Each year, Helium Comedy Club sets out to crown Philly’s Phunniest Person, drawing a crowd of hopeful comedians eager to throw their hysterical hats into the ring—including this year’s winner, Josh Martier.
The competition is an annual event at the Center City venue, with past winners including Chip Chantry, Dave Terruso, Rachel Folgetto, Abby Rosenquist and ‘Tires’ star/creator Shane Gillis. The showcase launched two decades ago in Philadelphia and has grown to become a regular occurrence in Helium clubs throughout the country.
To chat more about his experience on becoming Philly’s Phunniest Person and what he likes the most about this comical career, Martier sat down with Metro to delve into the world of stand-up comedy.
How and why did you get involved with comedy?
I was a big comedy nerd growing up, and have continued to be well into adulthood. Comedy Central used to air stand-up specials late at night, so as a youngster, I would sneak out of my room while my family slept to watch those. I did not start performing stand up until I was 27, which is quite late. But I began writing jokes my freshman year of college and continued to do so throughout my early [to] mid twenties. My roommate discovered my “joke book” once and went through it, annotating all the jokes they believed had potential. It was a devastating experience, but taught me an important lesson about personal boundaries and shared spaces.
What do you love about what you do? What are some of the more difficult aspects of a comedy career?
The feeling when a new joke comes together and really connects with an audience — oh boy. I imagine the only other feeling that compares would have to be making perfect contact with a four-seam fastball and knocking that thing over the lights and out of the park.
I really enjoy the writing process. I use pen and paper because that’s just how my brain seems to work best. I like to sequester myself away and tinker with jokes like they are a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. Then I take those ideas to an open mic, where I forget every tag and punchline I had just spent hours toiling over, embarrassing myself completely in a room full of my peers and a half-drunk audience that was duped into attending said mic.
The most difficult part has to be the mental aspect. Personally, I am plagued with self-doubt and about once a week, I ask myself what I want out of this and why I continue to dedicate so much time and energy to this particular pursuit as opposed to a more stable career path. With stand-up, I have found that the lows are low and the highs are brief, but I am learning to be nicer to myself and am trying to enjoy the ride.
How do you come up with your material?
I zone out a lot. I live inside fantasies within my own head, so a lot of the material comes from that. I jot down observations, funny thoughts or overheard conversations into my Notes app, then try to sit down each night before bed to put pen to paper and flesh out what has potential and what is a dead end.
I am really into “chunking” right now. I think the proper term is “joke stacking” but essentially, it’s when you mash a ton of shorter jokes together to form one large “chunk.” This is a comedic technique [that] has been around for quite some time, but I am a simple man, and it is novel to me. So, the past couple of years, I have been working to strip my material down to the bare minimum before identifying through-lines and themes that can tie multiple jokes together into a solid chunk.
Tell me about the process of becoming Philly’s Phunniest Person at Helium?
A lot of open mics. This was my fourth time competing in the competition, so I was fortunate enough to be familiar with the structure, stage, lighting, etc. I knew what I was getting into this year, so there were no surprises. Around late-May, early-June, a loose set started to come together and then I just ran that 10 minutes into the ground over the next few months.
Whenever I got film from a show, I would review that like game tape, trying to improve tags and transitions while figuring out how to cut out excess verbiage. On the day of the show, I did a lot of walking. My apartment was not large enough to handle all my pacing, so I took to the streets of Philadelphia to walk off all the anxiety. By show time, I was exhausted and ready for it all to be over.
Where can people find future shows for you?
I moved up to Brooklyn, New York, eight days ago, so I’m working to figure out this new scene. I will be back in Philadelphia a good amount in the next couple months though, so if you would like to come to a show please follow me @josh_marti__ on Instagram. I’m usually pretty good about reposting show flyers and such on my Insta story.
Is there anything else that you want people to know about you?
Hmmm. I tend to be a bit introverted, but do not hesitate to say hello or reach out. I hope to get the opportunity to make you laugh.
Josh Martier will be performing in the Philadelphia area at Dru Montana and Ryan Fosters’ show at Next in Line Comedy (1025 Hamilton St.) on Sept. 11 and Peggy O’Learys show in Delco on Sept. 12. To find out more information on the comedian, head to his social media (@josh_marti__)
