Nate Abshire’s Comedy Addiction

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Photo: Nate Abshire - nateabshire.com

Nate Abshire

Nate Abshire

If listening to comedy can be addictive, performing stand-up can be all the more so. Or so declares Nate Abshire. “The endorphin release of doing stand-up is just something I need in my life. Stand-up comedy is basically for adrenaline junkies that are also cowards, and we can't stop.” 

Abshire should be awash in his self-produced stimulant of choice after playing The Laughing Tap (706 B S. Fifth St.) for 8 p.m. performances Friday Feb. 18 and Saturday Feb. 19, as well as a 2 p.m. hangover show on Sunday Feb. 20. As with most comics, however, Abshire had to ramp up to his current endorphin dose. 

“I don’t know that anyone saw it coming, partly because I’ve always been a quiet, anxious person,” Abshire recalls of the start of his career eliciting laughs, prompted by a desire to spite a woman who wouldn’t return his calls (as stated on his website's bio). “But once I started doing it,” he continues, “I became pretty addicted, and I think that's probably a big part of everything. Stand-up is something that very few people are good at initially; I know I sure wasn’t, so it takes a lot of time to figure out.

“I have, however, been a real shit talker my whole life and I guess the real quest of every American is to find a way to monetize your natural inclinations,” Abshire deduces. And though it’s common enough for comedians to talk trash about the Southern U.S. of Abshire’s youth, his native terrain being rural Louisiana, it’s the pleasantries of his current upper Midwestern environs which grate his rawest nerve. 

More Than Easy Punchlines

“I make some jokes about growing up in Louisiana, but those are mostly just jokes,” he clarifies, adding. “I think that generally the South isn't as different from the North as people in the north would like to believe. I think the main impact being from the South has had on my comedy is seeing ‘the South’ as more than just an easy punchline.” Of Minnesota, though, he has a more nuanced opinion.

“My least favorite thing about Minnesota is the puritanical traditions. A lot of people miscategorize ‘Minnesota nice’ as being passive aggressive, but that’s not really it. Minnesota nice originates from the old Puritan belief that there’s only so many spots in Heaven, and the spots are given out from top to bottom in terms of ... well, purity. In a Puritan society,” Abshire observes, “the metric for Heaven isn't just being a good person, you have to be a better person than your neighbor. Minnesota nice is the one upmanship of niceness that comes from that Puritan bullshit.”

However much he loathes one aspect of his current hometown’s heritage, Abshire has love aplenty for its comedy culture. “Minneapolis specifically has impacted my humor because we have an amazing comedy scene that is quite creative, and writing focused, sometimes to a fault,” Abshire says in cautious commendation. But the company of such writing-focused funny folk has benefitted him, too. “Being around so many people trying to write great jokes has helped me a lot in the way I think about comedy.”

Coming in Hot

Abshire’s thoughts about comedy, as manifested in the kind of sense of humor a romantic mate may say she wants in her significant other, makes for one of the more uproarious bits on his album, Coming In Hot.

“I think culturally, and heteronormatively sort of by proxy, we assume that it's more important to women that their mates have a sense of humor, but I think it goes both ways. People want a partner with a sense of humor for two main reasons. First, humor necessitates connection and empathy. Second, humor is the dissolution of tension. Someone that can dissolve tension without escalating is pretty attractive,” Abshire explains. “On the flip side of that, humor doesn't actually solve problems. Basically, I think humor is attractive initially because you're seeing someone that’s able to roll with their problems. Eventually though you might figure out that someone isn’t interested in fixing anything and is just making jokes about them forever.”

Potential Laughing Tap patrons can easily enough find numerous clips online to see whether Abshire is their type of comic, but he also makes his case: “I like to think my act is smart, but still has some grit to it. I think there's a real gap where smart comedy is often a little less honest and too polished. When I say polished, I don’t mean the material is more refined, because I work hard on my jokes. What I mean is the premises are more about glossing over flaws instead of examining them. Basically what I'm saying is I write some of the smartest butthole jokes in the country.”

Will Abshire change up any of his anal quips or other shtick for potentially much different vibe of his Sunday afternoon date? 

“Well, I'll probably be hungover. A lot can happen between now and Sunday, so who knows?”