An Interview with Comedian Joey Dardano: Exploring 'Another Direction' at Joe's Pub

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'You're not just seeing an hour of stand-up, you're seeing a show'

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After performing in both the United Kingdom and the United States, including at the Netflix Is A Joke Festival in Los Angeles, Joey Dardano will be bringing his special, Another Direction , to Joe’s Pub in New York City on June 7th. Recently, we had a chance to sit down with the stand-up, who is also known for starring in Stamptown and Wild ‘n Out . We discussed how he first got started in comedy, how he works on building a show, and what it’s like to perform solo versus with a group.

How did you first get started in the world of comedy?

I would perform as the Blues Brothers with my older brother growing up, and that was my first time getting laughs on stage! And then later on, I took a course. My friend was in a play in Lake Worth, and one of the actors was only in the play because his wife was in it. It was community theatre, and he taught stand-up at the West Palm Beach Improv, which no longer exists, and he let me take that class for free. There was a graduation show - I wanted to get up on stage and do it. You were supposed to run your set right before the graduation show, for just the class. And after mine, he was like, “Do you want to wait until the end of the next class, because I don't think you should do today,” and I was like, “No, I got this!” I went to the Panera Bread across the street, and I wrote a whole new five-minute set that I memorized like an actor. Then I performed it, and I did fine. That was my first set, and I have been addicted ever since! As an actor, I always wanted to keep performing, and there was one year that I wasn't in the play. I was like, “Well, how else can I have stage time?” It was stand-up!

And what is your creative process like for a show like Another Direction ?

When you're doing stand-up, most comedians’ first hour is an amalgamation of all these jokes they've been telling for around ten years. It's a whole lot of “This is who I am, this is where I'm from, this is how I see the world.” I had been doing stand-up seriously after college for about six years, and my new manager, Tam, we were going through my material. We were talking about how it was time for me to do an hour. We realize that there's just naturally a through line of one, all the negativity that comes with chasing your dreams, and secondly, discovering who you are when you're getting into your adulthood, and how that doesn't mesh with who you thought you might be. A lot of self-deprecation along with self-love. A lot of that material just naturally had this theme. And then something happened to me in the pandemic. I started gaining a following online, and a fan of mine sent me the link to a film that was being made, and roles were put out to play Joey Dardano in a film called Joey Dardano - I wasn't involved at all! I weave all these jokes that I've done over the past ten or so years, and there's new stuff in there, too. I'll write a new joke, and then, after telling it a couple of times, be like, “Oh, that actually fits right here in the hour that I've already done!” I weave that story in and out, because, again, naturally, like a gift from the heavens, that story matches the themes that I was already talking about - it adds this narrative. I was really excited when crafting an hour to have one meaty thing to hook the rest of my comedic claws into, and maintain. You're not just seeing an hour of stand-up, you're seeing a show.

So you've performed the show in both the US and the UK. What has that been like, and what differences have you noticed?

Edinburgh was fun because it made me really tighten up the written material that I already had. I'm not riffing the hour; the hour is written, but I love to have a lot of fun with it, and let loose. I like to write tags by riffing or talking to the audience, seeing if there's anything more to get out of that. When doing Edinburgh specifically, it really felt like the crowds were like, “I want you to do your show as written.” I have the written hour, but I also write in opportunities to have fun. If we're going to spend the next hour or so together, there's value in us getting to know each other. I want to get to know who I'm going to be with for the next hour, because you change little things based on who's in the room right then. I can't pinpoint exactly what audiences in Edinburgh didn't like, but very quickly, I altered little bits of myself to make sure I didn't have a huge issue with them.

London, they did like crowd work. They did like me messing around with them, and then they were also with me when I was telling the jokes. Edinburgh, a lot of it was one or the other. I would get on stage, and we would figure out in real time. I have audience interaction planned in my first joke, and it very quickly transitions into jokes, but there were three shows where I would talk to the first person, they would say something incredibly surprising, and I'd be like, “We can all agree I have to get to the bottom of what this was!” We were just having fun. And then in talking with that person, I'm thinking of an old joke or story, an opportunity to work it out and see what it is. So Edinburgh was a lot of exploration, but also figuring out that you don't need to change who you are to appeal to different parts of the world. I thought, as an American, I was going to have a lot of trouble, and it really ended up being, if you are a funny person and you radiate, “I am just trying to make sure you guys have fun while also being true to myself, you are in good graces,” people really rock with what you're doing. So it was a very quick transition. I thought I was going to change a lot to survive, and then I ultimately just doubled down and committed to who I am and how I operate.

