Is there someone in your community who radiates kindness and love to everyone around? Someone who you seem to see at every social event, with arms wide, ready to give you a big bear hug. Someone passionate about the growth of the community and it’s people?
Well, there is particular person who comes to mind for me. This individual’s name is, Cullen Ryan. He moved to the Chippewa Valley (specifically Eau Claire) just a few years ago, and has been making a huge impact in the arts and entertainment scene ever since. Cheesy as it is, this man would take the shirt off his back for you. He is someone whom inspires me to continue reaching for my dreams, and become involved with all of the opportunities I can, within the growth of our beautiful community.
As I ponder how to describe this amazing person, It’s difficult to come up with the right words as well as include all of the details of his comedy and entertainment journey. Cullen has a great personality, and I want that to be heard within this piece. So I decided to give you my interview with him in Q & A style. The first few answers hold an entire story in themselves, that I felt they were important for you, as the reader, to be able to read in full, instead of snippets.
Get ready for some wonderful story-telling/insight from Cullen Ryan, a local comedian, artist, and now booking agent for many Eau Claire venues.
When did you start writing comedy/performing?
It’s been almost 8 years at this point. – Let’s back up a little bit. When I was a kid you know it was theater. I wrote a play in 5th grade called ‘The Night Fights,’ that won awards at the regional competitions and stuff like that. I frequently got the roll in the plays that were like the character actors. So I was like Smee, Peter Pan, I was Aladin in Aladin, the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz, you know. I frequently got these sort of roles and I really liked theater, but it was just something I did for fun.
When I went to college I did college radio, and that was really fun. I visited Community Theater and stuff like that. So I never really did comedy. I would occasionally do readings at events in college, I would do fake poetry, like joke poetry. I wrote a poem about, you know, how cool Zach Morris in Saved by the Bell was. – That when you look back at it, like ‘Oh that was basically like a version of stand up.’ It was 1999, so I was doing some of that stuff, but then you know life happens the world happens. You end up having kids, married and um, just didn’t have really any creative outlet or anything I was doing.
I went and saw Paul F. Thomkins. – He was a cast member on Mr. Show and that’s what I knew him for at that time. Saw that he was performing stand up in the twin cities just randomly one morning I was in town at brunch with a friend – ‘Oh he’s in town tonight, let’s go!’ So we did and it changed my life. It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. I ached afterwards. It was incredible. Comedy to me was people I’ve seen on TV, I’ve never really gone to a comedy club before. It was just insanely great. I bought his album and probably listen to it twice a day in the next 6 months. I never took it out of my CD player, just completely in love with it.
Then after doing that for 6 months, I was doing that thing in my head, breaking down – ‘this is why this is funny, this is why this is funny, the pause he has here is just so perfect.’ I was doing all that nuanced criticism of it in my own car, in my mind. I was like ‘if I love this so much, I should try it.’ I just made it a goal to do before my 30th birthday.
Then I started going to ACME comedy club in Minneapolis, a big club there. Not really knowing anything about the scene and these other places where you could do comedy and see comedy, that was the place that I went. I got on the list and started doing it every now and then. Then I found out ‘Oh there’s other little clubs and bars you can do it to, cool I’ll do that,’ because ACME’s really hard to get into. Open mic you might get up every 3 months. If you go over the 3-minute time limit they give you, you’re banned for life. Yeah, it’s really intense.
So, I started there, but it wasn’t until 8 months later that I ever performed anywhere else. I was going around the Twin Cities performing when I could for the first year and a half or two years I was doing it. Really obsessed with comedy, listening to comedy podcasts as much as I could, just really deep into it.
Then moved here in April 2012, and wanted to keep doing it. There was an open mic that started the very week that I moved here. It’s pretty crazy. The guy who was running it, Sean Jones, – I just came down here and said – ‘Hey look, I do comedy. Is it okay for me to do it at the end after the music is over?’ So I basically had the last 10 minutes of the night every Tuesday to do comedy. I would do a new set every week, like a lunatic. Which 10 minutes a week is insane. Nobody can write that much. I did that for like 6 months. For the first 4-6 months I was the only one down here doing comedy
(Soon others such as Ryan Kahl, Jordan James, Christina Wolff and more joined in.)
We all started coming down, doing comedy in the last half hour. Then that just went from there. We got to the point where we had 100 people coming down just to watch the comedy portion. 2013-2014 our open mic was massive. We’d get so many people here. I mean it was really the only comedy you could see in Eau Claire.
Where/How did you all come up with the idea for Clear Water Comedy (comedy group in Eau Claire)?
It was a combination of things. It was all of us just loving to perform together. This would not exist without everybody else. This is a lot of work that we all do together.
Benny was the one who came to us and said – ‘Would you like to do a comedy night on Thursday nights? We got nothing going on Thursday nights, it’d be really fun to just have a comedy night every week.’ And we were like, ‘oh my god, we don’t have enough material to do that, there’s no way we could.’ But, we started doing it.
