Issue date: 8/23/07 Section: A&E

Media Credit: Steve Berry Dan Cummins performs in front of a full house in the Meridian Ballroom Tuesday night.

Funnyman Dan Cummins brought sarcasm and offbeat humor to a full crowd at the Meridian Ballroom in the Morris University Center Tuesday night. Cummins began standup seven years ago at the request of his wife, and has since toured HBO and Comedy Central festivals, opened for Ron White and Jim Gaffigan and will soon be taped for a half-hour Comedy Central special. Behind the scenes, the Alestle probes the mind of a man who packs A1 Steak Sauce on flights in case of emergency cannibalism.

Alestle: You have a half-hour Comedy Central special coming up. Are you pumped?

Cummins: Oh yeah, very much so. Three or four years ago when I really started making it, I thought of my goals. The two big ones were a half hour with Comedy Central, and the other one was Letterman. Now if I can get Letterman or Conan, that would complete my goals, and it's going to be fun making new ones. I'm going to take my time working on a short set, but I don't want to burn up material that I've already used.

A: How do you do what you do?

C: My main criteria is something original. I've seen so many guys just go down the same path, bringing nothing new to the table. I got into this for self-expression. I do comedy as an art form, and I look at it the same way as a painter, author, musician - I look at it all the same way, that creative energy. The other is what would I want to see. I look at it like a challenge, like, how could I make this funny to a group of strangers. I could never go out and say, "So, you ladies like shoppin', eh?"
There's also guys who are so getting into being weird, that they are totally unrelatable. I don't see that as being good either. I couldn't imagine going up and talking about unicorns fighting androids and having a couple comics say, "Oh man, that's so crazy." In Seattle, there's an alternative comedy scene. I've seen someone come on stage as a unicorn, and talk about experiences of being a unicorn. That's original, but there's a reason nobody is (expletive) doing that.

A: Is there something about the college scene that makes it more attractive than a comedy club?

Continued...

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