A lot of comics pick up TV writing gigs after they’ve been doing stand-up for a while. For Murray Valeriano, it was the opposite.
“I was doing a weekly show at a comedy club with my two partners,” he explains. “It was a mix of stand-up, sketch and improv.”
The trio got a pilot deal from that, but it didn’t go anywhere. The production company hired Valeriano for another show, though, and it was around that time he started doing stand-up. It’s been a career trajectory similar to the late, great Gary Shandling’s.
“The only nice thing Mitzi Shore, the late owner of the Comedy Store, ever said to me was, ‘You’re a good writer. You remind me of Gary Shandling,’ " Valeriano says. "Of course, she was 112 when she said that. She probably thought she was talking to her cat.”
Valeriano also hosts the podcast Roadstories and is a rotating cohost of the Rock Solid music podcast.
Showtimes Thursday-Sunday, Jan. 16-19. $8-$14. Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, 513-984-9288. gobananascomedy.com.
