One minute you’re a struggling comic paying your dues at the Comedy Store. Next thing you know, you and three of your comic friends are on a bus with Vince Vaughn, playing 30 cities in 30 days. Oh, and a camera crew is going to tape the whole thing. Now go be funny, no pressure! Welcome to the world of John Caparulo, who’s more than ready for his close-up after shooting the resulting movie, “Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland” two and a half years ago. Bullz-Eye caught up with Caparulo to talk about who and what makes him laugh, dealing with groupies, and his affinity for a well-placed F-bomb.
Bullz-Eye: The first thing I just wanted to say after watching the movie was “Hey, fucker!”
John Caparulo: (laughs) What’s up, fuckers? All right.
BE: I think the “Hey, fucker” montage might be my favorite part of the movie.
JC: Oh thank you, thank you. Yeah, it’s a good one. You know, the funny thing is I’m [known as]the blue comic, and I’m really not. The dirtiest joke I do is the one that they showed me doing in Cleveland about the blowjob thing, but I mean I really don’t get into graphic sex or anything like that because it makes me uncomfortable, so I don’t [talk about it]. Cuss words are funny, and the thing is, everything I really talk about in my act is based in kind of aggravation, and I feel like in order to really convey that, [the profanity]just kind of comes out, you know. The F-word really works.
BE: How did you get involved with the tour? They explained that Ahmed (Ahmed, another comedian on the tour) knew Vince for a long time but…
JC: Because of his relationship with Ahmed, Vince was a regular at comedy shows. Almost ever since I got to…I got to L.A. in ’99, and he was just there a lot to the point where he’s not even a celebrity to the comics; it’s like, “Hey, it’s just Vince, he’s hanging out.” He loves to talk about his Midwestern background, so then when it came time to put together the tour, he would always see me at clubs and say, “Hey, Ohio player,” you know, and “It’s Ohio guy.” He wanted somebody, you know, at least one of the comics to have a Midwestern sensibility, and I think I fit the bill there so it’s…that’s how I know him. I never really hung out with him that much other than at the comedy clubs, and I went over to his house once and played video games, but other that, he just wanted somebody who was from [the Midwest].
BE: Is it strange to be promoting a movie of a tour that you did two and a half years ago?
JC: Yeah, a little bit. As a stand-up it’s…you’re always progressing as a stand-up and I hate when somebody watches my act from last week and I’m like, “No I’m so much better than that now.” Plus, since it happened a while ago, it’s kind of fun to kind of relive it now. It’s like they are distant enough memories that we can kind of look back and go, “Oh God, yeah I remember that.” It’s weird, but it’s fun, too.
BE: You guys were remarkably well behaved on the bus. Did you have rules of conduct on the bus?
JC: You know, I think they didn’t give us any express rules. I think we respected [the bus]because we respect Vince. He bought the bus; it wasn’t like a rental, you know, so we were just like, ”I don’t want to beat up Vince’s bus here.” I think we did well because of that, because I think we were just, like, Vince is our friend and he’s taking us on the road and basically we’re guests on his bus. So that’s where I think we were such good guys on the bus.
BE: When was the last time you saw the movie?
JC: Yesterday.
BE: Was there a particular moment that you remember from the tour that you thought would make the final cut and didn’t? Or a good story that we didn’t see?
JC: You know, there was a part that was in the original cut of the movie that we showed in Toronto where Bret (Ernst) ate my sandwich. We started the tour in the southwest and we would get catering for every show, and so staring in the southwest every show that was catered was either barbecue, Tex-Mex, Mexican food. I might as well light firecrackers and eat those before a show, it’s killing me. So I started having them get me a foot-long Subway sandwich for my meal every day before the show, and I would eat half before the show and then half later when we got home. I got there that night and I’m like, “Where the hell is my sandwich,” and Bret’s like “Oh, that was yours? It was good.” And I’m like, “You’re a dick,” and we got into like a big fight over it to the point where it was just a lot of yelling and stuff like that, and it was in the original cut, but because of time they had to cut it out.
BE: I was about to make a comparison to your delivery to a couple of guys in the Blue Collar group and then I looked you up on IMDb and saw that you had actually done their show. You did “The Blue Collar: the Next Generation.”
JC: Yeah we’re doing a…we have a few tour dates set up and we’re going to start touring this year.
BE: I see a little bit of Ron White in you, in terms of your timing.
JC: Thanks! I thought you were going to say Larry [the Cable Guy]. A lot of people say…because I think I remind them [of Larry]at first because I wear a hat and I have a twang to the way I talk and…
BE: That’s where it ends.
JC: Yeah, we’re completely different. He’s more…he talks about sillier, kind of jokey things and I’m a lot more angry, I think. So I think, yeah I’m probably edgier like Ron White, yeah.
BE: We have a piece on the site, we did it a year ago and we created a stand-up comedians Hall of Fame and we started with five guys. If you had to do one of those on your own, who would be your top five?
JC: Let’s see here…Richard Pryor.
BE: He was one.
JC: Of course, Richard Pryor. It always starts with Richard Pryor. Bill Cosby.
BE: He’s on our list.
JC: Chris Rock. Let’s see…you know, even though he stopped doing it a long time ago, Eddie Murphy is a big reason why I started doing stand-up comedy, and I’m going to have to go with [George] Carlin.
BE: How about stand-ups working today? Who cracks you up?
