Comedy: Gary Owen

It’s a Thanksgiving tradition. “It is, man,” says comedian Gary Owen of his annual Thanksgiving week run at The Funny Bone on the Levee. “It’s what I hoped it would be when I came up with the idea six or seven years ago.” Owen moved back to Cincinnati from Los Angeles because he and his wife felt Southwest Ohio was a better place to bring up their kids. He loves to perform, of course, but he also wanted to be home for the holidays. The move hasn’t hurt his career, though. He had a recurring role as Zach the barber on Tyler Perry’s House of Pain, and this spring you can catch him in the film Think Like a Man.

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Meanwhile, he continues to entertain stand-up audiences from coast to coast.

“I always pride myself on being a stand-up,” he says. “I like writing new jokes and trying them on stage, even if they don’t work it’s still exciting to me, rather than some comics who borrow material for an easy laugh. There are stock jokes out there. That’s my one pet peeve with comedy; never go for the easy laugh.” Owen also has a keen awareness of what issues to cover and when to cover them.  “I’m going to talk about Penn State, I can tell you that much,” he says about his upcoming appearance in town. “Because I don’t ever think, ‘It’s too soon.’ I think if you know what you’re talking about you can address it immediately. You gotta jump on that quick because pretty soon all the comics will be talking about it.”

For the full audio interview with Gary listen to episode 19 of P.F.’s Tape Recorder Comedy Podcast here. Owen performs at The Funny Bone on the Levee Wednesday and Friday-Sunday. No show Thursday. Tickets are $15-$17.