject that comrade just because he wouldn't re I think that comrade would reject me. I think if I met other glens in other universes and we got to finally get together, I think we we I probably hug a lot. Um I was gonna say we do a lot of damage, but uh probably at a Buffalo Wild Wings, you know?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Would you would you ever interview another Glen from another universe?

SPEAKER_01 4:20

That'd be that no, that'd be a trip, that's for sure. Uh that that would yeah, too. For me to interview myself would be wild, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Then you and it'd be a one a glen from a universe where this is the right, so then it would be two left glens. Oh my gosh, two left gens. Two the two glens left.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Well, I feel like I'm already a glen left because my wife left me about a year and a half ago.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Oh no, what happened? Oh, she just left. Um there wasn't like a Maybe that's why she because you didn't know why.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

That's a very good point, comrade. So let's talk a bit more about your comedy. When did you start getting funny?

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Funny is like a it's like a it's like a little uh petty cab. It's but you're not the you're not the driver or the passenger, you're the actual petty cab, and someone's pedaling you, and someone's also they're trying to get somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

So you feel like you know, like a like a rickshaw, like the the the thing that you hop in when people pedal you around, but you're not the peddler and you're not the person riding it, you're the actual thing. Is that what a rickshaw is? I could be wrong. You know, and often I and I am often wrong, and everyone online likes to tell me when. And I appreciate that so much.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, that's good for engagement. You're you're engaged.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Well, I'm I I'm very unengaged, you know. Yeah, I guess yeah, I don't wear the ring anymore. Uh, I think I was throwing some people off with that one, turns out. Um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

How does radio work? How does engagement work on radio?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Oh, it's amazing. You just it's like a lightning bolt out to the people, you know. I just uh say stuff and they hear it. Could fuck something up. Uh part of the magic of what's happening right now. Are you running it? Are you writing it down? Are you just checking?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah, just uh just keeping track. Okay, of swears? Of what? I'll let you know at the end. Oh the final tally.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Cool. All right, I won't be insecure about that at all throughout this.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Um what's uh what's the next question, Glenn?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Oh, okay. Uh well, comrade, I was wondering more about I guess uh what got you into comedy, uh, aside from people making fun of you.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

That was it.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

That was it. It was enough. And you were like, I guess I'm just gonna tell jokes now.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

I I guess so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Fair. That's brave. I feel like I uh I got made fun of, and instead what I tried to do was uh make the people who made fun of me um um uh love me. Uh so now I live in my friend's basement.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

It's nice that you have a friend.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Uh uh if you ever want to hang out sometime, we go to Applepeas all the time. Uh there's one off of uh Highway 100. No, like just straight up no. No, thank you. Oh no. Wait, so you're saying no, thank you, or are you saying no?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

No, but thank you.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Oh, okay. I'm glad I asked, because that was actually kinder than I thought it was. Uh when's the first time you got up on stage when you when you traiced across the board and found yourself in the spotlight?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

18.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Okay, and how do you feel about it now? Because I mean y you were 18 then. I'm assuming now you're like 28. Are you how old are you? I'm uh I am 33. Wow, damn, that was way off. I mean, that was close. That was kind of close. So uh comrade, you're 33. Uh you're taking the scene by storm. What's your what's your do you have a goal? What's a place you want to perform? Is there somewhere in the Twin Cities that you haven't quite like taken the stage of yet and you want to go there?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Like uh no. I think I've performed and I like to perform at the places I'm familiar and comfortable with.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Fair. But isn't there something that they say about artists where we should put ourselves beyond our I guess humans.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

We are do you consider yourself an artist?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, I mean, yeah, obviously an artist. I'm an I the I have I've got these uh the stews, the stew awards, the studio awards. I uh I've been doing this show for uh quite a quite a long time, uh influencing, if you will, without being online. Um uh uh yeah. Would wait or why do you yeah, why why why would you ask that?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Uh I'm just curious. Maybe in the in the multiverse you could be an artist. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

I think okay, fair enough. Maybe there's a yeah, there's a version of me that wears a beret, you know, and has a little little little mustache and paints, you know, like those artists, you know. Um but no, I think I think mostly my other multi-verse me's my variants probably just probably just pretty similar, but we all just choose a different sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings, you know?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Oh, what sauce do you choose?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Oh, I I'm a garlic, I'm a garlic parmesan. Yeah, yeah. Nothing too spicy, nothing too zingy or zesty or flavorful. I like a good numb butter on my tongue, you know? What's your favorite flavor?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

I I don't go to Buffalo Wild Wings.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Oh, okay. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Or Applebee's.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

You don't go to Applebee's. You don't like to eat good in the neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

