Live comedy has been on the rise in New Orleans for the past few years. It’s a trend that becomes most evident during the annual Hell Yes! Fest, a multi-day event that has brought a variety of established–and not so established–comedians to venues around town since 2011. This year’s fest, once again curated by the staff of improv, sketch and stand-up comedians at The New Movement theater, will welcome nationally recognized comedians like Super High Me star Doug Benson, stand up comic/Trainwreck actress Nikki Glaser, Tim and Eric’s Tim Heidecker, Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan and stand up comic Todd Barry, among many others.

This year’s Hell Yes Fest kicked off last night, and is slated to continue through October 11. I caught up with headliners Benson (who will do a set of stand up and a live-taping of his popular Doug Loves Movies podcast) and Glaser to talk about what they have planned for the festival, and what they have going on in their world’s.

 

DOUG BENSON

 

What can we expect from your performance at the Hell Yes festival?

My stand-up shows have evolved over recent years into something you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a headliner: I host my own shows. That’s right, I’m my own opener! Why should I have to wait to go on? And then I bring out a special guest, usually someone my fans have seen/heard on my various podcasts, followed by more jokes from me, and then, at the end of the show, we play a movie trivia game with audience members who brought name tags. Why do they bring name tags? Because they are fans of my podcast “Doug Loves Movies,” and if they bring a movie related name tag, they might get to participate in the trivia game.

Have you ever performed in New Orleans before? If so, is there anything in particular about the city that stood out to you?

I’ve been to NOLA a bunch of times and I love it. I don’t need to tell you this, but it’s a great night life city. And that leads to great crowds and great shows.

New Orleans is only recently becoming a big comedy town. Do you change your sets at all to cater to a place like this, as opposed to somewhere like NYC?

Nope, I just do my thing no matter where I am. Which is to play with and for the people who are in front of me. That’s why I open my shows by reading tweets sent to me by audience members. It’s a fun way to involve the crowd without having to ask typical questions like “where are you from?” and “what do you do for a living?” Crowd work for the internet age!

You’ll be doing a live broadcast of your popular podcast Doug Loves Moves. How does something like that work?

It’s live in the sense that an audience is seeing it live. We record it and put it on iTunes the next day. At Hell Yeah Fest I’ve got four great guests who will be chatting about movies and then playing games on behalf of audience members who brought name tags. Yup, there’s that name tag thing again.

What kind of guests can we expect for the New Orleans taping of Doug Loves Movies?

The guests are always a secret on my shows because it helps build excitement for the taping. Plus, a guest might cancel. So if I announce guests ahead of time and they can’t make it, that just disappoints the audience. When people write to me on Twitter asking who the guests are gonna be, i just write back “Top. Men.” Even though there are woman on the show sometimes. Because I can’t pass up a chance to make a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” reference.

I, like many people, was originally introduced to your work through your comedy documentary Super High Me. Do you have any thoughts on the rapid acceptance of marijuana legalization in the time since your movie was released? Is it fair to say that you are singularly responsible for the shift in the general public’s attitude toward marijuana?

I’d love to take full credit, but I feel like it was something that was inevitable, as more young voters come along who don’t feel marijuana is as dangerous as their parents do. And grandparents are discovering it too, because it’s a great medication for the aches and pains of senior citizenship.

Aside from stand up and your podcasts, what else do you have going on these days?

I’ve got a movie on Netflix called “Chronic-con: Episode 420 – A New Dope,” which is a documentary about me trying to get high with people in super hero costumes at Comic-con in San Diego. Turns out they are a straight bunch, but the doc is still a fun look at that huge annual event.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Don’t forget to check out my video podcast. It’s called “Getting Doug With High,” and it’s basically a weed talk show. We smoke it, and talk about it, and whatever else comes up. We’ve had some pretty big names on so far: Cheech, Chong, Jack Black, Sarah Silverman. Now we’re waiting on Snoop and Willie. If I ever get those titans of THC, I might have to retire!

Doug Benson will perform at Freret Street Publiq House on Wednesday, October 7. He will then host a live-taping of his podcast Doug Loves Movies at Cafe Istanbul on Thursday, October 8. Tickets for both shows can be found here.

 

NIKKI GLASER

 

You’re coming down to New Orleans in a couple of weeks for the Hell Yes Fest. Can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect from that?

