Dallas McLaughlin | Interview | New Album, ‘I Didn’t Start the Fire (And Other Lies)’
Master vet-punk storyteller/stand-up comedian Dallas McLaughlin recently released his latest album, ‘I Didn’t Start the Fire (And Other Lies)’.
He started his career in the theatre and in the early 2000’s began producing, directing, and writing San Diego’s first regular sketch comedy show. “The Geese” ran for four years to sold out audiences before making their way to the Comedy Central Stage and UCB in Los Angeles. In 2003 Dallas began working with The Aquabats! on a pilot for their new show The Aquabats! Super Show! and during that same period began working on the pilot episodes for Yo! Gabba Gabba!
As an actor and comedian Dallas has performed all over from San Diego to the Lincoln Center in New York and everywhere in between. Dallas also toured the country as a member of the punk band Bad Credit. He’s also won several awards for his plays including Death: Live in Concert and The Velocity of Celebration.
In recent years Dallas has begun telling stories to “packed” crowds all over Southern California.
“What happened if a kid who grew up punk suddenly sold out and/or became a mime”
It’s fantastic to have you. On April 14th you released ‘I Didn’t Start The Fire (And Other Lies),’ which features stories written and performed live at the Whistle Stop Bar in San Diego, CA. In association with So Say We All’s VAMP Show. Tell us how you decide what to include?
Dallas McLaughlin: Thanks for having me! My last album was just a random collection of stories from the last decade. This album I wanted to switch it up a little and have some sort of a theme. CONCEPT ALBUM! Like, I’m Pink Floyd or something. I noticed I’d performed a lot of stories about odd jobs I’d had over the years or weird run-ins with people, so I just made that my theme.
I would love it if you could share some more about those stories…
So the album is called ‘I Didn’t Start the Fire (And Other Lies)’ because the other theme throughout all these stories is either how I had issues with authority or didn’t know how to interact with my heroes. So, I thought this would be a great way to burn all the bridges I could in one place by airing it all out on one album! I have a story about being a mime at SeaWorld in San Diego and almost getting fired for refusing to wear the makeup. I have a story about meeting my hero Steve Martin and getting snubbed by Paul Simon, and I even have a story about winning a radio contest that landed me an on-air DJ job for almost eight years! One of my favorite stories on the album is about developing a TV Show and it getting canceled an hour before we started filming the first episode! This entire album is basically “what happened if a kid who grew up punk suddenly sold out and/or became a mime”.
“We just didn’t know comedy could be so fucking punk”
It would be fantastic to know more about your upbringing and background? How did you first get interested in punk music and what led you to comedy?
I grew up Irish Catholic, so that’s what got me into punk music. At some point when I was like 11 a friend played me NOFX for the first time and it was like – oh, music can be insane – I like this better than the DC Talk albums I’d been listening to. My older sister got me into things like Digital Underground and Wu Tang and when I started skateboarding it felt like all we listened to was NOFX, Bad Religion, Vandals, The Specials, Op Ivy, all that stuff. The pace and ferocity of punk and hip-hop just lent itself to how much I wanted to take nothing seriously, but at the same time wanted to do kickflips. It’s hard to explain, but when I hear punk or hip-hop, or hell even creole jazz it just makes me feel warm inside. Does that make sense? Outside of skateboarding I did a lot of theatre. I loved being on stage, it was and is like home to me. Around the same time I was buying up every Devo record I could find, I met a few guys who were just like me. Theatre geeks who loved weird music, and comedy we thought no one else knew about like Kids in the Hall or the first Conan show. We’d stay up late and watch reruns of KITH, and SNL with Chris Farley, Sandler and that cast. Then came Mr. Show and it was like our heads exploded. We just didn’t know comedy could be so fucking punk. It was like religion pushed me into punk music, which pushed me into performance, which opened my eyes to comedy as a whole. I’m gonna sound reeeeaaaaal lame and old here, but in the early to mid-1990’s, before the internet, we had to search hard for the good stuff, and when you found something – like Eddie Izzard or the Descendants – you just felt like you’d uncovered hidden treasure. I just became in love with the idea of trying to create some of that treasure myself.