No, no, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Oh, okay. So you rather eat bad in the in the what's the opposite of a neighborhood? Um jail. That's fair. I was just gonna say prison, I guess, but also it's kind of like it, you know, because you're you're you're stacked up in rows and stuff. It's kind of like a neighborhood. Huh. Well, hey, uh, speaking of amazing businesses like Buffalo Wild Wings and Applebee's, we're gonna take a little ad break right now. Uh, we're gonna come back in just a little bit. We've got Comrade Trip here in the studio, but in the meantime, K Who Heads, go ahead and listen to these ads and please listen to them. And if you could, um uh please listen to them and then tell a friend, because the ads aren't going as good as we thought they would. So, you know, hear the ad, tell a friend the ad, then you're the ad, and then we can add you as a friend on our uh list of friends in our minds. Please listen, and we'll be back in just a little bit.

unknown 10:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

How you feeling? Fine.

unknown 10:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Um, am I offending you? Um not actively, no.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Okay, you're just making sure. All right, cool. Um, I felt a little offended. Like, never mind, it's fine. I just I mean like I I I I I think I'm an artist, right? Wouldn't I be? In what way? See, that's the kind of question right there that's got me wondering now. Um uh I guess an art of the art of words.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

I mean, wondering is a part of being an artist to wonder. Huh. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

So me wondering if I'm an artist makes me more of an artist than the art.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I hope so. Huh.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Oh, coming back. We're back in the studio with Comrade Tripp. That's K Who Radio 87.9. And don't you forget, my friends, you heard the ad. You can check out hands off the abstinence-based singles meetup that happens every month at a different event center. You can go and find it online. Uh, anywho, comrade. Uh I've been told by a lot of people that I'm like the funniest guy in the room and I should be doing stand-up. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm a radio show host. Um, but every so often I'll be asked to speak at events, and you know, I'll put some jokes in there. Um what would you recommend for me if I was getting started out?

SPEAKER_00 11:48

I mean, if you're in the fun if you're always the funniest person in the room, try to go to some different rooms and see if you can be the funniest person there.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Interesting. So try harder in social situations in which people haven't already openly said I'm funny and make them say it.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Um as long as I'm not in the room.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Well, you know, because you'd be the funniest, you'd be the funniest one there.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Uh that's kind of you to say.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Well, I mean, it's it's it's obvious, you know. You could tell. You just you ooze charisma and confidence. You just ched a check, you did a check again.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Really wondering. Uh really, really curious as to what you're you have three. I have three now. You just have three. Three checks. Yeah. Okay. Um, but I I do have to go back to that. If I were to start uh doing stand-ups, someone out there, our listeners, if they think they're funny and they want to try themselves out, uh, what do you recommend for a beginning stand-up? In terms of like what should they go about doing to in order to hone their skills or get better or get out there?

SPEAKER_00 12:48

I mean, yeah, get out there.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Cool. Well, you heard it here, folks, from Comrade Tripp. He said, get out there. If you think you're funny, get out there and find it. And if you think you're the funniest person in the room, find a bigger room and a better room and be funnier in that room. Hey, we have time just enough left for the K Who questionnaire. These are a couple of questions that have been sent in by fans, uh, both of yours and of the radio station. And if not, I'll be completely honest, my uh producer just sends us chat chat TPT questions, which I hear is great. Are you a fan of American history?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Uh we're recording this in February, so I'm a fan of uh some of this.

unknown 13:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

And of course, February famously is Valentine's Day month. You just gave me another check. Okay. Is it is it every time I mention a uh holiday? No.

unknown 13:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Um let's also not forget that Oh, Black History Month. Oh I shook the table.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

That's the sound that it that may you hear when a white person mentions Black History Month.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

It was like the sound of a boom. Yeah, that's oh yeah. No, I just remembered. Uh it's Black History Month. Do you do you have any plans for Black History Month?

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, I'm observing history.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Wow, cool. That's so cool. That's so cool. Um sometimes I feel like I observe history just by like being alive right now, because like days from now, today will be history in a way. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

We're like time travelers because we didn't start right now. We started before. Like even this whole time, we've been talking like 30-some minutes. It feels like we have been time traveling.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

We're only 30 minutes in. Just about.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Okay. Did you want this to be longer or shorter? I'm here. You know, you do this thing where you don't have an opinion at all, but you very clearly do.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Oh, okay. Uh, you can find Comrade Trip online across all platforms. Uh 87.9 KHU Radio. It's been the K Who interview. It's been an absolute treat. Last chance to tell me what the hell those check marks are about.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

That's uh each one for every time I uh uh tried to feel something. It wasn't about you at all, it was about me.

unknown 15:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Wow. I am so self-obsessed sometimes, and thank you for the reminder of that. And I will be better at not doing that for me. All right, K Who 87.9. Up next, we got a solid rock block of bare naked ladies. Oh, calm down, everybody. It's the band. All right, you stay tuned, don't turn that dial.