For the 1st-2nd month it was just us doing shows. And then we started thinking, ‘well who can we ask?’ We reached out to the Minneapolis scene, started bringing people from Minneapolis, that became people from Chicago, that became selling more tickets, having more people, having more successful shows, learning how to run a show, how to treat performers, how to pay them fairly, how to structure a show in the right way. And then just reaching out to people, like Tim Harmsten was really important in that. He is a professional comedian, from Menomonie originally. A guy that I met when I was up in Minneapolis really helped lead us at the beginning. Then just looking at the schedule of comedians that were going to be by us that we really like. ‘Can we try and book them? How much should we pay them?’
The first big name that we got was Sean Patton, who is now my favorite comedian in the entire world. It was basically just emailing his management and getting ‘Okay, yeah let’s do a show.’
If you treat people nicely, you treat people fairly, tell them exactly – ‘this is what I get, this is what you get.’ Just be up front with people and you’re nice to them, usually things work out. It really just is a matter of having the enthusiasm to just go for it. It was a lot of -‘Hey can we do this? Yes. Cool.’ – And then doing it.
What are some of your favorite moments while performing?
When a punch line hits harder than you think it will- it is a remarkably wonderful feeling. Making up a comment or part of a joke that lands and you’re able to use again – right from stage – something that came to you that is a part of a joke you’ve been working on forever – is a complete joy too. If the audience has a good time, I have a good time.
How/where do you find comedians to book here in Eau Claire?
So many different ways! Seeing them in person, trusting word of mouth of other comics, seeing online clips, or just reaching out to their management. I’d guess about 3/4ths of the outside shows we book are because we know the person socially, have seen and liked their performances, or another comic recommended them.
What were some of your favorite comedy shows you booked?
There are so, so, so many I can’t even… I will absolutely forget some amazing shows when I do this – so forgive me! Sean Patton, Emma Arnold, Kyle Kinane, Stewart Huff, Aparna Nancherla, Sam Tallent, Baron Vaughn, Rory Scovel, Joe Mande… I have loved all but three of our shows. And I will not tell you which three those are!
What are your thoughts on the Eau Claire art scene and it’s growth?
I love it. I loved it from the second I moved here. There is a real sense of camaraderie and togetherness that does not exist in other places. It is real. So I would absolutely, positively encourage the “scene” to stay that way. Keep going out and seeing new shows. go to open mic every now and then, talk to people, keep that enthusiasm alive.
Who are some of your favorite local artists and why? (Comedy, music, studio artwork etc.)
Asking me to pick a favorite Clear Water Comic is impossible. It is literally impossible, but Ryan Kahl is I think the most exciting voice we have right now. He works really, really hard; he’s generous, thoughtful, kind – and just an immense talent. He’s gonna be big one day and pretty soon. Jerrika Mighelle, Caitlin MacGarvey, Lizzie Diane, D. Janakey, The Millennium, Two Castles, Idle Empress, Jim Pullman Band, Ronald Raygun, Them Coulee Boys… there’s so much great music!!!
Why did you move to Eau Claire?
My wife got a job here. She has a Masters degree and I don’t. She had been working at a job she didn’t love for years, had the opportunity to move here with her new position at The Family Support Center. Also she is from Eau Claire originally and her mom lives here and retired the same year we moved here. It’s nice for the kids to be near grandma.
What are some things you enjoy doing besides comedy/booking entertainment?
I love reading, baseball, drawing, playing cards and board games, helping my dad cut wood for his house every fall is literally the highlight of my year.
What do you look forward to with your new position as an event planner/booker for The Metro, The Plus, The Venue, The Rev?
The opportunity to make cool stuff happen in town. To take Benny’s visions and make them happen. I’m excited to have the time to plan and do the things I’ve wanted to do!!
What types of events will you be booking? Just music and comedy? Any classes or anything else entertainment related?
No plans for classes at this time. Some improv/sketch/stand up collaborations will for sure be happening. I think a lot of it will be listening to the community. I want to really utilize the local talent we have and branch out from there. Word of mouth. Grow things from seed forest.
Where do you get your inspiration? (Comedy or otherwise)
Conan O’Brien said when he lost the tonight show; “Don’t be cynical – for the record it is my least favorite quality. It doesn’t lead anywhere. No one in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work hard and you’re kind amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen. It’s just true.” I remember it verbatim and it’s meant everything to me.
How has comedy changed your life?
It’s changed everything. Umm I could sum it up this way:
I, I’m a sad person, an anxious sad person. Just by nature. What comedy does, it makes you view the world through a different lens. – At first it’s selfish, right, it’s like everything could be a bit. I need to always be present so I can write comedy later. But then you ultimately figure out, – oh just being present and looking at stuff instead of just passively let the things happen to you, is a way better way to live, you know. It helps you engage with people better, it helps you talk to people more deeply. And also, I mean, this is the phrase that I say; ‘laughter is love and love is the most powerful thing in the universe.’ Comedy gives back, is what I’m saying. If you give yourself to comedy it certainly gives back to you.
I’m going to Georgia this weekend and during my stay there I plan to watch a comedy theatre. Indeed, you were absolutely right about how comedy involves well-thought-out writing most of the time. Anyway, I need to buy a ticket immediately so I can enjoy a great show.