Brian Scolaro loves Sneezes, Farts and Orgasms

Veteran comic and actor Brian Scolaro vividly remembers his very first day in stand-up — Tuesday, January 14, 1992. Since that fateful day, he has been all in. Recently, AmericasComedy.Com had the opportunity to catch up with Scolaro while he was relaxing at home.

Scolaro’s comedic career was born of pure jealousy. Back in 1992, during his freshman year in college, an old high school friend told Scolaro about doing stand-up for the first time. Scolaro was jealous instantly, especially given, he said, that his friend “wasn’t particularly funny.”

“So I got jealous. Jealously started my career,” explained Scolaro in his rapid fire delivery. “I always wanted to do stand-up ever since [George] Carlin and [Bill] Cosby. It was always a piece of me. It was always my dream. I just never did it. So I said, ‘Well, it’s now or never, Brian. You’re a freshman in college. It’s time to do it.’”

Soon after his first performance on stage in New York, the Brooklyn native quickly became addicted to the comedy spotlight. He started to take his career seriously in 1995 during an internship for HBO’s Real Sex, a show that explored the wonders of human sexuality.

“When they were video taping people having sex on the street, my job was to hide in the corner,” said Scolaro, “And if I saw a cop car, I would walkie-talkie them and tell them to stop fucking. That was my job.”

Since then, Scolaro has performed in comedy clubs nationally and has had some TV acting gigs for shows such as The Life and Times of Tim, Dexter, Wizards of Waverly Place and Stacked. Also, he has performed stand-up on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and starred in his own Comedy Central Presents half-hour special.

Scolaro credits his success to the one person who has been by his side through thick and thin, his manager, Vincent Nastri. Nastri discovered Scolaro fifteen-years ago after a performance at the Gotham Comedy Club in NY. Soon afterward, Scolaro’s comedy career began to take off.

“I was on stage. I did very well. He saw me afterwards and said the hairs on his arm stood up.”

“The ups and downs of your career, well, it’s a humbling experience. When you get success and then success leaves, you never counted on that. You become a different person. It’s a very humbling experience . . . stand-up comedy.”

One definite upside to working in the entertainment industry has been the opportunity to work with some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, including Carmen Electra, Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson.

“I’ve worked with a lot of very pretty women and a lot of times my mouth got me in trouble and a lot of times it didn’t, you know? They were very nice,” Scolaro explained.

Brian Scolaro is a confident comedian and actor, who knows his strengths and weaknesses. He said he feels “one hundred-percent comfortable” with acting but only “fifty-percent” comfortable with stand-up because you never know what’s going to happen on stage. But Brian won’t be leaving comedy anytime soon.

“I love stand-up! After fifteen to twenty years, it’s engrained in me. I am unable to not be a stand-up. Girlfriends will come and go . . . because I am a stand-up,” Scolaro said. “I have accidentally insulted a girlfriend’s mother . . . because I’m a stand-up.”  Scolaro describes his comedy as a combination of greats Bill Cosby and George Carlin.

“I know a lot about the history of comedy. I love the history of comedy. [George] Carlin is the reason I’m a comedian,” Scolaro said. “He became like a second father to me. In fifth grade, I would go to bed listening to his album every night. He taught me about individualism. He taught me what was funny.”

Scolaro’s new CD, Sneezes, Farts and Orgasms, comprises live performances and sketches, with an added twist — he left the heckling in. Scolaro wanted to show people that hecklers can be funny.

“Something happens, when hecklers think that’s what stand-up is — you insult the comic and the comic insults you back,” Scolaro said. “It is funny when something natural happens at a live show.”

Sometimes, though, stand-up can be a cruel mistress. For example, when Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, took the stage at the Laugh Factory in 2006, his act did not go over well — he ended up offending many people and it became viral as it was caught on video by the audience’s cell phones.

Scolaro explained that he was to blame for Richards’ miserable night at the Laugh Factory. He and Richards had met on the plane ride out to California. During their conversation, Scolaro enthusiastically suggested Richards take on stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory . . . that it was a perfect venue for actors to try their hand at stand-up. Scolaro said that Richards “couldn’t have been more polite.”

“He started my [stand-up] career and I killed his,” Scolaro said.

In addition to promoting Sneezes, Farts and Orgasms and touring nationally, Scolaro has his own production company, VooDooWop Pictures, where he and close friends that met while they were all in school, film short sketches. Initially, he thought these sketches would combine for a great show on Comedy Central, but Comedy Central wanted the collection to have an angle.

“We don’t have an angle, we don’t need an angle. That’s our angle, that we have no angle.”

VooDooWop is eagerly anticipating its television debut, at some point. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, laugh hard with Sneezes, Farts and Orgasms and take in one of Scolaro’s shows.

Watch Brian talk about weed and his grandmother at the Laugh Factory. Enjoy!

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