Jim Breuer, who many may remember as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1998 and from the film Half Baked, is coming to The Caverns in Grundy County on Friday, Dec. 6. The Long Island comedian spoke with the Murfreesboro Pulse prior to his Middle Tennessee appearance, discussing his comedy, career, controversy and family.
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Murfreesboro Pulse: Describe your comedy for me.
Jim Breuer: My comedy is based on real-life situations. I talk about things that I experience and things that I see, but that’s really it. It’s just observational storytelling. I talk about my wife, I talk about my father that passed away, I talk about my kids, I talk about social issues from a common-sense point of view, and I try to make it funny.
Where did you start with comedy? How did you find yourself in this field?
There was a lot of laughter in my family. There was a lot of pain there. We didn’t have a whole lot, but we always found that laughing seemed to deepen our connection. Laughter always felt right when there was something going on in life or with family. It breaks the first boundary of healing, which is why I think we’ve seen such an attack on laughter the last few years, because that’s another form of control that’s actually keeping you from being healed or being humbled, because that’s where laughter usually comes from.
When you say that there have been attacks, are you experiencing drawbacks to doing comedy right now?
The intensity of people trying to censor or claim their feelings have been hurt—it’s probably some of the most outrageous statements in human history to think you are worth more than the rest of the world and try to stop humor that way it is. Quite frankly, it’s extremely dangerous for themselves and everyone.
I understand that there has been a situation recently where it seems people were pretty upset about a joke you made regarding the NFL.
Yeah, this was about a year and a half ago when this football player . . . basically what I was saying is how anyone who didn’t get vaccinated was bullied and told that they were a conspiracy theorist. They were shamed, and I personally know some people that had horrible effects from the vaccine, and at that time, the media and everything that controls media were doing their best to not exploit some of the horrifying reactions of getting the COVID shot, and when you watch that NFL player, they were extremely quiet after he got hit. He was walking and then just collapsed. Amongst the many other videos and many people we know that are in fact athletes . . . some of them even on video, just passing out for the first time.
So the joke was, the people accuse the others of being conspiracy theorists, but yet, here you are on live television watching a young man who’s been an athlete his entire life, he gets tested twice a year with his blood and everything else, he’s a professional player, and he drops on the field. He was forced to get a COVID shot, and for anyone to not question that or be ridiculed . . . so the people that get vaccinated are very upset, they get very angry. And to me, the joke was, “I love how everyone says, ‘Oh, what are you? Some crazy conspiracy theorist? Oh, look! The NFL.’” And then I dropped “and then they say, ‘Wow, not sure what happened.’” So I never would apologize for that, and nor should I. I believed in everything I said at that moment.
When I was looking into you and your work, a little biography about you contained “conspiracy theorist” as one of the titles listed next to “standup comedian.” Do you consider yourself a conspiracy theorist, or is that something that others have started using?
I don’t call myself that, but I do question a lot of things. And these days, when you question things, the pushback is, again, words like “controversy “ or “conspiracy” and what that does is immediately take away anything you say to make it not legitimate, and that’s the power of mind control, which people are really going to have to start understanding.
Do you have a favorite place to perform?
Long Island. That’s where I’m from. But there’s a lot of places—Boston, Philadelphia, Arizona, certain [parts] of Texas . . . but I have to go with Long Island. I grew up with everyone. There’s a bunch of places where I felt like I was in Metallica when I was performing there. The energy is just incredible.
Would you say that there’s a comedian out there who inspired you or shaped your work in any way?
You know what? No one really shapes me, and no one really shapes what I do. I’m still the kid that was in high school, finding humor in everything. I was calling out everything that I was seeing in the room, and everyone interacting. Although I’m a fan of a lot of comedians out there, no one shapes what I put out there.
Do you have a favorite comedy routine?
One of my all-time favorite comedy bits is Eddie Murphy’s The Ice Cream Man. That’s one of my all-time favorite comedy bits ever, because he wrapped up my whole childhood when we were out playing every day . . . and he actually grew up right near where I grew up. He nailed it when Mr. Softy would come and stop everyone from playing.
I had bits that I used to love by Bill Cosby that were absolutely brilliant. But now you’re like, “oh my God, that turned into . . .”
Hands down, I love anything Richard Pryor. I also love [Sam] Kinison too, when he talked about “Jesus could never have been married,” that was a hilarious bit.
Do you have a favorite routine of your own?
I get sick of my routines immediately, and my standup is constantly changing, so what I’m doing this week is not going to be the same show six weeks from now. So technically, my favorite stuff is always whatever I just created.
Doing it that way, do you ever feel like you’ve run out of things to joke about?
All the time. I took a break for over a month, the entire month of October, and I disappeared. I didn’t want to come out of the gate and start doing some of the stuff I was already doing. I wanted to come out with brand new, fresh stuff, because that’s when I’m most animated, energetic, and I’m passionate, because it’s brand new. So I don’t know what’s coming but I’m pretty sure, before my first show back I’ll know exactly what I’ll be putting out there, and I’ll be super excited about it.
Do you have any future plans for your comedy? Any big goals?
I want to lay off for a little bit. I want to work on my podcast. I want to work on more stuff that’s more entertaining for an entire family to watch together, because I feel like the times need it. I feel like the last couple of years, there’s been an overload of division, and I think, honestly, it was well packaged, well planned and well advertised and they purposely did it. When people take a broader look, whether they believe in this politic or that politics, I think the monster that controls all of it, I want to see that person lose all its power and for all of us to understand—without politics and without social media and without a lot of things—when we just talk to each other, it’s a lot easier to connect.
When you’re helping your friend out who has a situation where they have an autistic child, or their grandmother’s, you know, getting ready to go to the nursing home, and you’re going over there to help . . . no one cares what your political rank is, what rally you went to. That connection breaks that. That’s what breaks all of the boundaries, and that’s what I hope I can get out there more and more.
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Find tickets to Jim Breuer’s Dec. 6 comedy performance in The Caverns at thecaverns.com, or enter to win a pair of tickets here:
