Neal Brennan Doesn't Have Any More Sad Stories

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Neal Brennan has held just about every job imaginable in comedy. The writer, director, standup, producer and sometimes actor is still best known as the co-creator of the iconic “Chappelle’s Show,” but that may soon change as he has spent the past several years establishing an impressive resume on his own. Brennan’s critically acclaimed 2017 Netflix special 3 Mics not only raised his profile as a standup, but also opened the door for him to work with Ellen DeGeneres on her first special in more than 15 years. His latest tour, Here We Go comes to Turner Hall Ballroom on Friday, June 8. We caught up with Brennan to talk about how he doesn’t have any more sad stories to tell and why he would rather direct commercials than have his own TV show.

Tell me a bit about Here We Go.

I end up finding myself only interested in about four things: race, religion, gender and technology. That’s kind of what every hour I do is about. In this one all of the gender stuff is about me too stuff. I don’t know if you’ve seen, but it seems to be centered in a community that I’m a part of; the standup comedy community with Bill Cosby, Louis [C.K.] and Aziz [Ansari]. So we’re going to explore that a little bit. I sometimes feel like I shouldn’t talk about it because I know Louis and Aziz. I’ve known Louis 25 years. I’ve known Aziz 15. But I was already interested in that. I feel like I’m a beat cop that’s already walking that beat. But it’s not drudgery. It’s, wait what’s the word, it’s funny.

Do you feel like you have to pull punches because you know these guys?

No, because I don’t specifically talk about any of them. It’s more just the general wave that is hitting the world. I don’t think I pull punches. Even if I was talking about them specifically I wouldn’t be, like, berating them. You know what I mean? I wouldn’t do that. They would both understand if I did, but I wouldn’t.

Those four things that you said you have always been interested in all seem to be especially important now. Do you feel any extra responsibility as a comedian doing that type of material?

Well like I said I feel like it’s a beat that I’ve already been walking. Race isn’t going away. Sex and gender isn’t going away. Religion isn’t going away. I have a little bit about Trump, and I don’t think he’s going away. It’s not like the race stuff on “Chappelle’s Show” was irrelevant. It’s always going to be relevant, and it just so happens that my brain sort of just spits it out. I just find myself drawn to it.

There was some pretty personal and emotional material in 3 Mics. What made you want to share that at that moment?

It was partially marketing, in terms of, like, can I do a special that will stand out? Ali Wong would be a good example. She’s the pregnant lady. Now that’s sort of her calling card. I was wondering, since there are so many hours out there, could I do one that would break through? I thought about talking about that stuff prior, and I just thought that I should do it as a show. Then I had the tweets, and a lot of those one-liners were tweets, and I thought, “Let me use the whole buffalo.”

What’s funny is now I don’t have any more sad stories. Sorry everybody. A friend of mine said that now I should do a show called “Mean Things My Dad Said About My Brother Danny.” I don’t have any more somber, sad tales. Sorry. I’m a little bit afraid that people are going to say, “Yeah I went to Neal Brennan’s show and it wasn’t sad enough. I was hoping for a little more gut wrenching, but it was just funny.”

It seems like you’ve worked in just about every job in every form of comedy imaginable. Why do you think you’re able to work in so many diverse roles?

The directing thing is that I moved to New York to go to film school at NYU. Then I started working at a comedy club because my brother is a comedian. I was sort of already doing both back then. So from working at comedy clubs, then doing Half Baked, then watching Half Baked get directed and putting my two cents in in terms of how we shot it and all that stuff, then doing “Chappelle’s Show,” sort of writing and producing, then eventually directing it, I just developed the skillset and I’m happy to help figure out what’s good or novel about a performer.

Since I am a performer, I guess I figured out what’s good about myself, which is sort of leaning into sadness instead of running away from it. Then I can help with Chris Rock on Tambourine. I executive produced that and sort of gave him some direction. Also Michelle Wolf’s HBO special. Then I can figure out the thing that’s good about somebody and help them do more of it, or less of it, or I can write jokes or observations in that area.

