#102 Stand Up Comedy and Los Angeles w/ Pat Reilly
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2018
⏱️ 85 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben talks with Sociologist Pat Reilly, whose research examines the organization and economics of stand up comedy in Los Angeles. Pat explains what makes stand up a unique form of entertainment, the ways stand up has changed since it began, and how comics deal with issues such as joke theft. Ben and Pat also talk about their own experiences as stand up comics, and the challenges of joining, being part of, and leaving a comedy scene.
Pat Reilly is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine and cohost of The Goods from the Woods comedy podcast. You can hear Ben Sawyer's appearance on The Goods from the Woods in episode #203 "Redneck Pompeii."
The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. You can learn more about this episode and others at our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is in the Loop, the Legion of Osiris Podcasts. |
| 0:07.7 | What does that mean? |
| 0:08.9 | Osiris is a community of great music and culture podcasts. |
| 0:12.6 | If you like this one, go check out others at osirispod.com and get in the loop. |
| 0:18.2 | Osiris is partnered with Relix magazine at relics.com. |
| 0:28.9 | I'm Ben Sawyer, and this is the road to now. |
| 0:32.7 | Today's episode was a really fun one for me because I managed to find someone whose interests and research kind of tap and overlap with some of the things that I find really interesting. |
| 0:47.8 | Our guest today is a guy named Pat Riley or Dr. Patrick Riley, if you will. |
| 0:52.8 | He's a visiting assistant professor in the Palmire School of Business at the University |
| 0:56.7 | of California Irvine. |
| 0:58.6 | He got his Ph.D. in sociology from UCLA with the focus in organizational studies and economic |
| 1:03.8 | sociology. |
| 1:05.5 | And his research is on the Los Angeles stand-up comedy scene. And I can't tell you how much I geeked out |
| 1:13.8 | finding someone who is as interested in comedy, not only from a performance level, but also from |
| 1:20.0 | kind of an analytical level. One of the things I'm probably fairly guilty of with my friends |
| 1:25.7 | who were stand-ups is analyzing everything like an academic. |
| 1:29.6 | Pat is someone who's actually analyzed it more than me. And I loved it. We spoke for a long time |
| 1:35.3 | just about Los Angeles, the way that comics relate to each other, how the industry itself works, |
| 1:41.3 | the origins and past of comedy out there, how it's changed, even within the last |
| 1:47.2 | couple of years. |
| 1:48.5 | And it was a fascinating conversation. |
| 1:51.4 | And I think that if you were interested in Los Angeles stand up or just the nature of the |
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