Reality Bites Back - new show on Comedy Central w/Chris Fairbanks

[Liezl]

I boo because I was hoping Amy would win. This series as a whole was a lot of fun though.. I liked the little editing jokes they made, especially when they showed how Fairbanks had lost the challenge and the camera pans to the audience, showing them completely apathetic to the show.

Does anyone know when this series was taped?

[Toddler]

I loved every episode of this damned show. Truly wonderful stuff. I worry though, boy how I worry, about how a 2nd season would work. Do they do 10 new reality show spoofs or the same ones? Will the editing jokes and production in jokes wear thin? Will Chris Fairbanks become a permanent fixture on the show due to his innate awesomeness?

[vphuoc]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share an interview I did with Chris Fairbanks back in mid-August. He's just as awesome in person as you would imagine, if not more so!

Comedian Chris Fairbanks Shares Laughs, Insight on Stand-Up
By Vania Phuoc

The first time I watched Chris Fairbanks perform stand-up, he opened for Greg Behrendt at the Laff Stop last September. I remember his set distinctly for its stream of consciousness style ramblings interspersed amongst the endearing self-deprecating anecdotes and unique wit. You can see him on Comedy Central’s Reality Bites Back where comedians compete for $50,000 in challenges spoofing every other popular reality TV show. Unfortunately, Chris was the sixth out of the ten contestants eliminated from the competition after facing difficulties involving wrestler Chyna and a bum air gun in the episode “Hunting with the Stars.” A former Texas resident and incredibly nice, down-to-earth guy, Chris was amazing taking the time to answer my questions.

How did you get your start in comedy?
I was approached at a party when I was in college while breakdancing in some women’s clothes I’d found. After I knocked a glass off a table, the girl who lived there asked if I had ever done improv comedy and if I’d please take off her dress and leave. I ended up being in an improv ‘troupe’ with her for three years after that.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career? Do you have a favorite comedian?
Back when Mtv wasn’t horrible television, they had a show called Half Hour Comedy Hour, and I used to record it on the VCR…that, and The A-List on A&E. Both those shows were just a random showcase of up and coming comics whose names I’ve forgotten, but watching that was a pretty big influence. My favorite comic right now is Paul F. Tompkins.

How was your move from Montana to Texas and then from Texas to Los Angeles?
Until I moved to Austin, TX, I didn’t realize it could be socially acceptable somewhere for a person to go out and drink every single night of the week and then drive home at 100mph on a horribly designed freeway. Every day there was geared around having fun somehow. I miss Texas, but I had to move to L.A. for the career opportunities. Austin was a good primer for moving out to L.A. because if I’d moved there from Montana, I think it would have been too much of a big city shock, and I would have moved back home by now.

How was your time on Reality Bites Back?
I was super stressed out the whole time. I was always worried about whether or not I was being funny, if I was seconds away from being eliminated, or if I was really going to get paid. I wish I had known the whole thing would be edited down so much that it didn’t even matter…22 minute episodes without commercials for two to three 12 hour days of shooting each one! The best part of being on that show was hanging out with a bunch of comics I would have never otherwise met. I stay pretty confined in L.A. to the alternative comedy scene, the UCB and the Hollywood Improv. Now I feel I need to open my mind to other comics a little more. Maybe even go up at the horrible Laugh Factory one of these days.

What is an average day for you like?
I wake up late, 10 am at the earliest, and start emailing people, trying to drum up work. Usually go skateboarding at about 4pm at the Venice skatepark. Sometimes I do artwork and logos for people. That’s what I used to do for a living…Illustration, sign painting, and T-shirt designs. I go to bed too late….wow, what have I done with my life? I’ve never written it out like this.

Is it better to be smart or charming as a comedian?
Good question. It depends on where you are. I don’t ever want to seem like I’m talking down to an audience on the road…I’d rather look stupid than do that, ‘cause at least stupid people can make you laugh…so I never TRY to seem smart. Too often in L.A., or otherwise, comics are trying too hard to be thought provoking and forget to be funny on stage. As far as being charming, that never hurts I suppose.

Are you religious?
I still haven’t figured that one out. When I was young, I tried some youth groups and bible camps, even though my parents were atheist. That all just kind of drifted away as I learned more. I just always knew to try to be honest and friendly, and to only talk badly about people behind their backs…never to their faces, right? I’m pretty sure I’m not a fan of organized religion though, but I like Jesus and would love to meet him…or Gene Wilder.

Do you Google yourself? Have you found anything interesting?
I Google.com myself all the time. I actually found my name attached to Reality Bites Back on some industry trades site before I was even told I’d gotten the gig in person! Also, when I type in my name, up comes a fairly celebrated fireman, a champion body builder, and an L.A. actor all with my name. I think there should be a reality show where I live with all of them in a house based simply on the fact we all are named Chris Fairbanks.

If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be, and what would you order?
I always wanted to meet Gene Wilder…or Abe Lincoln. Jesus Christ maybe, but he might be kind of judgey…and I can’t even decide what to order when I’m alone.

If you could go back and tell your 21 year-old self something, what would it be?
I’d say this; “Don’t worry Chris, the 16 year old version of us thinks we’re both really cool. But you could stand to lose a little weight…and why are you going to college right now? You need to start doing stand up tonight before you get too old! Break up with your girlfriend! It doesn’t end up working out with her... she ends up marrying someone else in ’06.Wait…no! Stay with her…she makes you move to Austin where you start doing that stand up thing I mentioned. I’ve said too much… just stay in school. And quit drinking too much, you don’t know it now, but you’re kind of fat. O.K. I need to get back to 1985 in my Delorian now.”…That’s what I’d tell me.

You went to the University of Montana and studied fine art/drawing and painting. Did it help you in life?
Going to college was really important for me. My mind was opened up big time in college, and I gained a lot of confidence and made pretty good grades…except with math. I was never good at math. I’ve been finished with school for ten years now, and I still have sweaty nightmares about impossible math problems that I make up in my dreams.

I don’t think college helped me much with being a comedian though, other than it being a series of experiences that made me what I am today…that sounded like an army commercial.

What can we expect to see coming up from you?
My goal is to spend a little more time going to comedy clubs in different cities, trying to get more work headlining. I’ve been featuring for a lot of years now, and I know it’s time for me to take the next step. I’m also working on a series for Fuel TV called “Skate Shop” in which I’m a main character. It’s kind of a “Clerks” inspired half hour comedy series. Still working on the scripts and casting, etc. for that one, but I’m excited about it.

After seeing Chris feature for Kyle Cease at the Houston Improv two weeks ago, I feel he is a rising alt-comic who could easily skyrocket while honing his timing and audience relation techniques as a headliner himself. With his understated, dry comedy not for the narrow-minded, Chris Fairbanks makes absurd imaginings and “word jokes” work. Hopefully we will see more of him both on television and onstage in the near future. You can check out some of his material on his myspace page, youtube, and effinfunny.com and clips of Reality Bites Back on comedycentral.com.