Interview: Comedian Tayler Yarish on Self-Producing His Special, OVERZEALOUS

Tayler Yarish is a stand-up comedian originally from Maryland, now based in New York City. He performs nightly on stages throughout NYC and at comedy clubs and festivals across the country, and frequently tours with Kathleen Madigan. His credits include the New York Comedy Festival, Nateland Presents, the SLO Comedy Festival, and the World Series of Comedy. His debut stand-up special, Overzealous, filmed at Grove 34 in Astoria, Queens, recently became available on YouTube. We spoke about Overzealous and the process of self-producing a special.

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𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥, 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐳𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐛𝐞?

On a very basic level, this special is just me being a silly goose trying to make you laugh. That’s the main thing I want people to take away from it. My instinct is to say it’s a reflection of me and how I feel about everything, but it’s more like a reflection of who I’ve been. It was written over the course of 10 years, so there are about five different versions of me in this special. It’s basically a flip book of every weird, regrettable, or inappropriate thought I’ve had over the past decade, crammed into an hour.

How did you get started in standup?

It started with me just being a huge fan of stand-up. I think that’s the seed for almost everyone who tries it. One day, I saw an ad for a Gotham Comedy Club bringer show, where the club basically said, “Bring 10 people and you can have five minutes.” The club gets 20 comics to do that, and boom, you have a show. I thought I killed. I bombed. Regardless, I was hooked. Sometimes when I feel terribly unfunny, I go back and watch that tape to remind myself how much worse I could be. That video will never be made public.

What made you decide it was time for you to make a special?

It wasn’t an easy decision. It took a lot of peer pressure from fellow comics. I knew I didn’t want to get to a point where I wasn’t having fun doing the material anymore, but I was also terrified of putting something out and calling it “finished.” Eventually, I realized that releasing the work is part of letting yourself move forward and grow. I could have tweaked those jokes until I was dead, but I needed to accept that the special represents a moment in time. Putting it out lets me make room for whatever comes next. Rick Rubin writes a lot about this in The Creative Act, and his book was a huge help leading up to filming.

Can you tell me some of what goes into self-producing a special like this? How long were you working on the material in it?

I had a ton of material from doing stand-up for 10 years. The real work was deciding what actually belonged in the special. When you do an hour, you start looking at it as one big piece. Some jokes worked really well on their own but felt out of place in the larger show. I wanted the special to flow naturally from one thing to the next, so figuring out the rhythm and order took a lot of time.

On the production side, two of the biggest questions are where you want to shoot it and who you want to work with. I chose Grove 34 in Astoria because I love working with the people who run it, and I felt confident I could fill the room for two shows. Through recommendations from fellow comics who’d filmed specials, I found Alex Adams. He shot and edited it, and he’s a huge reason it turned out the way it did. I don’t have enough room on the page to explain everything he contributed, but he’s a wizard. Alex also introduced me to sound engineer Mariya Chulichkova, who crushed it.

My biggest takeaway was how many people show up when you ask for help. People want to help people who are making things. Shooting a special and hiring professionals costs money, but some of the most valuable things I received—the advice, tips, resources, and connections from other artists and comics—were given to me for free.

Do you have any advice for someone who’s interested in self-producing their own special? What would you have liked to have known before you started this process?

Set a date. Write it down and tell everyone about it. Make yourself accountable so you have to move forward. There were several times early in the process when I tried to talk myself out of it. I’d come up with excuses for pushing it back and tell myself I wasn’t ready. I was ready. I was just terrified. There’s so much fear to get over, and that’s the best and worst part.

I wish I’d known how glad I would be that I did it. There’s nothing someone can tell you at the start that will take away all your uncertainty. You can do all the preparation in the world, and something will still go wrong. It’s not going to be perfect, and that’s okay. The confidence you’re seeking at the beginning can only be acquired at the end. (Damn, that was good.)

What’s next for you?

The painful and fun process of starting over. I’m doing my best to leave that material alone and work on new ideas. So I’ve been bombing a lot, but it’s reassuring to know that this is what every comic goes through. Hopefully, the special opens a few doors and helps me do more shows on the road. Mostly, I want people to see it. I worked hard on it, and I think it gives people a good sense of what coming to a live show of mine feels like.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

For the love of all things holy, please follow me online! That’s one of the best ways you can help any comic. I’m @taylercomedy on all socials, and I have a great podcast called HeHeHe with Steven Rogers and Peter Wong. Also, if I haven’t beaten this horse enough, go watch my special on YouTube. It’s called Overzealous, and it’s got my big bald head on the front of it. Thank you!

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Watch Overzealous on Youtube here.