I think people tend to trust me because I’ve got boots on the ground. I’m not like one of these guys who’s like, “Back when I performed.” Back when I performed was today. Ellen DeGeneres is doing a Netflix special, so I’m working with her on it. I pitched her a joke and she was kind of like, “eh.” So I kept telling her that it would work. Then she did it and it worked and I was like, “I don’t know if you remember, but I had a Netflix special and people liked it, in fact you were one of them. That’s why we’re talking.”

What drew you to doing commercial work?

I really like how short they are. Having done a TV show, it takes so long. It takes months and months and months, and years if it goes well. With commercials you shoot for a day, maybe two, maybe three. It takes like a week and the money is great. The other thing with commercials is that I get to work with people I would never see. I worked with Ellen. I did a Kevin Hart commercial. I worked with Amy Schumer, Seth Rogan, Adam Devine, a lot of basketball players like Lebron, Chris Paul and James Harden. So it’s a good opportunity. I also get to work with a lot of really good camera men, which sounds odd, but I get to work with like David Fincher’s camera men. That’s how those guys make supplementary income. I get to work with really good people and even if the work isn’t like amazing, and sometimes it is, and other times it’s just fine, but even if the work isn’t amazing it’s a fun life experience which I am more and more interested in. I’m less interested in success as it’s usually defined. I just want to have fun.

Does the work satisfy you creatively at all?

The thing is that it’s not satisfying creatively, but I have a creatively satisfying job, which is standup. I can also write for “SNL” whenever I want. Or I can write for “The Daily Show.” There are times when I have a sketch idea, and just last night I texted [Colin] Jost and [Michael] Che with a sketch idea. If I have an idea I have an outlet I can go to. So I’m not like, “Ugh, my creative bones are atrophying.” I’m funny every day!

Did “Chappelle’s Show” give you this opportunity to just walk into whatever writer’s room you want?

I’m like a cop. I can commandeer any vehicle I want! Call me Neal Brennan the comedy cop. I’ve been walking this beat a long time. The thing that gave me that opportunity is when Dave [Chappelle] hosted “SNL”. Well with “SNL” I’ve always been friends with a lot of people there and their head writer Brian Tucker worked on “Chappelle’s Show.” So when Dave hosted I was able to make an impact. I wrote that sketch where everyone is watching the election, and Dave and Chris [Rock] are in it. Since then, Lorne [Michaels] is always trying to get me to show up. So I wrote for the Aziz week and the Dave week. I think I always have an open invitation. Unless it’s been rescinded. Is there something you know that I don’t? And with “The Daily Show” I’ve been friends with Trevor [Noah] since before he started.

What else are you working on?

I have an idea for a show, and I have a movie thing that I need to outline. But I’m kind of not going to pursue TV anymore as like my own. It’s too hard. I did a couple of pilots that didn’t get picked up, and even before they didn’t get picked up I was like, “This is not fun.” I don’t understand the impulse for comedians to make their lives harder. I know comedians like Sebastian [Maniscalco] and Ali and [John] Mulaney that do these big tours that make millions of dollars. Why make your life worse with the stress of having a TV show? Like if you have a TV show idea, great, have at it. But it seems like the tide is getting smaller and smaller in terms of the amount of attention you can get and it’s just hard. I just don’t want to make my life harder. I want to make my life better and I don’t think having a TV show makes your life better. It makes it harder and different.

Do you think you would be saying that if you hadn’t already created an extremely successful TV show?

I don’t know. It’s not even the fact that it’s successful. It’s the fact that it was really hard. So maybe I wouldn’t be, but it’s also what it does now. I could either go to an office or walk around and talk like Socrates. I would rather walk around and talk like Socrates.

Neal Brennan is performing at Turner Hall Ballroom on Friday, June 8. You can purchase tickets here.