While it may be a bit of a disservice to post a photo of my friend Greg Baumhauer with a beer in hand – Greg is almost a year sober and proud of it, thank you very much – truth be told, this is how I will always remember Greg: a sea-captain at the helm of the Squire Lounge, guiding the raucous bar through an unsteady tide that very well might just sink the ship, but goddamnit, we were all going down with it.
Greg was one of my first good friends in comedy and as soon as we established that friendship we started doing shows together. Thinking back on my early comedy career I can’t really remember a time when I was not putting on shows with Greg – the Gong Show, Los Comicos Super Hilariosos, those weird, amazing one-offs we did at an art gallery on Santa Fe. The Squire (though that was his baby, I always lended a hand). Greg and I used to produce so much stuff together we would have weekly meetings – typically at St. Marks or Tom’s Home Cooking – to discuss all that we had going on together. It seems like from the get-go in my comedy career, that was the way it always was.
Until suddenly, that was the way it wasn’t. I had to part ways with Greg. The Grawlix did, really. We had to ask him to step down from running the show with us as his addictions were getting in the way. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a friend, and it definitely ended our friendship for awhile. Shit like that is never easy. But to hear Greg now, sober and clear-headed and dipping his toes back into comedy waters, it was something that he needed. Greg needed to get his life together.
What a pleasure then, to sit down with Greg in the amazing head space that he’s in right now, and talk shop. Talk the past, talk the future, talk friendship and dick jokes and Colfax and everything that made the first five-plus years of my comedy career so amazing and special in so many ways. I owe a lot of that to Greg. We watched each other grow as comedians and pushed each other as well. Greg was always a good one to have in your corner because not only is he one of the world’s foremost shit-talkers, he’s just a brilliant conversationalist. As I think you’ll hear on this episode. So enjoy, everyone!
And watch this video, “Window Licker” by Aphex Twin, as Greg suggests because it’s nuts.
Check out the episode on iTunes here.