Neal Brennan is cool with being a silent partner behind some of today’s biggest comedians but still struggles to figure out where exactly he belongs.
The “Chappelle’s Show” co-creator is bringing his latest one-man show, “Unacceptable,” to Variety Playhouse on Saturday, July 16. The Emmy-nominated director, writer and producer’s routine allows him to address his insecurities while speaking about how his worldview and observations push back on the socially acceptable ideas of where the 48-year-old funnyman should be in his personal and professional life.
Brennan — who is unmarried with no kids — doesn’t drink, smoke, or eat meat. He enjoys simply getting on stage and thinking out loud to people in intimate venues as opposed to his main writing partner, Dave Chappelle, who’s selling out arenas and stadiums. “Talking at night is a very cool job to me,” said Brennan, who appeared on Netflix’s ensemble “Comedians of the World” in 2019.
Credit: Matt Murphy
Credit: Matt Murphy
“It’s all cumulative. I just feel very defensive and judged for my lifestyle choice and also isolated. The point was to get my position on the world across and how my own and judgment of it makes me feel.”
“Unacceptable” is Brennan’s attempt to find comfort with being both a humorist and a regular person. The show is a converged theatrical continuation of the Pennsylvania native’s 2017 hour-long special on Netflix, “3 Mics,” which was divided into stand up, one-liners and a confessional that tackled topics like social media, mental health, his family, race and comic origins.
Typically when Brennan, the youngest of 10 children, lends his ideas to comedians like Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Jerry Seinfeld or Ellen Degeneres, he doesn’t write anything down. He pays attention to the subject or premise first, looks for gaps along the way, and then makes constructive suggestions to his peers on how to deliver it.
That’s been Brennan’s process since he was a doorman at a comedy club after dropping out of NYU film school when he was 18. “You say something funny and ask if they want it,” Brennan said, “or if I can’t use it, I’ll have them try it.”
“I don’t come at any of them as I’m working for them,” Brennan continues. “I don’t need to do it. I just do it because I just like comedy. I didn’t get into it to get out of it.”
Brennan, who wrote on MTV’s “Singled Out” and Nickelodeon’s “All That” in the ‘90s, has collaborated with Chappelle since they met as teenagers at the club where Brennan worked. They co-wrote the 1998 cult stoner classic “Half Baked” together before shopping the concept for “Chappelle’s Show.”
“I wasn’t riding on a bed of success,” Brennan said. “These were hard scrabble, especially with “Half Baked” because I was Dave’s plus one. “I wasn’t getting rose petals thrown everywhere. It was paying dues.”
HBO originally passed on “Chappelle’s Show,” but it landed on Comedy Central in 2003. With the pair writing, directing and editing all of the sketches, the show became one of the most successful cable shows and DVDs of all-time.
“It was really, really hard because it was a two-person operation,” said Brennan. “We would take outside ideas for sketches, but it was a lot of me and Dave, but it’s gratifying.”
“Selling a million DVDs is cool,” said Brennan “but it doesn’t change the minute-to-minute experience of being here. I’m proud of it and it’s a really cool place.”
Brennan, then 33, finally tried his hands at stand-up before small crowds after Chappelle stepped away from the hit series in 2006. Performing and directing his first ever stand up special, “Women and Black Dudes” on Comedy Central in 2014, Brennan started directing commercials and specials for brands and celebrities like Sprite, Nike, Bud Light and Jay-Z.
A correspondent and writer for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” Brennan racked up credits directing Michelle Wolf’s “Nice Lady” for HBO; episodes of “The Mindy Project,” “Inside Amy Schumer,” and “New Girl”; and a feature film starring Jeremy Piven, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.”
Humor and directing are interchangeable crafts to Brennan. “It’s all the same thing,” he said. “I pick the frame and edit it, but I suggest where they stand or say. The structure isn’t the hardest part; the hardest part is the premise.”
Directing commercials is what keeps him busy, but he never gets sick of hearing his name being mentioned alongside Chappelle’s. Their creative relationship allowed him to do what he loves while constantly evolving into spaces where he can lend his voice.
“I came through for myself, but arguably (the fact that) one of the best comedians ever wanted to work with me speaks pretty well of me,” Brennan said. “It’s fun, I like the job, the lifestyle and what it is.”
EVENT PREVIEW
Neal Brennan: “Unacceptable”
7 p.m. July 16. $40-$45. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-524-7354, variety-playhouse.com.
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