INTERVIEW: You’re invited to Jack Tucker’s ‘Comedy Standup Hour’
Photo: Zach Zucker portrays the character of Jack Tucker in the new off-Broadway show Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour. Photo courtesy of Dylan Woodley / Provided by Print Shop PR with permission.
If a theatergoer or comedy fan hasn’t sat down and enjoyed the comedic hijinks of Jack Tucker, they don’t know what they’re missing. The character is the creation of Zach Zucker (yes, the names of the creator and creation rhyme), and this comedic creation is the subject of a new off-Broadway show called Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour. The well-selling hit is currently playing Soho Playhouse in Downtown Manhattan. Performances continue through Saturday, April 13, after extending its initial run.
“Honestly, it’s a dream come true,” Zucker said about the off-Broadway run, which follows engagements of the show in many other countries. “I really didn’t know what to expect coming into it. I knew obviously it would be tough to sell so many shows and get people to come and see it. It’s something we’ve always believed in, and this is my 10-year career doing this now. If you believe as hard as you do in the show, and you give it your all every night, and take every opportunity you can, eventually people will come. I’m super lucky that I’m surrounded by an amazing press team, an amazing creative team and the production team around me. The venue has been great. The crowds have all been fantastic, and it’s going so well that I’ve been trying to move to New York for a while, and I feel like I’m starting to now take the steps to move to New York and hoping this keeps getting extended.”
Zucker said before he takes the stage at the Soho Playhouse, he doesn’t become too nervous. Sometimes when he’s trying out a new character or a new bit, nervousness descends upon him, and he needs to take a minute. But as he said, this is not his first comedy show; he’s been fine-tuning this particular character for 10 years.
“There were some moments where I was like, shit, dude, you’re 30,” he said with a laugh. “This has been what you’ve been working for your whole life. This needs to go well, and I trust that the show is good. And I trust my team, and I trust myself. But there was a — hey, don’t blow this, this would be the wrong time to mess this up — but thankfully now it’s just like every night I’m excited. I can hear the crowd just getting hyped. I’ve got my best friend and one of my co-creators who does a pre-show performance, and there’s a moment like 10-15 seconds before I go on stage where he does a big trick. And if they cheer, which they do every night, I kind of can relax and go, OK, it’s going to be a good one. Everything is going to be fine.”
For the unbeknownst, Zucker’s character of Tucker is essentially the world’s worst comedian, someone who has been making the rounds of the regional comedy scene in Upstate New York. He doesn’t mind when jokes don’t land, according to press notes, because that probably means the audience is not following along.
“No matter what happens, nothing can stop him from having the greatest night of his life,” he said. “Every joke that doesn’t land, he’s not aggressive, he’s not mean, he’s not angry. It’s more like, wow, the acoustics in here are amazing. I can’t hear anybody laughing right now. It’s all these delusional twists with this never-ending clown spirit. That’s my background. I’m a clown and physical performer. Tucker is like every bad joke … and tired material done in a way where you’re like, I can’t believe this guy is saying this. Ideally you leave going, ‘Man, I can’t believe I laughed at this.'”
Zucker seems to revel in the unique personality of Tucker. For example, he’s portraying a comedian who calls New York home, but the character’s accent sounds more like a “cartoonish Boston accent,” Zucker said.
“People will come up to me after the show and be like, ‘This reminds me of this guy, this guy, this guy.’ I’m like, I have no idea who you are talking about, but I kind of smile and say, ‘Oh, thank you,'” he said, adding that he also identifies with the struggles that Tucker can have on stage. “To me, I felt this frustration a little bit. It was a feeling of frustration as a clown and nontraditional act unable to get booked because people would say what we did wasn’t comedy, we meaning me and my comedy partners.”
Those comedy partners include Jonny Woolley, who directs the show and co-devised it with Dylan Woodley. Zucker is credited as creator and performer.
Zucker added: “I do love this anti-comedy, cringe performance, people like Tim Heidecker from Tim & Eric, or Gregg Turkington who does the character Neil Hamburger, or Sacha Baron Cohen doing any of his trilogy of characters or any of the ones that he has put on. I would say my holy trinity growing up was South Park, Jackass and Ali G, and I feel like when you watch the show, you really see that. I think I move like a cartoon. There’s a lot of poking in a fun, satirical way, I hope, and then ultimately it’s just really stupid fun gags where you can just turn your brain off and laugh as hard as possible for an hour.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour, starring Zach Zucker, continues through Saturday, April 13, at Soho Playhouse in Downtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
