Hinchcliffe

Tony Hinchcliffe

In conversation, stand-up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe is so thoughtful and mild-mannered that it’s difficult to reconcile it with his onstage persona. He speaks with real emotion about his love of great comics who have come before him. He talks openly about the struggle of working his way up the comedy food chain, from going on after last call to headlining. And he’s still full of gratitude to Jeff Ross, the “RoastMaster General” of Comedy Central’s popular Roasts, who gave him his first big break in the late 2000s.

That’s what he’s like during an interview. Onstage, Hinchcliffe delights in making the audience, and even himself, uncomfortable. He’s done bits about Donald Trump’s first nuclear target being Iowa, “liberal pussies” wanting Bernie Sanders because they “didn’t have a grandpa,” and about having “flashbacks” of dating black women. 

It’s a merciless style that has lent itself well to Hinchcliffe’s sideline: celebrity roast material. Hinchcliffe has written for or performed at roasts for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Rob Lowe to Justin Bieber, skewering everyone in sight onstage.

It’s just one of many signs of Hinchcliffe’s rising profile, which has grown to include a 2016 Netflix special called One Shot and a headlining slot on this summer’s Monster Energy Outbreak Tour. It’s a long way from the 1:45 a.m. slot at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, where the Youngstown, Ohio, native got his start in 2007.  

“Everything that happened there in the ’70s and ’80s made it an important place for me,” Hinchcliffe says. “As a kid I became obsessed with David Letterman, Andy Kaufman and Jim Carrey, and those three guys specifically are all Comedy Store alumni. So as I was growing up the seeds were already planted.”

By the time Hinchcliffe moved out to L.A., though, the scene at the Comedy Store had some different alumni roaming the stage. 

“When I got there, there were just a couple of emerging artists like Ari Shaffir and Steve Rannazzisi and Whitney Cummings,” he recalls. “And they were the only ones doing much of anything.”

The club audiences were still hard to impress, though. After all, they were sitting in the house of Pryor, Leno and Carlin, and the comedians onstage had a lot to live up to. And that’s exactly what Hinchcliffe wanted. 

“People’s expectations are still sky-high,” he says.  “It’s still a tough room. [We’re] in St. Louis tonight, and we’re going to blow this audience away. And it’s because we were built in the middle of the night at the Comedy Store. When you first get onstage at the Comedy Store, you’re on at 1:45 a.m. And if you kill it over and over again, you get to move to 1:30, then 1:15, and last time my spot was at 11:30.”

And it’s not just the metaphorical footsteps of giants that Hinchcliffe sometimes has to fill; some of the greatest comedians in the world still come to the Comedy Store to hone their new material.  

“I had to follow Jerry Seinfeld twice last month,” he says. “I’ve gone up after Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr, too. It makes you better having to somehow find a way to make people laugh after they’ve seen those guys.”

After honing his skills, Hinchcliffe landed tours with Jeff Ross and Joe Rogan, and club owners started noticing the strength of  his opening sets. 

“They saw me doing 20 minutes and were excited to give me a shot at headlining,” he offers. “The club owners’ jobs are to find the next comedian they want to give a shot to. Going out on the road with those guys, I was fast-tracked a little, as opposed to the old model of ‘get on The Tonight Show, get a TV show.’ That whole model is busted now. In fact, I have almost no TV credits. I’ve built off my shows, my Netflix special and my podcast [Kill Tony], and we’ve been able to play these big rock venues.”

A lot of Hinchcliffe’s edge comes from before he even got onstage, though. 

“It stems from being raised in a tough neighborhood in Youngstown,” he reasons. “I had to either make people laugh or make them afraid of me making fun of them. It was sort of a defense mechanism. That formed my roasting skills at a very young age.”

When it comes to writing his standup material, Hinchcliffe likes to make himself as uncomfortable as his audience. 

“I’m talking about nuclear war right now, and pedophilia,” he says. “It’s dangerous subject matter. It’s not easy. The second I think that there’s something that seems like it’ll make the audience question where I’m going, that’s exactly where I want to go.

“Laughter is the buildup of tension in your body. You need it to blow up the balloon you’re popping with your punchline.”


What: Tony Hinchcliffe

Where: Music Farm, 1022 Senate St.

When: Tuesday, Aug. 15, 9 p.m.

With: Jeremiah Watkins, John Gibson

Price: $15 ($12 advance)

More: musicfarm.com

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