Comedian and musician Whitmer Thomas speaks with Screen Rant about his GLOW, and Sunnyside, to name a few. But he's perhaps best known for his stand-up performances, which are not only laugh-out-loud funny but also startlingly frank at times.
That's certainly the case with The Golden One, a stand-up special that also features Thomas performing some of his original songs for a live audience at the venue his late mother — who was also a musician — once performed. Thomas's homecoming goes a step further, segueing from the actual performance to feature some documentary footage of Thomas discussing his childhood with his brother, his cousin, and to rekindle his relationships with his estranged aunt and father.
It all adds up to a comedy special that's quite unlike anything most people have seen before. Thomas took some time to speak with Screen Rant ahead of his special's February 22, 2020 premiere. Read what he had to say about his comedy, music, and hopes for the future.
Can you talk a little bit about how the project came about? How long have you been working on this and how long did you know you wanted to focus primarily on aspects of your family and your childhood and especially your mother?
As far as the Golden One show goes, I've been working on that for four years, you know, but that's just figuring out the arc of that show. Way before that, I was telling a joke about like, the story about me being kidnapped and I would even tell a joke about my mom calling me the golden one, and how it was awkward cause my brother was there and all that stuff. But then about four years ago is when I was like 'fuck it,' I got to like figure out how to have a career as a comedian in some way. That's when I started doing the show and I would sometimes call it The Golden One show just to give it a title cause I think it's cool to have a title on there.
And it really wasn't until a couple years ago, I wrote an album of music that was completely sincere and I hated it. I thought it was really embarrassing for me. And so I changed a lot of the lyrics to make them more comedy- focused or at least halfway. And then I would sing those songs. I just started to sing those songs live in between jokes and stuff, and I realized that [it all] flowed together. And that's when it felt like this is actually a real show now that it's got this music and the stuff about my mom being a musician, it just really...there was so many parallels in our lives and in our attempt to kind of succeed in showbiz and that just kind of became such an obvious thing that I couldn't deny kind of exploring that in some way.
What sort of response did you get when you were kind of explaining this special to people? Did they get it right away or did you need to show them what you had in mind in order for them to be like, 'Oh, okay, this is kind of a totally new experience'?
Well, most had seen the show, had seen me do it live and I was like, well, you know, the idea is that I would get to talk to my dad in the thing, you would meet him or you would meet my brother or you know, one of my cousins or my aunt, maybe I could go talk to her. Because it felt kind of weird to go on stage and kind of just talk all this shit on my family and never give them an opportunity to humanize themselves or redeem themselves. And they liked that. They got it right away. You know, HBO was first place we talked to about getting to do [The Golden One] and they were like, 'Totally makes sense. Yeah.' So it really wasn't too much of a conversation with them, trying to get them to be down with that. They got it right away and were really excited to just see what happens.
The special itself is both very funny but also emotionally raw in a lot of places. Can you explain what your process is like in making sure you strike the right balance between those two elements?
My favorite kind of comedy is really silly comedy. I like real stupid stuff. And then my favorite kind of music is just the most emotionally raw and vulnerable. And I love when like a singer will have this beautiful metaphor right next to a line about how they plainly say, 'I want to kill myself.' I just think that that's like so cool and I love that stuff. So I just don't know if I could, for this material at least, I couldn't shake that. I'm not purposefully trying to be sad or make people feel sad. It's just, I think, I'm not a robot and these things do affect me, talking about my dad leaving or my mom dying or whatever it is.
And so I used to really try to resist ever feeling those moments because I didn't want to make anybody in the crowd feel uncomfortable. But then I was like, 'Am I a fucking psycho?' I would go insane if I just kept having to do this show and talk about these things and didn't feel it. And you know, being in therapy and stuff, my therapist was like, I was talking to her about some really other dark shit in my childhood and she was like, 'You're not like on stage. You don't have to shy away from feeling it right now in this conversation.' And I think, 'Oh yeah, maybe it's not such a good thing to be callous on stage and stuff.'
You mentioned how you rewrote some of the songs because the sincerity perhaps wasn't what you were maybe shooting for. How you start the writing process, and how you know when a song is ready to be performed? Does it begin from a place of sincerity and then you add some humor to it or is it vice versa?
