The
ever erudite and natty Drew Hastings has a comedic styling all his own.
From the theatrical delivery of well constructed, personalized
anecdotes to the stage-crafted silences and world-weary sighs, Drew
merges the comedy of manners with the dramatic arts. His alter ego,
Jack Freeman, is almost diametrically opposed to everything that Drew
embodies. Jack Freeman, the self-appointed financial guru, is a fast
talking shyster who lets no opportunity pass without wringing it dry of
any potential for a quick buck.
Jack Freeman's self-help seminar is
titled "The Business of Living" and promises to show how money is all
around, waiting for the right opportunist to step forward and wrench it
out of the hands of the unsuspecting. Jack will demonstrate how a "Free
Kittens" sign is just a road-map to riches. He will share his winning
philosophy on how to make yourself look like a winner by surrounding
yourself with losers. As Jack says, "You don't need the key to success
when you know how to pick the lock!"
J.T.:
Was the Jack Freeman character developed as a vehicle for you to bring
more to the stage? To be able to say things that 'Drew Hasting'
couldn't or wouldn't say?
Drew:
Yeah, in a way. That character was originally a one-man show in Los
Angeles called 'The Business of Living'. It was put up in Los Angeles
and it had kind of a cult following. It was popular in Los Angeles, but
then I didn't do a whole lot more with it. I put it on the Bob and Tom
show and, well, it is how I was introduced to the show, actually. It
got really popular on there and I didn't do a whole lot with it for a
couple of years, but it just won't die. People always ask about him and
am I going to do the character. Finally, technology caught up a little
bit for the character because he's the perfect character to download to
your iPod, you know: 'A Minute Of Success With Jack Freeman.' There
are now outlets for me to put that character out there, excerpts, that
really didn't exist before. It used to be that the only way I could do
that character is to mount a one-man show. So I've decided to do it at
Wiley's to force me to work the character and … get into more subtle
stuff, instead of the character being really one-dimensional, which is
how it originally was anyway. It was more thematic, you know, the show
was really about success and failure.
J.T.:
Jack Freeman also works with Bob and Tom's format well. Do you ever
have to alter your regular material to match the fast pace of the show?
Drew:
Well, yeah. Sometimes it makes it hard to do the material, because my
stuff isn't set up/punch-line, set up/punch-line. But that's also part
of the reason why, overall, I've stood out on the show because so many
guys do set up/punch-line set up/punch-line, joke, joke, joke and I
just don't tend to do that. Some of my stuff tends to be more personal
and you tend to know me more as a person, my personality.
J.T.:
When you were on tour with the Friends of the Bob and Tom tour, did you
find it easier to be supported by four or five other comedians or do
you prefer touring by yourself?
Drew:
Well, that's where I'm headed right now. I am doing a few Bob and Tom
dates this fall, but I've been slowly, over the last year, cutting back
on them. Because, as much as I love doing that tour, yeah, you're one
of five guys and I have been wanting to break out and do my own thing
in the a theater for a while. I think part of what that Bob and Tom
tour did for me was to introduce me to much bigger audiences that maybe
weren't familiar with me and saw twenty minutes of my stuff and now
hopefully I can go back into theaters on my own and they'll say, 'Yeah,
we'd like to see this guy do an hour.'
J.T.
I just did an interview about two weeks ago with one of your
tour-mates, Greg Hahn, and he made a real good point about the Bob and
Tom tours. He said that at least there's a commonality between the
audience and the comics on the tour. I mean, if it was just a slammed
together tour, it wouldn't have worked at all. I mean, you and Greg
Hahn are like polar opposites in your comedic styles…
Drew: Right.
J.T.:
…and had you just gotten randomly paired together to fill a bill, it
would have been like when Hendrix opened for the Monkees.
Drew:
Yeah, you're right. You're right…it wouldn't have worked like that, and
that's why it has been so successful. You know, going off on my own,
I'm not going to have that problem because there's not going to be
three or four guys there.
J.T.:
Not since Jack Benny have I ever seen anyone utilize the pregnant pause
as perfectly as you do. Is that a natural trait or something that you
developed over the years?
Drew:
That's something I've developed over the years of performing. I like
the theatrical aspect of performing. Not just getting up there. It's
not completely just knowing the words and let's just say them. You
know, I like the theatrical element, which is why I have done three or
four one-man shows. I realized a while back…ten years or so ago…that
when you're onstage, there's not just the words, but the silence that's
in between the words. The silence in between words or sentences should
be utilized like the words are. So I started using silence as a tool,
and it just worked for me. I mean, it wasn't anything I specifically
did. I've been compared to Jack Benny like that a number of times and
that never occurred to me, that there was any particular style of using
silences like Jack Benny. I never gave him any thought, really. That's
just how my use of silence developed. Maybe there's only a few ways to
use it and Jack Benny mastered it and that's why there are those
comparisons.
J.T. : One of the
things I've heard comedians say is that comedy is a beautiful thing,
but it comes from a very bad place. I've read your quote saying, '
Comedy comes from pain and the best bits come from truth.' Does that
approach ever leave you coming off stage feeling vulnerable or does it
make you a stronger person by facing your fears?
Drew: No it doesn't make me walk off stage feeling any kind of vulnerability…well, a certain amount…
J.T.:
Do you think it's like if you had a fear of heights and you went
parachuting to conquer your fear. I'm very open with my writing, and a
lot of people have pointed out that they could never reveal so much of
themselves like that. I have always felt that you can't use a weapon
against me that I gave you. Would that mirror your outlook on that?
Drew:
Well, yeah, though I would say that I have a fair amount of writing
that I don’t bring to the stage because I think it will either be
misunderstood or taken out of context. I have writings that, though I
would like to do some of it on stage, I have writing that would make me
look completely psychotic. I have writing that would make me look
racist. I have writing that would make me look like a horrible
misogynist/womanizer, maybe? I have writing that would make me look
weak. Yeah, so there's some of that stuff I don’t put out there because
either the audience I'm playing to isn't ready for it or…maybe it's
never ready for the stage. I mean maybe … some of the stuff I've done
would be better off being done in print form. I'm kind of trying to do
a book. At the same time, I said 'taken out of context', and in some
ways you can tell a story better when you're doing it on stage. Through
silence, intonation and inflection, you can better tell people what it
is you are really trying to say that you can't in the written form. At
least I can.
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