Sitcoms and SNL. Movies and game-show gigs. Jay Mohr is proof that a career in comedy can take you places, but he's always rooted in stand-up. We chatted with him before his Spokane shows this weekend; responses have been edited for length and clarity.
INLANDER: Watching your special Altamont, I kept expecting disaster to strike.
The disaster was me. That was my last special before I went to rehab for Adderall. I was a mess. The Altamont concert with all the chaos was happening inside the person on stage.
Did you think of not putting the special out after you got sober?
No, it's fascinating to me because I know it's solid! It gives me such excitement about my future to know that if that's the max for me high, then clean and sober and getting all that bandwidth back — not chasing girls, drugs, not being a pleasure-seeking missile — I just can't imagine what my future will be like now that I actually get to do it free [from addiction].
You've done stand-up for decades. Was self-medicating always part of it?
Yes, but not because of or a need to deal with stand-up. I didn't get high or drink because I had to do comedy or because comedy was so hard. I did it because I'm a drug addict. I was born a drug addict. I was a drug addict before I had my first drink. And my job happens to be stand-up comedian.
Have you noticed a change in the material you're writing since rehab?
I don't know any other comedian talking about the desperation of being at their own intervention. I don't know any other comedian that admits, "This is the lie they told me to get me to my intervention." And being so high I believed that lie! And what it was like to be in detox, what it was like to be in an all-men's Christian rehab right after detox with a roommate who did 19 years for murder. It's a great clearing of the deck, for me and for the audience, because I get to be completely honest with them. And they know how much I mean it when I walk on stage and say, "It's good to see you."
Being on the road must make it harder to deal with addiction?
You're not accountable to anyone. If you can just make it to the showroom by 8 o'clock, you can get through it. Even if you're hammered on stage, people are like, "Yeah!" But I got to the point where I was on stage, and they didn't want me back. And that can't happen. I don't know how to do anything else. What am I going to do, get a job? I'm going to be at the hardware store, and someone's going to go, "You were great in Jerry Maguire," and I'm going to go, "Yeah, how many pounds of grain did you want?"
Was it scary going on stage sober?
I didn't know about the rehab [material], I never got that personal before. That's a big deal to walk out on stage and tell an audience, "Guess where I've been." And some things didn't get as big a laugh as I thought, some things got a bigger laugh. It's just like any piece of material, sometimes the audience will surprise you. I'm definitely funnier than I've ever been. Because I'm present. And that's the gig. The gig of comedy is being present. ♦
Jay Mohr • Fri-Sat, Feb 25-26, at 7:30 and 10:30 pm • $25-$40 • Spokane Comedy Club • 315 W. Sprague • spokanecomedyclub.com • 509-318-9998
