Make no mistake that, after all these years, Rory Scovel still loves doing stand-up. He’s also found immense pleasure in other mediums over the past few years, and whether or not that means his extensive touring days are coming to a close has yet to be truly decided. But one thing he does know for certain is that, regardless, he’s really excited to unleash his latest hour and he’s pulling out all the stops to make it happen.
Making his way to Boston’s Wilbur Theatre on Thursday (April 20) as part of his latest cross-country trek, dubbed The Last Tour, Scovel is not only marking his largest show ever performed in the city along with his Wilbur debut, but it will also represent the largest headlining gig he’s ever done in his career in general. Naturally, there’s a bit of an added pressure with that attachment accompanying him every step of the way leading up the show, but with where his latest hour currently stands, and knowing the city has always responded to his work positively, the Greenville, South Carolina native is feeling a bit more personal this time around, and the matured flow of his craft has certainly helped him find more excitement in the new material.
“I think this is my third time coming through Boston, and for it to be at The Wilbur Theatre this time is absolutely awesome,” Scovel tells Vanyaland. “It’s a bit overwhelming, as it’s the largest venue I’ve gotten booked for, in terms of a headlining gig, to date. So there are a bit of nerves towards that, but I’m so excited about the hour I’ve been working on during this tour, and knowing the response in Boston has always been really good has me really excited, because it feels good to know the material is there in a place that responds to what I like to do.”
Also embedded in that excitement is the contribution that Scovel’s roots in improv have lent to the new material. With elements of his latest run of jokes and humorous musings stemming from the improvised shows he performed in Atlanta during the filming of his most recent docu-special, 2021’s Live Without Fear, Scovel has found a great deal of fun in finding out how the initially improvised jokes could fit into a whole new body of work. It’s also been the first time he’s given jokes that he’s born out of improv more room to grow, and what he found was a significant amount of material that he wanted to continue working with, which in turn will make for a cool end-of-process sort of setup, when reflected on and shown up against the seedlings from the last special.
Even with that material being a couple of years old at this point, Scovel is excited that fans are finding it fresh and re-worked, which has also allowed him to explore different approaches to his delivery while also sticking true to what has made him such a well-respected voice in comedy over the years.
“You always want to be excited by the material. Even if you know that it’s still growing and evolving, you want to be excited for the fact that it’s not only works, but that you also still enjoy telling those jokes,” says Scovel. “It will be different from stuff I’ve done in the past in terms of flow and presentation, but yet it’s still myself. There’s a certain excitement coming off of the pandemic and quarantine, and having not toured for quite awhile, so that adds excitement to it, as well. It really kind of feels like a perfect storm.”
Although the new elements that have come out of working this hour certainly have whipped up an excitement for Scovel, and he enjoys the drama found within the title of his new tour on a comedic level, he isn’t exactly keeping his live touring aspirations in any specific place. Within the joy he’s found from acting roles over the last few years, and the fact that he hasn’t toured this extensively in roughly seven years since the premiere his Netflix special, Rory Scovel Does Stand-Up For The First Time, with of course, two of those years attributed to the pandemic, he’s not exactly sure how serious he is when it comes to the true meaning behind the name of the tour.
On the other hand, there’s a big part of it that is simply a wink and a nod to the old school rock bands that announce a seemingly never-ending farewell tour. And with this being the first full tour he’s done in quite some time, he wanted to finds ways to really mix it up from his previous attitude toward tour promotion, by pulling out all the stops in terms of photoshoots, social media promo, and even, as the tour poster shows, a tuxedo to make it feel a little more formal in a cheeky kind of way.
“There’s something that I love about how dramatic that sounds, whether this is truly the last tour or not,” says Scovel. “but even on the comedic side of it, calling my Netflix special ‘Rory Scovel Does Stand-Up For The First Time,’ it’s pretty funny to have the very next full tour be ‘The Last Tour,’ because that sounds like the shortest career ever.”
Over the course of his career, Scovel hasn’t spent all that much time in Boston, which makes the response he gets in the city even more special. But after having spent a good chunk of time around town while filming 2018’s I Feel Pretty, it became clear to Scovel just how much he loved the city.
Since then, the connection Scovel feels with Boston has become only stronger, and to be able to say he performed his largest headlining gig here will surely add to the mutual respect and admiration the two parties have for each other, whether this truly is his last full-fledged fling or not.
“There’s some real comfort in coming back to Boston, and knowing that this is the biggest venue I’ve ever booked, and that in the past, the crowds have not only shown up, but have really taken the shows in and had my back from the moment I got on stage,” says Scovel. “You don’t get that energy from every show you do, or every city you perform in. Because of that, it just makes the show all the more fun and memorable. For me, Boston is one of those places that hold such a special place in my heart because as soon as you know you’re going to do a show there, it becomes exciting, because the crowds make it exciting.”
RORY SCOVEL: THE LAST TOUR :: Thursday, April 20 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6:30 p.m., $29.50 to $39.50 :: Advance Tickets