‘Undateable’ star Brent Morin can’t give up stand-up

Like a lot of people, Brent Morin wants to make it in show business. As both a writer and an actor, he would be happy finding huge success in either of those creative avenues. But as it turned out, it was something fun he was doing while pursuing those careers that ended up the thing he’s becoming most known for.

“I did stand-up because it’s a good way to separate yourself a little bit,” he says. “It’s a good way to get your voice heard without having to knock over a studio-head door to pitch a movie,” he said. “What I didn’t expect is I’m addicted to stand-up.”

Morin, 29, has a passion for telling a really good story. He initially moved to Los Angeles to go to film school for writing and directing, hoping to craft a career like some of his idols.

“A lot of times, it’s comedy writers that really influence me,” he says. “It’s like, wow, I really want to do what Albert Brooks has done, what Woody Allen has done, what Judd Apatow has done.”

One thing that all of those men did outside of writing and directing was stand-up comedy. Morin thought he’d give it a try, hitting The Laugh Factory in L.A. on open-mic nights and gaining the friendship and mentorship of successful comedians Dane Cook and Jo Koy.

He said it took three years and trying a lot of “terrible stuff” on stage to find a voice for his autobiographical and observational humor, and that voice is rarely just his own.

“I’m an actor by heart and a screenwriter by heart, so a lot of the stuff is very scene-driven, very dialogue-driven,” he says. “I’m painting a picture, basically.”

Morin eventually went from using stand-up to get his foot in the door to craving the time he gets onstage to make people laugh. When he wasn’t pitching ideas, auditioning, writing or acting, he was hitting the road on the weekends, perfecting his act. He eventually built an hour’s worth of fine-tuned material and filmed his first-ever stand-up special for Netflix titled I’m Brent Morin. It debuted in 2015.

“That became, like, the biggest goal for me,” he said. “That hour special is so important for a comic. For me, I look at it as the yearbook of my life.”

Morin’s ability to make a living performing live doesn’t just extend to his stand-up comedy. It’s also a distinct and fun part of his acting career as part of the cast of the NBC sitcom Undateable. The multi-camera sitcom helmed by showrunner Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town) premiered in 2014 and stars Morin’s friends and fellow comedians Chris D’Elia and Ron Funches. It is the only current sitcom that broadcasts live in front of a studio audience for both its East Coast and West Coast feeds. What started as an experiment for one show turned into a standard practice, with the show’s popularity being fueled by its live element, its interactive nature on social media and the castmates’ chemistry and willingness to improvise.

“It was a happy accident, in a way,” Morin says. “I think (the network) realized if there was one way where we could do this, it would be this show. Anything else I do, it’s not going to be with my friends, most likely, and it’s not going to be a live TV show.”

Morin is acting beyond his TV show, having recently made an appearance in the 2016 rom-com How To Be Single starring Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson. He’s hitting the road doing stand-up comedy and will come to Lexington March 3 to 5 to perform at Comedy Off Broadway.

“I’m not doing any material from my hour special. Now I’m working on the new stuff,” he says. “Now’s a time for me to struggle, me to say too much, me to get weird on stage and take a risk.”

Morin has gone from using stand-up as a résumé builder to having it be an essential part of expressing himself creatively. As an on-the-rise stand-up comedian, he now wants to see how far he can take it.

“I’m going to try to build something and impress them,” he says. “The more I grow, the more my act grows. I’m just looking forward to what I’ll be like in a year. The more I live, the more I can talk about, so I’m just looking forward to that.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 11:52 AM with the headline "‘Undateable’ star Brent Morin can’t give up stand-up."