I am going to be doing an hour of material that I’ve been doing for my upcoming Comedy Central special. That’s me sharing various things about my life. I feel like I am a girl in her thirties who’s stuck somewhere in between being a teenager and a woman with responsibilities.  A lot of it is about sex because this is what I want to talk about and it’s so fun.

Have you ever performed down in New Orleans before?

I have not. I did Adam Levine’s comedy show down there, but in terms of an actual show for the public, I have not performed. So I’m really looking forward to it, I hear it’s a great crowd.

Comedy, or live comedy at least, has become a lot more popular down here in recent years.

That’s what I hear, yes. Some of my favorite comics started down there so I think people have a good sense of humor [in New Orleans]. When you’ve been through tragedy, you have a better sense of humor. That’s what I’ve found.

Do you cater your set to the location at all? When you come down to a place like New Orleans, do you have a different see than you would in New York City or on a college campus?

You know, there’s a few changes that you make, but for the most part I try to give everyone the same kind of show. I don’t like to censor myself. If anything I’ll add something about things that have happened to me while I’ve been in town or something like that. But generally,  I don’t change it up much to be honest. If feel like everyone should be on board. But you know, if the crowd enjoys dirtier material, I’ll go with them on that because I can get really dirty. If they’re being a little more shy and I am mad at them about it, then I’ll go dirtier too. If it’s just politely like, “Oh we’ve don’t really like that kind of potty humor,” then I can back off. But most people don’t need me to back off. Usually it’s the dirtier the better.

You said you had a special that you’re working on for Comedy Central. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Well, we’re taping in November.  I don’t exactly know when it’s going to air, but I have a tv show on Comedy Central coming out in February so hopefully it will air around then. I have a series coming called Not Safe With Nikki Glaser and it’s a sex talk show. It’s like the Daily Show, but for sex.   

Is there anything else you’ve been up to lately.

No, because I’m like pretty busy, I’ve gotten to tour with the Oddball Festival with my friend Amy Schumer and Aziz [Ansari] and all of these other fun people. That’s been really fun because a lot of the time stand up can be this solo gig. I just moved to L.A. to work on the show, and I was in Trainwreck this summer. So it’s been an exciting year that is just about to get even crazier, but I’m fortunate to run my hour in New Orleans.

A new show with Comedy Central is pretty huge. How did that come about?

Comedy Central has been interested in working with me. I’ve done a bunch of stuff for them over the years and I had an mTV show for a while that ended. So I was trying to think of the next show I wanted to do and my friend  said, “well you should probably do a show about sex because you’re the biggest perv’ I’ve ever met and that’s what you like talking about. So why not do a show about what you love talking about?” And he was right, so he and I created this show together and pitched it to Comedy Central and they loved it.  So they bought it and made us do a pilot first, and then that went great, so they gave us a series order.

Congrats. Who was it that that you were working with on the show? I didn’t catch the name.

Oh, he’s my boyfriend and we created the show together. His name doesn’t matter. He’s a television producer.

What was it like working on Trainwreck? Does your profile go up a lot when you’re in a Judd Apatow movie?

I don’t think it went up a lot. It was just really cool because it was my first big film and my best friend was starring in it. That was very exciting and she had a hand on set and she was casting her friends. It was a fun experience and it wasn’t too stressful. It was the best possible scenario for working on a movie set. It’d be my favorite movie even if I wasn’t in it, so it’s an honor to be in it.

You mentioned being friends with Amy [Schumer]. She’s been getting a lot of attention lately. Her show is very popular and Trainwreck was a hit. As a fellow female comedian, do you think that she’s blazing a trail right now for women in comedy?   

I think she’s just blazing a trail for comedy, honestly. I think that her brand of humor is not female centric. She’s just a comedian that is doing great work. I don’t really subscribe to the whole, “people are just now realizing that women are funny,” thing. We’ve been funny all along. So I’ve never felt that, “oh I am a female comic so I have to do something different.” I’m very excited about her success because she’s my friend and my favorite comic. But there’s Sarah Silverman, there’s Wendy Liebman, there’s Tina Fey, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett. There’s always been women, it goes back and back. You could always say there’s some woman that’s trailblazing. I wish there were more women and I think there will be. I don’t know that it’s an exciting time for women, but it’s not a bad time to be in the comedy business, I will say that.

Nikki Glaser will perform at Freret Street Publiq House on Monday, October 5. Tickets for her show can be found here.