Tell us about your punk band Bad Credit, how did that come about?
Well, like all punk kids I was in so many dumb bands. We were all terrible. I screamed into a mic and my best friends tried to play instruments. There’s actually a hidden track on this new album (‘I Didn’t Start the Fire’) about the first punk band I was ever in. We sucked. Anyway, from like 1996-2001 my best friend Matt and I were in a punk band that we took way too seriously. When that band broke up, we decided to go back and start a band that was just stupid. We wanted to do something that we didn’t care about and was only for fun. This was like 2002 and all the music at the time was shit like Dashboard Confessional and sad emo/screamo music. So, we started a band totally different – Bad Credit. We ripped off Bad Religion’s logo and instead of playing “punk” music we played old school hip-hop. Call and response type stuff. Like, early Beastie Boys or Run DMC. Basically, we wanted to show up at emo or punk shows and try to make everyone dance. This pissed a lot of people off and we always got in fights, but after like 6 months we had kind of gotten pretty big in Southern California. We met a great band called The Aquabats and they loved what we were doing, just having fun and not caring, and they brought us on tour for a few years. We just kept getting more popular. But, it was all about our live show. We just wanted to cause mass hysteria. We wanted to have a giant party. One time at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach we opened for Mikey V and the Rats. A full-on punk show. PEOPLE HATED US. Like, legit wanted to pull us off stage and fight us. It was hilarious. We just kept playing, and by the time we played our last song – ‘Bill Gates Owes Me Five Bucks’ – everyone was singing along and dancing. It was fairly ironic that the one band we didn’t care about being successful was the most successful band we ever had.
What would you say are some of your main influences when it comes to comedy?
Oof. What a question! Well, when it comes to standup there’s no one better than Jimmy Pardo. I also grew up loving Don Rickles, Norm MacDonald (I tell a story on the album about him too), Maria Bamford, Dave Attell, Eddie Izzard, and so many more. But, when it comes to my overall comedic sensibilities I’d have to say Martin & Lewis, Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, Monty Python, Buster Keaton and Steve Martin hit the nail on the head. All of those people are geniuses. Changed what comedy was for the rest of time. And, they were funny. Every single thing they did and do is funny. Like, KITH’s new series was incredible. INCREDIBLE.
What’s next for you?
Well, I’ll be doing a new story at Bar Lubitsch in Los Angeles on April 16th, then diving into a production of Jesus Christ Superstar until the end of May. I’ll still be sprinkling in storytelling shows and some standup at the same time. Then I’ll just hopefully be bringing these stories on the road! Working on a new album, an hour long show, and on and on! It never stops. Why would it stop? If it stops then what happens? I go work a normal job? Gross. Like Nietzsche once said, “I’m very tired.”
As a writer, how often do you experience the writer’s block?
Every day. I’m really fortunate to have a career where I can write and perform, but that means I have to be on it all the time. It’s really tough. And not very realistic. It took me five hours to answer these questions for God’s sake! I can stare at a computer screen for days before something good comes out. Often if that happens I’ll just grab a notepad and drive to a coffee shop and start writing a scene between two people I see at the shop. It’s almost always worthless drabble, but it kicks my brain in the ass a bit and refocuses me. I remember one time I was working with Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall (namedrop, you’re welcome) and he said, “When I don’t know what to write I just think of the darkest, most fucked up sketch I could write and then write that.” I actually took that advice and wrote some of the most insanely dark things one could try to make jokes about, and on two occasions they became two of my funniest sketches and got me hired on two jobs! Ha! Writer’s block can be useful. But, if it lasts too long then just quit and leave your family.
Klemen Breznikar
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