Don’t expect to be bored

Byron Bowers on getting booed and being in touch

Byron Bowers’ resume is too extensive to be featured here in full, so here’s a short list: toured with Dave Chappelle, Hannibal Buress, and the Eric Andre Show Live; worked with Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan, Sarah Silverman, and other household names; appeared on The Eric Andre Show, Adam Devine’s House Party, and on the reboot of BET’s Comic View; made his late night debut on The Pete Holmes Show, followed by Jimmy Kimmel Live. But most importantly (to us), Bowers is returning once again to Blue Whale to perform and curate the show Mask Off—what he calls “the most honest show” there.

I asked him what he meant.

“You’re taking off your everyday mask, and being more truthful, showing off who you really are,” he said. “The audience should be ready to be the priest on the other side of the confessional booth.”

A minute into our conversation, Bowers had me opening up about my week. We talked about what he was working on in Chicago and how strange it is when strangers tell very personal things about themselves on the first meeting. But Bowers is one of those rare people interested in the story you have to tell.

So, I told him about my phone breaking: A woman at a house party the night before had a bad reaction to some medication (not prescribed to her), and forgot who she was, where she was, and who I was. She used my phone as a weapon to combat a group of unseen fairies and it shattered.

“It all sounds real suspect,” Byron laughed. “I expected something a lot more boring. That’s why I love talking to people—I never would have heard that story otherwise.”

Bowers’ first time doing stand-up was at an amateur’s night in Atlanta.

“I got up there and I got booed by 300 people … I didn’t know that you had to prepare material, I thought you could just walk up there and you’d be funny.”

“That can be a rough first experience, for sure,” I said, “but at least you kept at it.”

“No, I quit after that,” Byron replied instantly, “I didn’t go back up for another year or so.”

“I got booed for the first 6 months I did stand up,” he went on, describing how difficult those rooms can be.

And if you’re not entertaining the audience?

“They will boo you until you leave”.

But he credits that time in his career as a major learning experience.

“If you are going to pander to the crowd and say what they want to hear, or if you’re going to be true to who you are and what you have to say … That doesn’t mean you can’t evolve, that comes with experiencing life. If my truth changes, so does my material.”

“The more you talk to people, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more you can be in touch with other humans. We have so much in common, and we all have things that are great about each of us.”

At Mask Off, Bowers aims to tap into that vulnerability and honesty. And rather than deliver a monologue, will have a dialogue with the audience instead.

“It’s all a dance,” Bowers said. “If [the audience] is excited, then I’m going be excited.”

Mask Off with Byron Bowers
Feat. Sam Jay and local comedians Aaron Wilder and Cameron Brewer
Fri., Sept. 8 | 11 p.m. | Cain’s Ballroom Side Stage

Late Late Breakfast
Sat., Sept. 9 | 1:30 p.m. | Cain’s Ballroom Side Stage

The God Damn Comedy Jam
Sat., Sept. 9 | 11 p.m. | The Yeti