Comic Titus Finds Humor In Past Hardships
Sitcom Star Working On New One-Man Show
Since taking that approach with his own comedy four years ago, Titus has rocketed to stardom with a live one-man show and more recently, his own sitcom, which premiered last fall on Fox to critical acclaim.
"For the longest time, I tried to be your average comedian and joke about nothing. I'd start off with one of those 'Hey, did you ever notice ...' or 'Isn't it funny how ...' lines. I did that for years," the audacious comic told Monday. "After awhile, I felt like I was growing a tumor on my soul. I almost gave up comedy altogether and opened my own auto body shop."
It took one of his friends to open Titus' eyes to the stranger that he was turning into onstage.
"A friend saw one of my shows back in 1996 and said afterward, 'I don't know who the happy guy is on stage, but he's not you,'" Titus recalled. "So the next night I wrote a really evil piece to show him I could be myself. It killed. It went over great."
Titus realized then and there what his audience wanted, and what he wanted to give them. Making fun of his life experiences, tragic and painful as they were, grabbed people.
He turned that concept into a one-man show about his dysfunctional family called "Norman Rockwell Is Bleeding." He'll perform an updated version of that show Tuesday through Saturday at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.
The no-holds-barred approach meant letting millions of people in on his past, which included his schizophrenic, manic-depressive mother's trips in and out of mental institutions, his parents' custody battles, his father's drinking problem, living in a garage with his mother ... and the list goes on. No topic is too personal for him to joke about, not even infidelity.
"Just before my wife and I were married, we both admitted that we had cheated on each other at one point," he said candidly. "Later on, I told her I was going to do a piece on that. She was really mad and couldn't believe that I was going to talk about it. But I thought, 'It's just life. It's fair game as long as you can make it funny.'"
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"He'll get upset, because a lot of this stuff happened a while ago. He's changed since I was a kid. Sometimes if I think I'm going too far with a joke, I'll call my brother Dave and ask him his advice," Titus said. "Dad even threatened to write an episode of the show."
Growing up in Newark, Calif., Titus was influenced by Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Bill Cosby and George Carlin. He snickered at the memory of being able to sign out the (crude and vulgar) albums of Carlin and Pryor at 12 years old from the local library.
The next project for Titus is a new live show, tentatively titled "Tabloid Reality," about a horrible comic who goes to a therapist to work out his problems. It's more of a play than his previous stage show, and will include multimedia components. "Rockwell," which he's been performing since 1998, will likely be laid to rest after this tour.
"So much of that stuff is on the TV show now, and I believe you have to move on. A lot of comedians feel they have to hold onto what made them famous to begin with. But I don't think you can do that and remain popular," Titus told .
Titus admitted that getting his self-titled sitcom on the air almost didn't happen. He quit twice when network executives wanted to change aspects of the show.
"I thought, 'I can always go back to live comedy,'" he said of the struggles. But his vision of the series prevailed, and in a few months the cast will return to film the second season.
Of his newfound fame, Titus said he's having a blast.
"I can't believe how fans will come up to me, and share their darkest secrets, like they'll talk about problems their parents are having," he said. "But I guess, if the show makes people realize that everyone's a bit screwed up, and that we shouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed of it, then I'm happy."
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