Today we’d like to introduce you to Wes Hazard.
Wes, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve liked making people laugh and entertaining crowds for as long as I can remember. In kindergarten my teacher had to talk to my mom during a parent/teacher conference about how my tendency to be the class clown was a bit too disruptive. That said I never thought about pursuing performing as a career until my freshman year at Boston College. I went there to study political science with crazy dreams of being a U.S. Senator (I know right?). As it turns out my social skills weren’t as sharp as they had been in kindergarten and I was a pretty awkward and shy first year student. I ended up starting a short-lived blog featuring some of my most weird & embarrassing stories about trying to make friends and fit in. Despite that, I did end up joining the student government and for a campus event we organized a comedy night featuring an established Boston comedy headliner and a student open mic portion. After hearing a few kids do knock-knock jokes I decided to try telling one of the stories from my blog on-stage. It worked out. Somehow, and I’ve been performing standup ever since.
I definitely consider standup my first love and the thing I think about the most but about six years ago I began doing Moth-style personal storytelling in addition to comedy. Though the majority of my stories are told with humor I love the freedom of being able to explore other emotional tones. These days I continue to do both comedy and storytelling as much as I can and in just the last few years I also began exploring visual art through collage and zine-making.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
In many ways I think I was put on this earth to perform in front of audiences. It truly is my favorite thing and the thing I think I’m best at. I began that journey as a standup comedian and if pressed that’s still what I’d have to call my primary pursuit. When I started well over a decade ago I was really trying to mold myself into an angry ranting political comedian in the style of Bill Hicks. After a few years and a lot of trial & error, reflection, (and failure) I realized that I was more authentically a storytelling comedian talking about my own life, my own relationships, my own insecurities, etc. There was still plenty of room for justified anger and political commentary but it came from a more grounded and authentic place and it was totally in *my* voice.
Around that time, I began experimenting with personal storytelling outside of comedy settings (think The Moth or Massmouth). My experiences doing this only affirmed the transition I’d made in my comedy. Although I approached storytelling with humor (as with all things in my life), it was incredibly freeing to be able to explore different facets of emotion without trying to get a laugh every 15 second. I was able to perform and entertain like I’d always loved without worrying that whatever transformative life experience I was talking about wasn’t funny enough.
A this point it’s often hard for me to see the line between my standup and my storytelling. What I say at a comedy club now is often the exact same thing I’ll do at a story slam. I’m a comic and I’m a storyteller but if you want to call me a storytelling comic then I’m 100% OK with that.
As for what exactly I talk about, it’s not particularly complicated, it’s just the world through my eyes. I talk about the everyday mundane stuff that we all deal with (online dating, driving in Boston) and the “big issues” that particularly affect me as a politically engaged Black man in America (racism, criminal justice reform). Add to that a love of historical trivia, a complex relationship with religion and spirituality, and an underlying foundation of sarcasm and irony and you’ll find an average performance from me.
I perform because I have to, it’s a compulsion, an addiction. I mean sure, I want to have a successful career and be able to perform for a living as long as it’s possible. But if you told me it would never pan out professionally and that I’d be doing open mics exclusively for the rest of my days well, you would still find me at those open mics in twenty years. Thankfully there’s a cycle here wherein the better you get at this the more chances you have to perform, and the more you perform the better you get.
However as much as I do this simply because I need to over the years I have also developed a sense of purpose. An idea of mission that goes above and beyond simply “get as good as you can”. It’s come in tandem with my personal development and my desire to see a better world. Basically, I want to show my audiences how similar we all are, how underneath all of the divisions of race, class, gender, geography, and ideology we’re all much more alike than we are different. We’re definitely not *the same* and I wouldn’t that world, but in the most crucial respects we are alike. That’s not even remotely a revolutionary idea and I’m not grandiose enough to think I can bring about world peace with 45 minutes onstage at a comedy club, but I do think that I bring at least a few people in every audience to an understanding they didn’t have before and for me that’s enough to strive for.
How can artists connect with other artists?
Standup comedy is an art that you can’t get good at (or even really do at all) in isolation so meeting other comics is absolutely never a challenge. With definite exceptions that’s usually a good thing because even if they don’t become your friends or your mentors the highly competitive nature of standup means that they will push you to become the best comic possible…or at the very least show you what you should absolutely NOT be doing onstage.
On a more general level my advice for connecting with other artists is to simply go to the places where art is made/displayed/performed with an open mind, genuine interest, questions to ask, and a business card. Appreciation and conversation are the building blocks that have been the most helpful to me in establishing my most valued personal and professional connections.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
These days the absolute best thing people can do to check up on my work and stay connected is to sign up for my mailing list. I’ve had an email newsletter for a while now but for years it was sent very sporadically and used mostly to list upcoming shows and share “big news” like an award I’d won or a TV gig I’d landed. In the last 6 months I’ve tried to make it a lot more than that. For one it’s more regular, coming 1-2 times a month (don’t worry I’ve never been a spammer) and while it still has all of the regular announcements the bulk of it is devoted to me curating and commenting on articles/songs/podcasts/videos/trivia that I’ve found particularly meaningful or engaging as of late. The feedback on the latest format has been overwhelmingly positive and I find myself spending more and more time crafting each new issue. People can subscribe on my website at www.weshazard.com or head directly to http://eepurl.com/z3afn
Also, for the trivia fans out there I’ll be making my Jeopardy! debut on Monday July 9th. Meeting Alex Trebek and being on my favorite show ever was a lifelong dream and I’m currently working on a 70-90-minute one-man show about the experience which I can’t wait to share.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.weshazard.com
- Email: wes@weshazard.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/weshazard
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/weshazardcomic
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/weshazard
- Other: http://eepurl.com/z3afn (email list signup)
Image Credit:
Photo of me in blue blazer pointing to my head is Gregg Skelly, photo of me hosting stories from the stage is courtesy of WGBH & WORLD Channel, all collages are my own.
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
