1 day Ago By Amy Maginnis-Honey
FAIRFIELD — Comedy is back at the Downtown Theatre on Saturday as Frazier-Trager Presents has booked four comics for a Generation X comedy show. Headliner Hank Hardister, who hails from Napa, performs up and down the coast. No topic is off limits.
Hardister recently shared some thoughts with the Daily Republic, via email. Q: What is Generation X comedy? How is it different from Millennial comedy? Since I am 45 and grew up in the early ’80s, most of my comedy is about growing up in the ’80s on a nudist colony, getting older, being a dad, dating, and how much things have changed. The main thing I want to signal to my crowds is that this is comedy for people who like to laugh, are not offended by every little thing, and grew up in a time when anything was fair game if it was funny.
Gen X comedy, in short, is for the people who grew up drinking from a hose, a text message was a note passed in class and getting unfriended was literally being cut out of pictures. Since I am right on the cusp of Gen X and Millennial, I have seen the world change, and there is so much for all of us to laugh about. Q: You grew up listening to Eddie Murphy, Dave Chapellle and more.
Did you know then you wanted to do comedy? A: I remember the first time seeing Eddie Murphy "Raw" and quoting it to friends for weeks. I did not know I wanted to be a comedian at a young age, but I was always making people laugh at functions and probably too much in school. I had spent most of my life drilling wells in Napa for my family company, dreaming about the life I live now and all the amazing things I have gotten to do.
Eight years ago, a close friend, Tom, and his wife Julie signed me up for an open mic in Vacaville. I was so scared and did not think it would go well, but it went amazing. The host pulled me aside afterward and was shocked that it was my first time on stage, and I will never forget him saying, "This is what you were born to do.
" Within six months, I was performing all around the Bay Area, learning how to do standup and was getting booked in shows in LA. Q: Talk about working with Adam Carolla. A: I would listen to Adam Carolla every day while I worked.
I learned a lot from him through all of the lessons he talked about in his life, how he got on the radio at first, and how he then learned how to make movies and TV shows. One day, he was talking about how he decided when he was doing construction that he was not going to just be a loser and he was going to "change his wiring." That conversation was the day my friends signed me up for my first open mic, and I decided I was going to "Change my wiring.
" I wrote down a list of things I was going to do, and on that list was open for Adam Carolla. Fast forward two years, I was doing very well in comedy and landed a radio show job here in Napa on 1440 KVON doing a live show every Saturday. The Hank Hardister Show took off, I was talking to all kinds of famous people.
I ended up reaching out to Adam's people, and they had Adam's wife Lynette come on my show and we hit it off. We ended up talking often. Adam was going to be coming to Napa for a big show at the Uptown Theater.
I decided I was going to ask if I could open for him. A day later, they said I could, and I about passed out. The show is up on my YouTube page and is still one of my favorite nights of my life.
Q: What makes you laugh? A: Right now I am a huge fan of Theo Von and Ricky Gervais. I love Monty Python movies and can watch them over and over. My oldest son, Shae, is 14 now and has an amazing sense of humor, performs in plays, and has come on stage with me.
He and I crack each other up with memes and jokes. Q: Is comedy a full-time gig? If not, what job pays the bills? A: Comedy was a full-time thing prior to Covid. I was performing five times a week, had my radio show and theater shows often.
Covid hit and everything stopped. It was a huge shock and depressing. I had to find something to take care of things and ended up finding a great job as a supervisor for the city of Napa Public Works Street Department.
I have been there the last two years. Q: Talk about your radio show and and podcast? Podcasting appears to be the place to be these days. What works for you in podcasting? Are there things that have not worked in podcasting? A: I had great success with my show, and there are still two years of shows on iTunes.
I have been thinking of getting back into it but I have found that people today want the video aspect along with the audio. People prefer shows like Rogan and Your Mother's House where the hosts are in a studio so you can see them if you want to. Q: How did you get involved in the Gen X comedy show? A: I have worked with Jeff Trager and his partner Kevin for years, and we have always done big shows together.
Each year, they get available dates from theaters in the Bay Area, I come up with some show themes and book all the comedians. I have a group of guys I work with regularly, we are all friends, so we have a blast doing these shows. Edsel Mac is always with me in some capacity, and Frankie Marco usually, but he just won the Bay Area comedy competition, so he was already booked for this date and could not join us.
Q: Fairfield used to have Pepperbellys. Since then, it has been a bit of a comedy desert. Do you have any ideas how to restore comedy in Fairfield? A: Unfortunately, I never got to perform there.
I heard stories. The biggest problem with doing comedy right is that you have to be consistent. You have to have shows in the same place and the shows need to be good.
Fairfield is a great place, the Downtown Theater is one of my favorite places to perform. I specifically asked Jeff (Trager) to get us back in there because the last show we did was amazing. I think a venue that had a good stage and acoustics could do great with the right people booked.
If there was a building that wanted to do comedy, I would love to help them book it and bring comedy back to Fairfield. Q: Have you worked with the other comics on Gen X show prior? If so, talk a little about each of them. if not, please share what you know about them.
A: Edsel Mac is always in my shows in some capacity. Edsel is one of the sweetest men alive and a hilarious comedian. When him and I get together, we make each other funnier.
You can follow Hardister at www.instagram.com/hankhardistercomedy .
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