Bostonist Interview: Comedian Rob Cantrell - 'Electric Study Break' @ T.T. The Bears on Wednesday

Bostonist:How do you feel about where live performance is going now? There seem to be a lot of theater-type shows lately like Brian Regan at the Wilbur and Jim Gaffigan at Berklee but this is a lot different than what was going on during the heyday of Boston comedy in the 1980s.

Rob Cantrell: I think the herd is thinning out and it's always been that way and comedy has never been easy. Boston has some of the best comics, Louis CK came out of Boston, a huge influence for me, Greg Fitzsimmons is really good. [Boston] is a city without a heavy film industry, so there's not this pressure to get on TV or get a televisions show, it cultivates this idea of putting the craft first. It's just that making money out of that isn't easy and that's what's been happening now.

Comedy lends itself to a do-it-yourself type of attitude, you just have to do it a little bit cheaper. We could have charged more for this ticket but what's great about doing comedy in these rock clubs. With the economy going up and down, you have to take it upon yourself to get out there, doing stuff on the internet, putting together short films.

I started out in clubs and have worked in clubs. But there's a point where I've felt stifled by the format, but a show like we're doing on Wednesday, who knows what's going to go down? So we're really excited and we think Boston will dig it and we hope they come out for it.

Bostonist: How has this show worked out elsewhere?

Rob Cantrell: The clubs have been good to be but my act is just a little bit edgy enough that it does scare some clubs away and I'm not like, dirty or anything but some of my political views on legalization and freedom and stuff like that and I don't drink alcohol, so I'm not a big onstage "drink drink drink, every body drink drink drink" kind of guy, I have no problem with people drinking and I have no clue as to the right thing or the wrong thing is to do but I don't like pushing my stuff onto people which might be what people want in a club.

Bostonist: But with this last election, isn't it kind of expected that you would have a political slant to your comedy?

Rob Cantrell: At the end of the day, all jokes are are judgments, pretty much saying "this is what it looks like to me but look at it from this different angle" and that's pretty much political views in essence. I've never had a huge problem because I'm always trying to stay positive with all my work. But the further you go into your career the more you want as an artist is to expand and to work with different elements and take things to a different place which is what I'm trying to do now by going to these alternative places where I can play videos, and have a DJ, and mess around with a beat machine and do some songs.

Bostonist: What else do you have going on right now?

Rob Cantrell: I just filmed a promo for "Flight of the Conchords" with my friend Arj Barker who plays a characteron the show, he's "Dave", the guy who works at the secondhand electronics store. And we did a rap video and I played a broke dude going in there selling my watch to get some cash to buy a bass guitar. It was a lot of fun and I got to work with the guys from the "Conchords" and this weekend I was working with my friend Doug Benson. I'm busy, I'm shooting a couple films and I'm working on a couple scripts which I can't talk about right now but I can't complain. Also I'm touring with "The Marijuana Logs" and we're working on a new season with that which we're excited about so keep your eyes open for that.

"Rob Cantrell's Electric Study Break" at T.T. the Bears on Wednesday night, December 10th, starting at 9pm