Learning lessons with Langston Kerman on his first trip to the Carolinas

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Tough comedy crowds are probably easier to find in big cities, but not necessarily because the New York or Los Angeles comedy fan is more discerning than one in a small town.

It's just that a metropolis has myriad options for watching live comedy every night of the week whereas cities the size of, say, Wilmington may have one full-time comedy club. That club is probably great -- and in Wilmington's case, the Dead Crow Comedy Room is definitely great -- but for the most part, clubs like Dead Crow can only bring in headliners on select nights, usually Fridays and Saturdays.

Langston Kerman, who is headlining Dead Crow this Friday and Saturday, is excited about his first trip to the Carolinas in part because he knows the audience that shows up to see him this weekend is almost certainly there because they like him or they like comedy or both. And while there are other fun places to see live comedy in the Port City, there's no place better in the town, or for this author's money, the state, to see stand-up than Dead Crow.

"I find, more often than not, the smaller towns and smaller cities tend to have really fun audiences," Kerman said in Thursday afternoon phone interview. "People aren't jaded by the options. They're like, 'We get comedy? Dope. Every week? Hell yeah, we'll be there and we'll be into it and we'll like it.' As opposed to New York City, where people are like, "Yeah, (expletive), we can watch this anywhere. We don't need you.'"

Being a comedian isn't the only experience Kerman has had delivering messages to crowds. He taught poetry at his high school alma mater in Oak Park, Ill., for a while before making the move to pursue stand-up full time.

There are similarities between a room full of students and a room full of folks who want to see someone tell jokes, but, perhaps not surprisingly, the classroom can be a more unforgiving space.

"It's like a battle every day to make a bunch of people like you that are determined not to," said Kerman, who lives and works in Los Angeles and played Jared on HBO's hit series Insecure.

"It's like comedy, but without any of the paying customers who actually kind of wanted to be there."

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