Geoff Keith

(Referring to Geoff's 45 minute set at the University of Missouri-Rolla on 3-6-07) "The best comedy performance I've ever seen."
-Pablo Francisco

- www.geoffkeith.com

"That's what comedy is about - Geoff Keith just came up here and knocked it out of the park"
- Jay Mohr

- www.geoffkeith.com

"You're hilarious. Seriously. Never think about doing anything else - You're a comic"
-Ralphie May - www.geoffkeith.com

By PETER LARSEN
Geoff Keith bounces onto the stage at Martini Blues in Huntington Beach and opens with a quick slam on the septegenarian comedienne who’d just finished her own set in the 4th annual Orange County’s Funniest Person Contest.

"It’s gonna be hard following Phyllis Diller," he says, putting down his competition and grabbing the crowd’s support with one fast insult.

Launching into his own set, Keith, a 21-year-old who grew up in Lake Forest, riffs on the new slang he picked up on a tour of Rhode Island comedy clubs recently.

Cocked, it seems, is the term they use for being drunk, wasted, blitzed. Probably not gonna fly out here, Keith figures.

Can you imagine going out with your buddies in West Hollywood and telling everybody the next day you all got cocked?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

Later that night, the judges voted Keith the title of Orange County’s Funniest Person 2005. A few days later, he talked to SqueezeOC about his life and career in comedy.

SqueezeOC: So were you always the funny kid growing up? How’d you decide to be a comic?

Keith: Before I was a comic, most people I’d meet would say, "You’re so funny, you should be a comedian." Funny. Now I don’t hear that at all.

I’d always said I was going to do this, but I was really into basketball, too. I played college basketball for a year, at the University of Redlands, and then I left.

SqueezeOC: What position did you play?

Keith: Pretty much the bench. But point guard.

SqueezeOC: I bet it’s probably hard to get on stage the first time. How’d you do it?

Keith: I knew Marc Takemiya (Orange County’s Funniest Person 2004) a little through a friend. And I asked him how he got into it. He said he took a class at the Irvine Improv.

I didn’t really want to take the class – it was a big ego thing, "I’m funny, I don’t need that!" – and I didn’t really learn that much from the class, but I did learn how to get up on stage.

SqueezeOC: What was your first time like?

Keith: It was graduation from the class. I did about 5 1/2 minutes. Reaction-wise from the crowd, it was amazing, but when I watch the tape now, I cringe. I don’t do any of those jokes anymore.

SqueezeOC: When did you first feel like you were on track with it?

Keith: The first show I got paid for was one of Bill Word’s Laffdown shows. That was my first check, $75. I still have it, I never cashed it.

When I knew I was doing something really good, I think it was another Laffdown show at Martini Blues. Someone from Power Entertainment was there, and the West Coast booker for the Improv, and they both came up and told me how good I was doing.

SqueezeOC: So Power Entertainment signed you and the Improv started booking your regularly. Are you making it entirely on comedy now or do you still have a day job?

Keith: Comedy is not totally supporting me yet. I do make money from comedy every month. I’ve emceed at the Brea Improv, the Hollywood Improv, the Irvine Improv. I do a lot of shows with a lot of established comics, they know who I am.

But getting in with the booking agents around the country, that’s hard. They don’t like L.A. comedians. I have enough time, I’ve done an hour and two minutes before, but a lot of L.A. comics, they only do their seven minutes. They just want to have enough to get in front of a casting agent or producer.

SqueezeOC: Everybody bombs, right? So what’s your worst experience?

Keith: The great thing about comedy is that it’s always humbling. No matter who you are – Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld – there are people who will think you’re not funny.

I was out at this bar show in, I think it was Covina. There were only about five or six people in there, and nobody was listening, they were just sitting at the bar.

The door was behind me, and this one guy walked out, and I heard him say, "f---ing terrible." He didn’t say it to me, it wasn’t a heckle. He was saying it to himself, like, "Man, I can’t believe this guy is so bad."

I didn’t go back to that place for awhile, because that was the only time something got to me on stage. Finally I went back and I did crowd work (insulting the audience) for about 15 minutes. It was like my revenge. They loved it.

