Laughing at Life with Bret Ernst

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Photo: Bret Ernst - Facebook

Bret Ernst

Bret Ernst

For Bret Ernst, his educational background has been a boon to his comedy. But it wasn’t necessarily the time in class itself that nurtured his humor. 

“I went to 15 different schools, I got very comfortable being the new kid in front of the class, which is why I feel I am comfortable on stage in front of strangers, even from my first performance 25 years ago,” Ernst remarks. 

To say why Ernst went to more schools than there were grades before he graduated is a circumstance on which some of his act hinges. And he may get into it when he appears at Northern Lights Theater in Potawatomi Hotel & Casino (1721 W. Canal St.) for 7 and 9 p.m. performances on Saturday Jan. 29.

“I believe that comedy is a natural response to tragedy; hence the theater masks of one crying and one laughing,” Ernst says. With his hardscrabble youth having prepared him for his current success in stand-up, he adds, “Comedy always comes from a tragic and dark place. I just think it’s the way we heal ourselves.”

Work in Progress

If comedy is a means of healing for Ernst and his audience, it’s also a way to catch crowds off guard in giving them funny takes on things they might not otherwise find humorous. Or, as he puts it, “Stand-up is always a work in progress, which allows you to showcase all your deepest, darkest thoughts and moments, to complete strangers for them to laugh at. No other art form does that in the moment. Nothing better than making someone laugh at something that they thought they would never laugh at.”

Ernst's talk of deep darkness speaks to the fraught nature of some of his subject matter, a recent source being the dissolution of his marriage. “Nothing produces more material than being married, other than getting divorced,” he claims of matrimony’s double-edged relationship to comedy. Less troubled and troubling is the use of ethnic accents that peppers some of his most hilarious bits.  

“An audience can always tell if a joke is coming from a good place, which is where I come from,” Ernst explains of his impersonations of people groups of which he’s not a member. Though he claims to have never angered anyone with his use of accents, that’s not the case for all of his act. 

Can’t Please Everyone

 “I have pissed people off on other bits, and in all honestly, I don’t care. You can’t please everyone,” Ernst says, but by his reckoning, he doesn’t need everyone’s approval anyway. “The way I see it, there are over 320 million people in America. If I can get only 1% to like me, and half of that 1% to give me a dollar a year, I'm doing amazing!”

Ernst may be living in a pretty high level of amazement not only due to his popularity as comic, but by parlaying that into regular acting work on television shows such as “Weeds” and “Cobra Kai.” But Ernst declares, “I consider myself a comedian, and my acting opportunities came from being successful through comedy. Through stand-up you get to showcase all abilities from performing, writing, improv and acting. It sharpens all tools. I have been optioned as a writer, and love acting, but stand-up is my first love.” Were he forced to choose between comedy and acting however, who can fault his logic for committing to the latter?

“Acting, only because it’s way more money, and it will allow me to get more stage time!” Fortunately for those who appreciate edgy, yet personal, comedy, Ernst hasn’t given up on his first show business love. And his recommendation to see him is blunt as one of his punchlines: “If you enjoy honest comedy, come. If not, stay home.” 

Here Ernst deflates the romantic premise of one of the most successful movies of all time...