Unlike most comedians, Drew Hastings didn’t hit the comedy scene until he was 31. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s after being raised in Ohio by his British mother, who became a big influence on his comedy.
His style, described as a mix of Midwestern sensibility and British disdain, has earned him a following in the U.S. and now Hastings hopes to strike a chord with audiences north of the border.
The self-deprecating comic draws on his early careers, telling jokes about owning a trucking business and a company that shredded confidential documents (he ran the latter into the ground).
Recently the bespectacled 55-year-old bought a farm in Ohio and, not surprisingly, his new responsibilities have found their way into his comedy routine.
His standup special Irked and Miffed, making its way to Comedy Network after becoming the sixth highest-rated special on Comedy Central last year, comments on the human condition, romantic relationships and his earnest attempt at farming.
TVGuide.ca: You began your comedy career when you were 31; do you think it helped you to start at a later age?
Drew Hastings: Yeah, no question it did. You just aren’t that experienced in life at 19 or 21. I think when you’re a little older it gives you certain experiential credibility. For a 31-year-old guy to say ‘I have the worst luck at picking women,’ it’s believable. I just can’t imagine I had anything before the age of 31 that was worth saying. I’m not sure I did when I was 31.
TVG: What were you doing before? What made you decide to go into the comedy business?
DH: I guess you could say I was an entrepreneur. I was always looking at angles and ways to make money. I tend to be very independent. I was always enamoured [of] standup when I was a little kid, but I could never really see myself doing it. I liked [the idea of] one employee and nobody telling me what to do, and I really love doing it. If you asked me at 31 if I would be doing it 20 years later, I would have said, ‘No way.’
TVG: How did you decide farming jokes were the way to go?
DH: I didn’t, actually. I had been in L.A. for 14 years, I was tired, I was turning 50 and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve hung onto my integrity this long – why sell out now?’ I came out to the farm; it never occurred to me I’d have material from just coming here. The farming stuff has been really popular; it was kind of an updated Green Acres.
TVG: In terms of writing jokes, is there a topic that you won’t go near with a 10-foot pole?
Drew: No. Race – which may not be as big a tension topic in Canada as it is in the States – is really difficult and I’m tackling it. I started [a show] with a very funny story about my attempt at gardening; I had little three-inch plants that should have been three feet tall. Somebody told me I needed a scarecrow, so I put a black Barbie doll out there. It didn’t work as a scarecrow.
I looked out there about a week later and there was a rabbit nibbling my stuff, so I shot the rabbit and I shot the black Barbie bitch for not doing her job. People kind of took offence to that – it was my kickoff on race.
TVG: How did you come up with the title of your special, Irked and Miffed?
DH: That’s a term my mother would use all the time. My mother wouldn’t, like most American mothers, get pissed off or angry – she would be irked at something I did, or miffed at something I did. I liked it because my material is always rants and questions a lot of stuff. I’m just kind of irked and miffed at situations, so that’s where I came up with it – and I wanted a title that was a little different.
TVG: Do you think Canadians will receive [it as well as Americans did]?
DH: Yeah, I’m hoping so. I think it will hit well with Canadians. My sensibility, I think, will work well with whatever the zeitgeist is up there.
TVG: In the special, you mention going to New York, Paris and London, and you’ve been to Montreal – do you find comedy different in other countries?
DH: Oh yeah. I did some shows in Great Britain about three years ago, and because of the war on Iraq and [former U.S. president George W.] Bush, all you did was open your mouth and they heard an accent and thought, ‘Oh, American. Bush. War.’ It made things difficult.
I prefer staying on this continent because I think standup has so many subtleties and cultural references that if you try to be a global comedian then you have to just do stuff that is very basic. You’ve got to try to appeal to what everybody universally thinks is funny. Well, I don’t care what everybody universally thinks is funny.
TVG: What can we expect from Drew Hastings within the next year?
DH: I’m trying to write a book of essays and then tour – it would still be like standup, but a little more literate. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m going to end up doing. I really believe if you’re not growing, you’re dying in this business.
Drew Hastings: Irked and Miffed premières Saturday, July 4, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.
Follow TV Guide Canada on Facebook