SqueezeOC: What comedians do you admire? Who’d you like to model your career after?

Keith: My favorite comedian before he got super famous was Dave Chappelle. I like his timing and his material. Jackie Mason I like a lot. Dom Irrera. I saw that guy in person at the Improv – you print this, I’ll lose a lot of tough guy points – but he was just killing the whole time, and he was so good that when I walked out, I got a little misty eyed.

SqueezeOC: So where do you want to go with this? How do you imagine your career taking shape?

Keith: I want to be a national headliner, that’s my goal first. I do want to get into TV. I’m studying acting. Acting is fun, it pays ridiculous and people know who you are when you’re on TV.

But being a comic is No. 1 for me.

Geoff Keith is traveling to comedy clubs in Texas this month, but he makes regular appearances at the Improv clubs throughout Southern California. In addition, a DVD of the Orange County’s Funniest Person Contest finals – including Keith’s winning performance – will be released soon. Check http://www.ocfunniest.com/ for details.
- Squeeze OC Magazine

Geoff Keith, 21, third in the contest the previous year, follows her onstage and quickly steals back the momentum Gillebaard had earned.

"It's gonna be hard following Phyllis Diller," he cracks to big laughs, before launching into his material on everything from boozing it up to wooing older - waaaay older - women.

- Orange County Register

SOAP presents Comedian Geoff Keith

By Stacie Manger

Staff Writer

Comedian Geoff Keith confidently walked onto the stage in Holloway Hall on the night of April 1, and for good reason, as he proceeded to charm the audience with jokes and improvisation.

In his camo pants, black t-shirt and white undershirt, Keith immediately began commenting on the idea of college.

"I tried to go, but they want you to read all the time," Keith said during the show. "5,000 pages by tomorrow, you say? My question was, how do I drop a class?"

"I like to book people who can relate to the student body," said SOAP comedy leader Katie Ryan. "That is something very important to me. Geoff Keith is younger, so I knew he would be able to connect with us."

Keith briefly attended the University of Redlands where he played on the basketball team and dreamt of being in the NBA. When his averages did not impress the scouts, he dropped out and started doing stand up comedy, a wise choice.

Keith has appeared on Comedy Central and Playboy TV and has opened for Damon Wayans, Paul Mooney and Lisa Lampanelli, among others.

His show content comes from various sources. "A lot of it comes from true stories from my life," Keith said after the show. He also feeds off of his audience. He reacts to every comment or request.

"He did a very good job with interacting with the audience and running with changes and reactions he got from audience members," said sophomore Matt Mitchell. "Also, his planned routine was very funny and while his comments could be taken as harsh he kept it cool and made it a great show!"

Some of Keith’s jokes were crude and at times, that did not seem to sit well with the audience. Yet, he brushed it off each time there was a silence or a sound of disapproval. "Why does it matter if I am making fun of them? It’s just a joke," he said during the show.

"[Keith] is a comedian, so he’s not going to be talking about puppy dogs and butterflies," Ryan said. "So far I have not heard bad things about him. I thought he was hilarious."

Keith said that he does not mind making fun of anyone because he has friends from all different races, religions and sexual orientations. He pokes fun at comments from the audience and in Tuesday’s show, he made one audience member’s comments a large section of the set. One girl said that Keith was not good-looking and he added that into his act. He stopped the show, found out who it was and brought her up on stage.

"I most enjoyed how persistent he was when trying to find the girl who insulted him," Mitchell said.

Senior Caitlyn Distler said that part of the set was not her favorite, but she liked how Keith incorporated it into the show because it was him interacting with the audience.

"My show is all about having a good time and I like it to feel like a party between me and the crowd. I look at the crowd as one big friend and, just like when you hang out with your friends, no one is safe (not even me)," Keith said.

Keith kept asking Ryan how much time he had left, and he did not stop at his hour mark. He went on for 40 extra minutes because of the positive reaction from students in the crowd. The audience did not seem to mind, and kept on laughing until Geoff Keith said goodnight. - Salisbury University Flyer Newspaper