For me it begins from a place of sincerity. I think that like any song, if you took out a couple of the metaphors and just plainly said the thing that it was about, it would become funny. Like any good song, you know? And so what I'll do is just write a song and have it be from a more sincere place and then find the elements in those lyrics and the things that I enjoy about it and try to just tighten them and lean in even further. But also try to not be so metaphoric because comedy, you know, for me at least, it's funnier when you just kind of plainly say the thing. But it always starts from a very sincere place.
Then I try to figure out some sort of hook afterwards. You know? That's the hardest part of all of this. Writing the music is fun. And writing the lyrics is fun. The sincere lyrics comes more natural to me than having to rip it apart and add the comedy elements.
Aside from your family — your mother and your brother and your aunt and whatnot — what are some of your biggest musical influences?
My number one is Blink 182. I started listening to them when I was about 10 and evolved and changed and grew up with them and they informed a lot of my sense of humor. And you know, through them I got into the emo hardcore scene and then just the indie DIY scene as well.
Taking Back Sunday was antoher band that I was kind of obsessed with, and same with Bright Eyes and the Cure and Joy Division, The Black Lips. All these bands informed everything about what I do now.
Was it a difficult process getting your family to sign on and want to be a part of the special or were they pretty much ready to go right away?
It was kind of awkward. They didn't really understand, you know. Some of them I hadn't seen in a really long time. My dad was really ive, but you know, it's still awkward. And same with my other family , but they were really excited I think. I was a lot younger than my siblings so they had a different childhood than I did. I ran away when I was 18. I moved to California and kind of stayed away. So I think everybody was excited just to talk and it felt a little bit weird to be filming it, but in a way, I hope everybody comes out looking okay at the end. That's my goal because what I really learned by doing this is that everybody really suffered through a lot of different trauma and tragedy and everybody has their own story and everybody has their own reason for doing the things that they did, whether it be drugs or death or just extreme grief. My aunt lost her identical twin sister.
So that's something that I learned. Everybody's going through something and I'm really happy that I got to talk to them even though it was being filmed. I'm happy that this forced me to do that and I'm really happy. I feel really lucky.
As a comedian, do you have like a philosophy when it comes to comedy? Do you believe that you have to bomb in order to become good?
I've sure as hell bombed. But no, I don't think it's absolutely necessary. You know, I have some friends who never did an open mic, had never really had a bad set in their life and they're some of the best comedians I've ever seen. But for me, I bombed for a full year, at least at open mics, and I was actually like a crazy enough person to want to still do it. I don't necessarily have any real philosophy other than if you're wanting, you know, if you're stressed out about comedy and you are a comedian or you're starting as a comedian, just when you go on stage to try and have fun. I don't necessarily have any real philosophy other than if you are bombing and you still want to do it, then you should keep doing it, and there's a reason. You just got to figure out what it is.
What are your thoughts on the state of comedy right now?
I think it's an interesting time in comedy. I think because of social media and the two coasts, I think we believe that there's some divide in the scenes in comedy, but in reality that's not necessarily the case. Some comedians do one thing, some do another, and at the end of the day they're being comedians and if some people are being controversial, you know, whatever. The good thing is there's a balance of people on the other side. If somebody's saying something that I definitely don't agree with, who cares? It's like, there's a balance. There's other comedians that I do agree with, but at the end of the day it's comedy and these people are just trying to make people laugh.
You don't have to agree with everything, you know? I sure as hell don't. I have comedians that I love, like Dave Chappelle, I think he's incredible and I don't agree with what he says all the time. So, yeah.
What's the response to The Golden One been for you so far?
I'm very nervous about the special, you know, because I feel like it's my big moment or something. But you know, these things kind of come and go. I just really hope everybody watches it. And I hope that people don't think it's two navel-gazey or whatever it is. As far as me doing the live show, that's my favorite thing. I love people's reactions. I love it when people tell me that they connect with it. I love it when they talk about some stupid part of the show, like some dumb little short joke I tell or something. It's ridiculous to say but I've been doing it for a really long time and it's exciting that people are showing up to watch it. It's a real trip. The response has been really positive and I'm really grateful that people connect with it.
Whitmer Thomas: The Golden One premieres Saturday, February 22 @10pm.
Photos: Megan Thompson/HBO