Regan followed dream of comedy

By Megan Hurt

Brian Regan, a successful stand-up comedian, first had a dream of becoming an accountant.

Regan, who will perform Friday at 8 p.m. in the Singletary Center for the Arts, began studying economics at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio in the early 80s when he realized crunching numbers wasn’t for him.

“I went to those first couple weeks of classes, and whew! What was I doing?” Regan said.

It was in a speech class that Regan realized he wanted to try comedy as a profession.

“I would try to make my speeches funny,” Regan said. “I wasn’t good at academics, so I decided to be a clown.”

After college, Regan began performing at a small comedy club near his hometown of Miami. He then went on to make his national television debut on an MTV show called “Half Hour Comedy Show.”

“This was before I had cable, so I wasn’t able to watch the show at my home,” Regan said. “So after finding a friend of a friend who had cable, I went over to this strangers house to watch myself on TV. Man, how weird was that?”

After that Regan went on to perform on all the leading late night shows, including his dream performance on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.”

He then received a deal with Comedy Central, which included “two one-hour stand-up specials, release of the specials on DVD, development of his own show for the network, and the 2007-2008 theater tour, ‘Brian Regan in Concert: A Comedy Central Live Event,’” according to his Web site. Regan’s second Comedy Central special, “Epitome of Hyperbole,” aired earlier this month, and was released on DVD Sept. 9.

The majority of Regan’s comedy is clean and not offensive.

“When I started out, I would just talk about what I wanted to talk about. It naturally happened to be mostly clean material,” Regan said. “I would occasionally add a four letter word. Then I decided, let’s just make it all clean and see what happens. It worked.”

Regan said he doesn’t try to figure out what the audience wants, “which is a mistake I feel a lot of comedians make. I do what I want to do. I talk about what I want to talk about. I talk about my world.”

Some of the material from his latest special, “Epitome of Hyperbole,” will be in the performance Friday, but Regan said he’s in the process of moving forward with fresher stuff. “Now I am working on new material. I am always looking ahead to the next one. I’m always hoping and anticipating the next big performance.”

Regan is also looking forward to his future in comedy. While he would like to become one of the comedians who go on to perform in sitcoms and movies, Regan is also content to continue doing stand-up.

“I could say I want to rule the world, like the villains on my kids favorite cartoon shows, but ruling the world seems like to much work. I like doing what I am doing. I like stand-up as an end result.” Regan said.

Tickets for the event can be purchased for $37.50 from the Singletary Center’s Web site, (www.singletarytickets.com), or at the Singletary Center for the Arts Ticket Office. For more information about Brian Regan, visit his official Web site, (www.brianregan.com).