Rory Scovel has worked hard to build his career in stand-up comedy, and 2017 has delivered a big payoff, letting him run with it even further. And no one is more surprised by it all than Scovel himself.
Following the release of his widely-praised Netflix special, Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up For The First Time, as well as a supporting role in the Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler-led The House, Scovel has embarked on his Unrelated Tour, which lands at Somerville’s ONCE Ballroom on Thursday (November 30), in between stops in Northampton and Providence.
While the South Carolina native has found his rhythm in his delivery since he started doing Washington D.C. open mics in 2004, Scovel admits that stand-up is always an evolving artform for him, especially as he begins to attract a larger audience.
“That education is unending, where there’s always something new to learn,” Scovel tells Vanyaland. “It’s not that I do something that is always so different than before, but I do find myself trying to push my own personal envelopes with what I talk about, and how I perform in a certain way. That’s what attracts me to the job. There’s always a curveball.”
When he’s putting together a show schedule, Scovel tries to brand it with a name that reflects the material, but this time around, the material and the name are completely unrelated, which ironically inspired the name of this tour.
While some comics resurrect old bits, or bring some of their greatest hits with them, Scovel wants to keep this new batch of material completely separate from his past catalog. He’s surprised that his current trek is even called a “tour,” seeing as his itinerary consists of only a handful of dates compared to artists who embark on massive year-long tours, but he’s looking to start fresh with an all new arsenal of material — and while the new hour is nowhere near as tight as he wants it to become, Scovel is excited to share it with New England crowds.
“Boston is such a great comedy community, and when you get good comedy-educated crowds to come out, they understand that any given show can be totally different from the last, and they also know from the start that they’re making the show better by being active and present,” says Scovel. “So I’m not really scared to bring the new material to the city, because it is already such a great comedy community. When I came through Boston when I toured last September, it was one of the best shows of that whole run, so I’m pretty excited to get back there.”
THE WILBUR PRESENTS RORY SCOVEL :: Thursday, November 30 at ONCE Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave. in Somerville, MA :: 7 p.m., 18-plus, $22 :: Advance tickets :: ONCE event page :: Featured image via the artist
