You may have seen and/or heard Patrick Warburton in dozens of iconic roles over the years, but it’s his latest work as a stand-up comedian that’s given him “one of the most amazing years” of his life.
At age 60 and after more than 30 years in film and TV, the actor is set to tape his first stand-up special, “Still Catholic,” on June 7 in Los Angeles.
“It’s just been a wild ride this year. I have been touring non-stop and I had never done this before. I wrote and I performed and it’s been an incredible year,” he told TheWrap. “I’ve never known this kind of autonomy. I’ve always been told what to do and what to say, how to say a word, and that all changed.”
“There’s a part of me that’s like why did you wait ’til now? But there’s another part that’s like where are you going with this at the age of 60? But then there’s another side of me that’s just like, at this point, it doesn’t matter because it’s been one of the most amazing years. So much fun,” Warburton added. “I’ve really enjoyed throwing everybody under the bus. You know, my family, they’re all up for it. They love it.”
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And while you might recognize his voice from things like “Family Guy,” “Kim Possible,” “Bee Movie,” “The Emperor’s New Groove” and even Disney’s Soarin’, don’t expect any voice acting bits in his set.
“There’s no voices. It’s not ‘A Night With…’ it’s stand-up. There’s only a couple of industry anecdotal stories, because I’m not a nightmare,” Warburton jokes. “I’ve always really been a big fan of the great anecdotal comics like [Dave] Chappelle, obviously, Patton [Oswalt]. I love [Tom] Segura, my old buddy Davey Spade, [Nick] Kroll, [John] Mulaney, so many really, really great, amazing stand-ups. And then I also know what I don’t like.”
“Some stories early on are great stories, but there’s just not enough punch. So that’s what you do, you’ve got to build it up, tighten it, make it funnier. But I do like to try to keep it unpredictable in a sense that there are literally just stupid jokes,” he continued. “There are just fun dumb things. There’s great perspective stuff on societal things, there’s a lot of family stuff. I feel like, to a degree, I’m relatable. I’m on stage for 70 minutes, I don’t really talk about ‘Seinfeld’ apart from references in regards to my family that might have something to do with that. But at the end of the day, it’s stand-up.”
So how exactly did he land on the title “Still Catholic” for his first-ever stand-up tour?
“A lot of it comes back to growing up in what I describe as a medieval Catholic upbringing,” he explained. “My father was in a monastery for three months, almost became a monk, and my mother, as I like to say, is worse — all God, all religion, all the time.”
And while this is Warburton’s first real work as a stand-up comedian, he technically got his first taste of it in the ‘80s.
“Full disclosure, I did a minute when I was like 21, but that was two months — and I never went back and I always, always, always regretted that,” he shared. “But I’m a bit of a stand-up snob, so I always believed that to be a great stand-up, you have to eat, drink, sleep and breathe it. So raising a family and working as an actor, I just never dove back in.”
“But I got my feet wet doing a show called ‘Letters From a Nut’ with Barry Marder — Jerry Seinfeld’s producing partner. I would start the shows with 10 minutes of talking. It became 10 minutes of stand-up, which sort of became 15 at that point. That was my funnest part of the show, and it seemed to be an audience favorite, too,” Warburton continued. “I walked away from the show just going to focus on stand-up, so I’ve been touring for the last year and it’s been great and I’m shooting my first special on June 7 within the first calendar year, which I don’t believe has been done yet. So we’ll see if that’s just a disaster.”
Find out for yourself at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood Saturday, June 7.
