Comedian Bobby Collins has a warning for a lot of people:
“You’re Not Coming With Us.”
That also happens to be the name of a new DVD that Collins is editing for release later this year.
“The implication … is that the gene pool could use chlorine,” Collins said in a recent telephone interview. “We’re sharing the planet with a lot different types of people now. And we’ve got to start thinning out the herd. So the ship is leaving, and some of us aren’t coming.”
You can find out if your coming or not when Collins appears today and Saturday at the Comedy Works in Larimer Square.
“I think that tag has been doing really well around the country,” he said. “People are going, ‘Bobby, Bobby, we’re coming with you, huh?”‘
A working comic for 25 years, Collins has a lot to be excited about right now. He is writing a book, planning a CD and building a club in New York City.
“The name of the book is ‘It’s the Journey Stupid, Not the Destination,”‘ Collins said. “I’ve been writing like a son of a (gun). I am constantly going over it. Is this funny? I can sit and watch television and go you know half the people don’t like Bush. Half the people like Bush. Then I can get into it that way from a comedic standpoint. From writing it, boy, words, you’ve got to use your words right.”
While he does jot down ideas for new stand-up material, Collins said for the most part he works his bits out onstage.
“People ask me, ‘Do you get nervous when you go out on those big stages where there is 5,000 or 8,000 people,”‘ he said. “No. When do I get nervous? It’s when I go to the Denver Comedy Works, because I have all this stuff in my head.”
He has found that he has a knack for the improv process and over the years has become very proficient at fine-tuning or even completely creating material on the stage.
“If I’m talking about politics or gay marriages, and we throw it out to the audience, and we’re playing with it, it forms real quick for me,” Collins said. “Boom! The bit shows itself to you. That’s when you’re sitting back in your head going, ‘Oh, that was good. Now, I’ve got to remember it.’ Or ‘Thank God I taped it.”‘
Collins’ career some time ago reached the stage where he performs more theater shows and large corporate events than he does clubs. But unlike some big-name comics, Collins never totally left behind the comedy clubs.
“Louie Anderson is always busting my chops, saying, ‘Why do you do those clubs?’ Why, because I needed to purge. Because I need to work the new material,” Collins said.
The Comedy Works is one of the clubs that he plays semi-regularly, showing up every 12 or 18 months.
“There is an old saying: If it goes in Denver and New Jersey, it goes across the country,” he said. “Denver people – and I’m not building you up – are honest. They’re down to earth. They are not tainted like L.A. people. They’re not coming with us.
“But Denver and Jersey, if I say to them I was on a plane and I sat next to this guy and he had metal all over his face, looked like he fell into a tackle box. He had 12 rings going across his eyebrows. He’s looking at me. I am looking at him. I say to him – pause look at the audience – ‘You ought to put a shower curtain up there.’ Now they’re laughing.”
Collins is coming up with new bits now for the CD he wants to release on Sept. 1, and he hopes to get the DVD and the book into stores that same date, which is when he and his partners plan to open the new club, Comix, in New York.
If he gets all that done on time, he’s for sure coming with us.
Staff writer Ed Will can be reached at 303-820-1694 or ewill@denverpost.com.
Bobby Collins
STAND-UP COMEDY|Comedy Works, 1226 15th St., 8 (nonsmoking) and 10 tonight and 6:30 (nonsmoking), 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday | $27|303-595-3637 or .
