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Erik Griffin

FAIRBANKS — Most comedians have horror stories about how their parents don’t understand their career choice: Why would you want to spend your life in shady clubs? Or, You should have a stead income. Or, Being funny is not a career.

It provides a substantial amount of material for those funny folks to work with.

For Erik Griffin, that is not the case.

“My mom is so supportive, I could tell her I wanted to be a rock climber and she’d sign me up for a class,” he laughed, only partly joking.

When the California native told his mother he wanted to pursue comedy as a career, she did just as he expected: Signed him up for a class. The experienced helped, he said, even putting him on stage few times, getting some laughs, but at the end of it he thought, ‘Now what?’

“Then I got a girlfriend that pretty much ruined by life for like six years,” he said, pointing to at least one life situation he can use for material.

Taking a completely different career path than he had anticipated, he became “an everyman at a small school,” he said: He was the yearbook teacher, a basketball coach, and many other titles. The one thing he was not was happy.

“I just woke up one day and thought, ‘What am I doing?’ I didn’t want to go through life never living my dream,” he said.

So in 2003 Griffin quit his job and started over in comedy. Starting from scratch so late in the game is “something I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” he said, describing the open mic nights opening for other comedians, the begging for slots and the low paying gigs, but “you have to work your way up from the bottom,” he said.

Griffin has risen from the bottom in the past few years, enjoying such TV appearances as Live at Gotham— Comedy Central, Payaso Comedy Slam, Comics Without Borders, and Night Calls on the Playboy Channel. He has a number of commercials under his belt, and has performed at such famous comedy outlets as The Hollywood Improv, the Laugh Factory, the Seattle Underground, and the FunnyFest in Calgary Comedy Festival, among others. His next stop, however, is Fairbanks.

“I’ve never been to Alaska, so I’m excited to cross if off my 50-state tour,” he said. “But, I’m not looking forward to the weather. I’m a California boy, so this (cold) does not sound good to me.”

Cold or not, Griffin is glad to bring some laughs to Fairbanks, warning that with his act, nothing is off limits.

“You have to come with an open mind because everything is fair game. I talk about race, politics, religion, I make fun of myself, I ruffle feathers,” he said, noting that is the nature of comedy.

The ability to stand on a stage and enjoy such freedom of speech is what Griffin enjoys the most about his career. When he is on stage, he’s “not running for office,” he noted, but trying to shed some light on life in a funny way.

He described his style as a comfortable mix of physical and cerebral comedy. Some comedians are very physical and “goofy” and hamming it up on stage, and others are “slicing away with their sword of wit.” While he is neither extreme, he said, he uses tools from both sides of the fence. He employs concepts from his comedic influences, naming Eddie Murphy, Sinbad, George Carlin and Richard Pryor as some of the greats of the game.

Griffin will perform at two venues over the weekend: The Blue Loon tonight and Kodiak Jacks on Saturday. Tickets for both shows are $15. He warned potential audiences to be prepared.

“I can be kind of racy, but it’s all in good fun, and what comedy is all about. Once they start censoring comedians in the U.S, that is when the country has its downfall, that’s when it’s over,” he said.

Who: Erik Griffin

What: Comedy show

When: 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday

Where: The Blue Loon tonight, Kodiak Jacks Saturday

Tickets: $15 at the door

Contact Features Editor Erica Goff at 459-7523.