This Thursday night, The Midnight Suggestion brings another great night of alternative comedy to RVA with the appearance of Myq Kaplan, accompanied by Zach Sherwin and Jim Zarling, at Gallery 5. Myq (pronounced Mike) Kaplan is perhaps best known for his appearance as a finalist on the 2010 season of Last Comic Standing. However, he’s got a lot more going on.
This Thursday night, The Midnight Suggestion brings another great night of alternative comedy to RVA with the appearance of Myq Kaplan, accompanied by Zach Sherwin and Jim Zarling, at Gallery 5. Myq (pronounced Mike) Kaplan is perhaps best known for his appearance as a finalist on the 2010 season of Last Comic Standing. However, he’s got a lot more going on. He’s made appearances on the Tonight Show, the Late Show with David Letterman, Comedy Central Presents, and Conan, among others. He has a reguarly produced podcast, Hang Out With Me, on the Keith and The Girl network. His 2010 debut album, Vegan Mind Meld, hit the iTunes top 10 comedy albums the year it was released. Since then, he’s followed that album with 2013’s Meat Robot, and most recently, his special, Small Dork and Handsome, was released on Netflix.
Zach Sherwin is a rapping comedian from LA who started out under the name MC Mr. Napkins. His comedy-rap styles have graced several episodes of the hit YouTube series “Epic Rap Battles Of History,” in which he’s played such characters as Albert Einstein, Sherlock Holmes, and Stephen King, among others. MC Mr. Napkins: The Album was released in 2010 by Comedy Central Records, but Sherwin has since dropped his rapping moniker in favor of performing under his own name. Since then, he’s appeared on “The Pete Holmes Show” (TBS) and “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell” (FX), among others.
Jim Zarling is a Virginia comedian who considers Richmond’s Coalition Theater to be his home base. Zarling co-headlined the 2011-12 Bone Thugs N Comedy Tour and the 2013 Big Loud and Angry Comedy Tour, and has performed at several regional comedy festivals, such as RVA’s own FBomb Festival and the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival. He loves the Richmond comedy scene, and shows like this definitely help bring it to light. “Not only are there talented performers, but also a lot of people willing to do the work to make the scene happen,” he says. “If you’ve never done the work of setting up, promoting and running a stand-up or improv comedy show, you have no idea how much goes into the process.” Zarling, who has a strong improv background, loves the feelings and rush he gets from having that kind of connection with other people, and is grateful to everyone who comes out for a show.
Richmond is the last road stop of 2OURannosaurus Rex, the second annual southeastern dinosaur-themed tour for Kaplan and Sherwin. The two have been touring across the south with friends and fellow performers and alongside great local talent. “The south has been very hospitable, very friendly, and tons of super audiences have come out for us, so we’re very appreciative,” Kaplan says. While audiences have varied from city to city, Kaplan has only great things to say about how the tour has been going. “The shows on these tours have been particularly gracious, friendly, comedy-savvy, and cool, for the most part.” After Richmond they’ll head back up north for a final show together in Brooklyn, bringing Kaplan back to his hometown roots.
This tour isn’t just about comedy–there are some rap-related components as well. Not only has Sherwin demonstrated his skills in many “Epic Battles of Rap History” videos, Kaplan also started out writing and singing songs. Growing up, he didn’t watch much comedy, and found music to be more inspirational, being influenced by They Might Be Giants, Ani Difranco, as well as Eminem and plenty of other hip hop artists. After spending some time performing his songs, he realized he liked the in-between part, just riffing with the audience, better. Kaplan decided to ditch the guitar. “I determined that it was unnecessary,” Kaplan said. “The main inspiration for me to start doing comedy was realizing that making people laugh was real fun. And a close second was not wanting to carry a guitar everywhere I go.” While Kaplan says he’s his own biggest influence on himself, he sees people like Louis C.K., Maria Bamford, Reggie Watts, Todd Barry, Doug Stanhope, Zach Sherwin, and many others as people and artists he loves, that he’s been thrilled to get to work and collaborate with.
As Kaplan’s album titles hint, he really is vegan, and his routines sometimes make reference to this fact. This has led him to act as somewhat of an expert witness for vegans, telling Thrillist all about the ways vegans react to the typical responses meat-eaters have upon learning of their diet. It also put him in line for a strange episode of joke theft, in which a Canadian butcher shop recycled one of his jokes about veganism for a sign in their front window, which proceeded to go viral and appear on Buzzfeed, Reddit, imgur, etc. In his response to the incident, Kaplan credited the butcher shop with at least preserving his wording, while remaining upset that he wasn’t given credit. “they didn’t butcher it that much. It’s still very recognizable as the joke I wrote, with the only part that was chopped off being my name and face and such. I don’t like when butcher shops chop off my face.” In the end, the shop apologized, which Kaplan graciously accepted. See the original joke below (it’s at around the 4:00 mark):
One of Kaplan’s most memorable experiences from early in his career was opening for KC and the Sunshine Band. The crowd reaction he got at this gig was less than ideal. “People were still milling in when I started, and they were not aware or happy that I wasn’t the band, even though the band wasn’t scheduled to come out until half an hour after I was done. People were yelling things like “get down tonight!” which might have been what they wanted to do, or, more charitably, the name of the KC song that they wanted to hear, and I wasn’t delivering.” Kaplan remembers one particular person from the crowd. “My favorite heckler was an eight-year-old girl who just thumbs-downed me every time I rotated by her. Maybe that’s why she was my favorite. Anyway, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Back in 2010, Kaplan was one of the finalists on Last Comic Standing, which recently returned from a four year hiatus. Kaplan enjoyed his time on the show and considers it one of the most substantial moments of his career. “I love doing standup, and got to do it in front of millions of people regularly every week,” he says. “I made a lot of good friends and fans, had a great time, and appreciate every moment of it.”
His first one-hour special, Small, Dork, and Handsome, was recently released on Netflix, and he’s very happy about that. “Anyone can view it at any time and that’s pretty great. Every week I get emails, tweets, and feedback from people who have just seen it.” Gone are the days of the TV special, where once you miss it, it’s gone. Between DVR and everything pretty much ending up on Netflix anyway, it’s more than likely it’ll be around for many, many years. As long as there are people out there to enjoy it, Kaplan is pleased. “I am real happy to have my special on Netflix, because of the fact that it’s a portal that so many people do have access to. So, thanks for watching it, everyone who has, or might, or will, or plans to, or doesn’t but wants to.”
Besides his special, Kaplan has a lot he’s been working on. His podcast, Hang Out With Me, has been a constant presence over the past couple years. He releases a new episode twice a week, and just released an album called B.O.S.H., Best of Super Hang, a compilation of clips from the podcast. He also collaborates regularly with his friend Micah Sherman; the two released a collab CD in 2012 called Please Be Seated, and recently followed it up with a free mixtape called The Micah Myq Mega Mixtape, which is available on Bandcamp. He’s not planning to slow down, either; he’s currently working on recording his next hour, as soon as everything falls into place. Kaplan has some words of wisdom for his fans: “Be kind! Read everything by George Saunders. Take in comedy that you enjoy, or comedy I enjoy. Be optimistic as much as possible. Tell people you appreciate that you appreciate them.”
Myq Kaplan, Zach Sherwin, and Jim Zarling will perform at Gallery 5 this Thursday, the 21st at 7:30PM. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, and can be purchased HERE.