And then you recently performed the show in the States at the Netflix Is A Joke Fest. What was that like?

In the past month, I did it at both Moontower in Austin and at the Netflix Fest. Before I did it at Moontower, I made sure to listen to it, walk around, and remember it, because I hadn't done it in a month or two. Netflix, I looked at the set list, and I was like, “That's all in my head,” and I did not revisit it at all! It's like a Shakespearean actor bringing back Hamlet . I got up, and it's all just there - those jokes are a part of me, and the story is so important to me. I wanted that show to be tight, so I didn't mess around as much. My two openers, Gregory Santos and Stewart Fullerton, murdered, so I was like, “Take advantage of that! You don't have to get them to like you. They paid money to see you, they know who you are, and they purposefully, at 10 pm on a Tuesday, came to see you. Just do the show!”

What is it like to perform a solo comedy show versus group ones like Stamptown or Wild ‘n Out ?

When you're on stage, even though there are words coming out of your mouth, your brain is already four to five sentences ahead of you. Even if you're riffing, you have an idea of where you're gonna land. When you're with a group of people, whether it be hip-hop-based improv [ Wild ‘n Out ] or Stamptown , a mix of both improv and planned bits, you are at the will and whim of everyone else you're on stage with. You have to be ready and willing to just drop a beat, even if you've been planning on it for the past five minutes. Someone could say something, and you're like, “What I'm about to say actually doesn't make sense, and now I gotta change.” That kind of independent variable really only exists in stand-up from heckling.

Someone says something crazy, and I'm like, “As a room, we all agree I need to get to the bottom of this, otherwise I'm leaving like juice in the fruit.” Or someone could say something crazy, completely mess up the vibe in the room, and now you're on damage control for something you didn't even say. They need to remember that they can trust you to handle it. Rule number one of comedy is making sure the audience trusts you. Your goal is to be funny, and you don't mean any harm by anything you say. That doesn't apply to some people, but that's what I'm going for.

But there really is a beauty in not being alone up there. A lot of comedy - stand-up, in particular - does lose a lot of the camaraderie that comes with being in a group. For the most part, you're in it for yourself, and you're doing it alone, and that is why a lot of us got into it. I wasn't booking TV and film - I can control going on stage and doing stand-up, I can control how often I do that. If a club's not booking me, I get to do an alt show. I've also gotten funnier from doing those group shows, like Wild ‘n Out and Stamptown - especially touring with Stamptown . And you can see it when I'm doing stand-up. It's made me trust a lot more of my in-the-moment impulses and instincts, instead of feeling like everything has to be written or thought out or smart. I think a lot of comics go through that phase of, “Do I sound stupid? I hope my jokes are smart!” and it's like, “No, actually, a lot of people really just want to laugh, and a lot of that comes with being stupid.”

So you were talking about more of your solo work. How does stand-up comedy differ from the style of comedy you use on social media?

With stand-up, I still get that benefit mentally of being like, “This is an art form that I'm working on.” “This is me crafting what is and will be my professional legacy, my body of work.” Whatever the amount of specials I put out in life, that is going to be the body of work that, after I die, people will go back and watch. I don't think that, when I die, the next generation is going to like a lot of what I put on Instagram, because Instagram and TikTok are a whole lot of in-the-moment comedy. It's things that are trending, and they're not going to be funny in the future - they're very of the moment. A lot of these jokes need context, and half the joke is that they don't have context. You’d have to be an anthropologist in the future to figure out why a video that had a million likes in 2027 is funny.

I look at social media as a way to connect people, remind myself that I have my finger on the pulse of what people like to see, what they like to listen to, and also still find a way to bridge the gap between a younger, more internet-savvy sense of humor and a middle-aged man or woman scrolling on Instagram and just finding my video funny still. I do think that social media, in and of itself, while it is a business card, a forefront to be like, “This is who you're getting if you come out to see me. This is, for the most part, who you're getting if you hire me to act in your project.” I do think I have a whole dramatic side that I don't show on Instagram, because why would you scroll and watch me do a sad monologue where I'm crying? I think of social media more as the business side of things, and that is the nature of it. Anybody telling you otherwise is lying. But, in spite of that, I have a lot of fun, and I create a lot of stuff on there that I'm proud of.

And finally, how would you describe Another Direction in one word?

Surprising!

Learn more about Joey Dardano at www.joeydardano.com

Joey Dardano: Another Direction runs on 7 June at Joe’s Pub. Tickets are available here .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/cabaret/article/Interview-Comedian-Joey-Dardano-on-ANOTHER-DIRECTION-at-Joes-Pub-20260527)._