Best known for his work on “Workaholics” as Montez Walker, stand-up comedian Erik Griffin is now making his way down the 710 freeway to crack you up.
Griffin, a Los Angeles native, will visit Laugh Factory in Downtown Long Beach on Thursday, June 26. He has done a number of shows in Hollywood this month.
In his sets, Griffin brings to life the oddities of ordinary life, which leaves you dying of laughter and thinking, “That is exactly my life!”
This won’t be the first time the “Workaholics” actor has made his way to a stage in Long Beach, but he explained that he looks forward to bringing his stand-up to the younger generation, who may be more familiar with his role on the popular Comedy Central show.
In speaking about his own stand-up, he explains his style and what he enjoys about it. “For me, my material is very organic, so even if I say something a couple of times, I might just keep adding to it until it turns into something.”
Q. Are you familiar with the Long Beach area?
EG: I’ve been to the aquarium… When I first started coming up like in 2003 they had a comedy club at the Queen Mary. I like the area.
Q. Obviously with “Workaholics” is a lot of the fan base college students?
EG: I would say new fans… Which is a different kind of comedy fan.
Q. Did you start up doing stand up?
EG: Yeah, I was always into stand up, for a long time.
Q. Do you like stand-up better or do you like doing shows?
EG: I wouldn’t want to choose. They are both good in their own way.
Q. What do you like best about stand-up?
EG: It’s instant gratification. You get all these people from different walks of life and they are in a room together and making them have a communal experience … To me, that is pretty amazing. They are all collectively laughing at one thing.
Q. I almost feel like you paid the [heckler] in the back!
EG: That’s just something you deal with.
Q. No, but the fact that you just went straight to town on him.
EG: The thing is that we don’t like it, at all. So we want to make sure everyone else is having a good time, so you try to make it fun, but it’s not fun. The guy is harmless. When you are in a club environment and we tell you to drink we have to understand that that’s going to happen. So it’s a fine line.
Q. I’m a bar tender so I know what that’s like.
EG: That’s what I mean you have to deal with it [appropriately], you can’t be ‘why you acting like an a–hole’!
Q: Being the sober guy and dealing with drunk people is tough.
EG: You telling me, I never drink.
Q. I’ve never been drunk.
EG: Me neither!
Q. You’re in that social atmosphere so you have to be able to shoot from the hip with people like that I’m sure… So what do you like about the work you have done on “Workaholics”?
EG: It’s a fun show. We say and do some really outlandish things. So that’s what is fun about it. Then it also introduces me to a fan base… because there is a generation gap. Now I have young fans because of the show. They might be my fans for many years, you know what I mean, when they start having money.
Q. That’s when it starts working!
EG: Yeah, maybe they’ll be like that’s that dude from that show that I used to love.
Q. What’s it like being on set on a show like that?
EG: First of all, being on any set is the worst … Long days, but those people make it really fun. I like hanging out with the girls on the set Jillian [Bell] and Maribeth [Monroe]. It’s a great working environment.
Q. What do you like most about living in Los Angeles?
EG: I don’t know what it would be like to live anywhere else because I have lived here my whole life. Obviously I love it, but I travel a lot doing stand up. I don’t know if I’ll ever move or leave here.
The Laugh Factory is located on Pine and Shoreline Drive. The show starts at 8 p.m. and entrance for students is only $10 with a student identification card. Do yourself a favor, and don’t miss this hilarious comedian taking stage right in our own backyard.