Josh Adam Meyers will bring his mix of music and comedy to Snowmass Comedy WKND! The event runs from Friday to Sunday.
When Josh Adam Meyers was 12, his father asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Myers responded, “A rock star and a stand-up comedian.” His dad said, “Well, you can’t do both.”
Turns out his father was wrong.
Meyers grew up and developed a hybrid act that combines stand-up comedy and rock ’n’ roll that he melded into the “Goddamn Comedy Jam.” He tours worldwide using music as the bedrock of his stand-up routine that he will bring this weekend as part of Snowmass Comedy WKND!
The festival kicks off on Friday with a free Mountainside Comedy Happy Hour at 5:30 p.m. at the New Belgium Ranger Station patio. Friday night’s main course is billed as “Triple The Laughs” with Meyers, Nancy Norton and Reem Edan at The Collective.
On Saturday, there is a cooking-with-comedians event at Limelight Hotel and a happy hour gathering that leads into the flagship event of the fest — an evening of comedy with Alex Edelman at the Snowmass Conference and Events Center, starting at 8 p.m.
What happens when a Jewish guy enters a KKK meeting by mistake? That’s the premise of Edelman’s show “Just for Us,” which he has performed on Broadway (for which he won a Tony Award) as well as for a USA tour and an HBO special.
Sunday kicks off with “Babes that Brunch,” a celebration of local and regional female comedians. The weekend concludes with a Sunday evening show at The Collective with Meyers.
Alex Edelman won a Tony Award for his show “Just For Us,” which was turned into an HBO series. He will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Snowmass Conference and Events Center.
While Edelman is the weekend’s headliner, Meyers performs the most sets, taking the stage on Friday at The Collective at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. at the Tavern Kitchen and Bar. Meyers closes down the festival on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. at The Collective.
“This is not a common thing I do at most festivals (performing so many times in one weekend),” Meyers said in an interview. “But I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve played a bunch of times in Snowmass and I love the town, I love the venue, I’m proud to be a part of what [Sarah Saunders, festival founder] is trying to do by building this event into a major comedy festival.”
Meyers grew up in the Washington, D.C., area. He loved all kinds of music growing up, but his first love was rock ’n’ roll, and he played in bands in high school. He points to Guns ’n’ Roses “Appetite for Destruction,” Stone Temple Pilots’ “Core” and “Radiohead’s “OK Computer” as three albums that influenced him.
After graduating from Towson University in Baltimore, he played in a rock band that, despite being a good outfit with a lot of promise, dissolved after two years. Meyers then moved to Los Angeles to try and get into stand-up comedy. While he got his career going in stand-up, he found that lots of comedians also played music. There was one club which would shut down and all the comedians would jam after hours.
“I was not a very good comic yet, but I was a good musician,” Meyers said. “I would go up and sing, and I’d kind of lead the jam and that’s how I became friends with everybody. That’s how I met Bill Burr, Chris Porter and some of the guys that have been very, very important to my career. And I would lead these comedians into singing and playing and it became the basis of mixing comedy and music.”
In 2013, Meyers created the Goddamn Comedy Jam in which a comedian performs a set of comedy and then chooses a song. Backed by Meyers’ house band Elemenopy, the comedian performs the song live.
The show was an instant hit, selling out venues in Los Angeles and New York and eventually becoming a television show on Comedy Central for two seasons featuring comedians like Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman and others. Meyers continues to take the Goddamn Comedy Jam to audiences all over the world.
In his solo act, Meyers pulls audience members to the stage and in what can only be described as a comedian doing improv with someone who has never done improv, he elicits stories out of them and turns lines from the stories into lyrics to great comedic effect.
When asked what he hopes people take away from one of his shows, Meyers said, “I just want people to come out and have a good time. When I get brought up at clubs, I don’t tell them to give any credits, I just tell them to say to the crowd, ‘You guys ready to have some fun!’ That’s it. Just come prepared to laugh and party. This weekend is gonna be magical.”
Tickets to Snowmass Comedy WKND! are available at eventbrite.com.
