The Wittiest Isaac

What: Isaac Witty
Where: Joke Joint Comedy Club, 2300 E American Blvd
When: Thursday – Saturday, 8 pm
Cost: $10

Most people aren’t sure of what they want to do with their lives till they’re in college. Hell, some of us don’t figure out who we even are until well after. But for veteran comic Isaac Witty — yeah, that’s his real name — comedy just seemed like the obvious career choice from a young age.

Witty, an Oklahoma native, moved to Minneapolis in 1999. Since then he’s spent the better part of the decade living all over the country, fine-tuning his absurdist ramblings and crafting a stage character that’s as forehead-slap whacky as he is hilariously clever. But unlike so many of his peers and performers that came before him, Witty didn’t exactly discover comedy. The guy was practically born into it.

His parents made a living as Christian sketch comics, regularly touring the country and bouncing between states, oftentimes from one home to another in a matter of months. “We drove around in a van and we had a motor home at one time. We didn’t live in a motor home exclusively but we kind of did,” Witty said. “I switched schools something like ten times.” While he admired ‘80’s mainstays like Tim Allen and Steven Wright — the latter he’s been fortunate enough to meet — it was his parents whom he looked up to most before he began pursuing a career.

“Just growing up and watching your parents on stage and getting to know everyone, seeing them being admired and everyone telling you how great they are … they were definitely the most influential,” Witty said. “When everyone else was wanting to be a sports star, I was in my room looking in the mirror, imagining I was in a big crowd of people. Not even telling any jokes, just standing there, acting out the part.”

Witty’s material isn’t religiously tinged, but he’s maintained a clean act over the years. It was a compromise he made early on in his career and one he felt was in his parent’s best interest.

“That’s the one thing I did to make my parents happy. I always think my poor parents, they’re in the ministry and all their friends are in the ministry and their son ends up working in bars for a living so at least they can say ‘well at least he’s clean,’” Witty said.

But while that might make his routine easier to stomach for the clergy, it doesn’t always resonate as well with his typical late-night crowd.

“It’s [sometimes] not as easy to get booked in clubs because you’re walking in there and you’re a clean comic working a bar full of drunk people who want to hear a bunch of dick jokes. You’re basically walking with one arm behind your back.”

Witty, who has resided in Minneapolis the last year, will be headlining the Joke Joint this weekend, but has plans to relocate back to Los Angeles eventually. It’s just a matter of time and money.

“It’s always a matter of money. It’s hard to make a living doing comedy so you just have to take as many opportunities as you can."