JC: You know what I like…obviously I like all the guys on this tour, and I like guys who are genuine, like Vince talked about in the movie like that is the best comedy. I hate when I watch, even when it does well, I just don’t like things that are contrived or like it just looks like “Okay, it’s a joke but it’s just for the sake of being a joke,” versus really expressing something and making people you know relate to you; not only laugh but relate. I always tell people I really love Joe Rogan’s comedy. Most people aren’t really aware that he’s even a stand-up because he’s gotten famous from “NewsRadio” and “Fear Factor” and now he’s on “UFC,” and he is one of the most honest comics to the point where it’s sometimes uncomfortable because he does push the envelope as far as values and politics, which I don’t really touch but [Rogan’s] a great comic.
BE: Our guy Will Harris did a phenomenal interview with him; you should have heard [Rogan] once they got started on the moon landing.
JC: Yeah, oh God (laughs). Yep, that will get him started. It’s all bullshit and it’s just, yeah…can’t we just pretend? He’s the first guy to tell you there’s no Santa Claus.
BE: Back to the movie for a second. The movie doesn’t show the comedians scoring a single girl on the tour. Is that really how that happened?
JC: (Laughs) Well, for me…yes. You know what the thing is, and I don’t want to speak for the other guys but it’s fun touring around and it’s fun when you meet girls…they show me with that girl or those girls asking me to go out in Cleveland, and stuff like that.
BE: Signing the breasts.
JC: Yeah, and it’s fun, but the thing is I’m not really that kind of guy. I don’t want to just stop in Atlanta for a night and meet some girl and just have one night [together]. I make the mistake of…some girl comes up after the show and I meet her and I’m like “Woo, maybe she’ll be my girlfriend.” I’m still such a dork like that; I don’t make the connection of being a rock star and just going through chicks, so I’m kind of naive that way. I remember me and Vince had a long conversation one night about that on the bus. I met some girl in wherever it was, Milwaukee, and she just disappeared and I was, like, devastated because it was going really well and I was like…I come back to the bus and I’m like, “Why does this shit happen to me all the time?” He sat me down and I became Jon Favreau in “Swingers” that night. He had this long talk with me about how I am and…I grew from that conversation; I really did. Vince is one of those guys who can really, really break things down. It’s fun.
BE: Now they have all of [the comedians]doing tours in different cities, is that right?
JC: Yeah, yeah.
BE: When was the last time you talked to the other three guys?
JC: Well, we did the Hollywood premiere [two days ago]. I mean, we were supposed to be paired up for all of these [concerts]. I was supposed to be with Ahmed for all the stops this week, but then when they started scheduling more screenings and more cities, then they split us up. We generally see each other almost nightly because we all perform at the Comedy Store in Hollywood; that’s all our home base so unless we’re out of town, you know one of us is on a road gig or whatever generally we see each other almost every day.
BE: Well we pretty much went through all my questions. The only one I really have left and I’m not sure you’re even going to want to say anything on the record for this, but: does everyone on the circuit really hate Dane Cook as much as I hear they do?
JC: (Laughs) You know…look, when anybody gets to a certain level of success there’s always going to be people who say things that are…I don’t know him personally, but what you’re saying is…of course there are a lot of guys out there who aren’t big fans of his; I don’t really care either way.
BE: Have you ever seen another comic take a beating like this before? He’s just getting crushed right now.
JC: You know what, because of the day and age that he’s in with the Internet and what he’s done with marketing, I mean, he’s really gotten big in a short amount of time here, so I think that kind of just goes with the territory. It’s weird, guys like [Dave] Chappelle and Chris Rock and guys like that got very big too, but they don’t seem to get the same sort of level of criticism. So I don’t know. You know what, the thing is what people don’t understand in the big picture is whether you like him or not, if you’re a stand-up comic, he’s bringing attention to stand-up comedy, so hey, let him.
BE: Right. Okay.
JC: Did I dance around that one?
BE: Yeah. That was pretty much what I was expecting. I mean, no one is going to go on the record and say “Yes, we all hate his guts.”
JC: Well, talk to Joe Rogan. He’ll tell you that.
BE: You have done a show for Comedy Central, right?
JC: Yeah, I did “Premium Blend” and I did a half-hour [show]for Comedy Central.
BE: What do you think about the roasts that they do?
JC: You know what, some of my favorite one was the…what was it, the Hugh Hefner one I think; I think it was the Hugh Hefner. Drew Carey’s was funny. Some of the people that they…it depends on who’s doing it, like Jeff Ross is one of the best at roasting, so yeah, I always think they’re pretty good.
BE: I just got the video for the Flavor Flav one.
JC: Oh, I haven’t seen that one.
BE: So you didn’t see the video of Kimmel’s bit yet where he’s tells Greg Girardo, “You killed, and once again, it will lead to nothing.”
JC: (Laughs) Yeah, he’s one of those guys where it never seems to really take off for him.
BE: Would you ever consider doing one of those?
JC: I don’t know if it’s really my thing. I don’t like to bag on people, really.
BE: Have you ever met or talked to [Comedy Central grand roaster Lisa] Lampanelli before?
JC: Yeah, yeah, we have the same management company.
BE: Do you? She’s a cream puff.
JC: She’s a sweetheart, she really is. She’s such a nice person, but a lot of those comics are. A lot of the filthiest comics you meet, the most ruthless people on stage, are some of the softest, nicest people off stage. It’s because it’s the other side of themselves.
BE: Well, I think I have gone over my time limit here, so I appreciate you talking the time to talk with us.
JC: No problem.
Interview date: 01/30/2008
