MANSFIELD — Adam Minnick was not an overnight success as a stand-up comic.
In fact, his first “open mic” effort at the Funny Bone in Cincinnati ended badly.
“I did horribly. I hated myself. I was sitting in the back with my head on a table and the guy who books open mics came up to me and said everyone bombs their first time up.
“He did tell me I had good stage presence. I grew up playing violin at recitals and performances … I was used to being in front of people. He said, ‘You just have to work on material. Write jokes. Write stronger jokes.’
Minnick quickly got over the abject failure of his initial three-minute foray into comedy.
“The next day I woke up. As much as I had bombed, had done horribly … I absolutely loved it. I was already hooked. I just had to write one joke that worked. Then another joke that worked. It just kind of grew on me from there,” he said.
Fast-forward two decades — and having written many jokes that work — the 44-year-old comic is ready to take to the stage on Nov. 8 at the Mansfield Playhouse.
Minnick will perform at 7 p.m. Cleveland comic Steven Prince will open the show. Tickets are $17 and can be purchased at the Playhouse website or by calling the box office at 419-522-2883.
Now a Cincinnati resident, Minnick grew up in Napoleon, Ohio, a community of about 8,800 people about 40 miles southwest of Toledo.
As a boy, stand-up comedy was not something he considered — or really even noticed.
“The big difference between comedy then and now is access. People can see stand-up comedy all over the internet. We didn’t have access to that when we were kids … we didn’t even have cable (television). There was nothing for comedy in Napoleon,” he said.
There was humor in his home. Minnick recalled watching The Three Stooges on TV with his dad and the musical, comedic stylings of Victor Borge with his mother. Dame Edna Everage (Australian comic Barry Humphries) was also in the mix.
“That was kind of it. That kind of started shaping my idea of comedy,” said Minnick, who will bring his “clean comedy” to Mansfield.
An observational comic, Minnick spends his days watching the world around him and wondering how those happenings could be used in his act, similar to what audiences may see during Jerry Seinfeld shows.
“I have been doing this for 20 years and it’s now just how my brain is wired. I’m looking every day, at every experience I have throughout the day … and looking for material. ‘OK, can this be a bit?'”
He conceded it was “too soon,” but a friend’s recent passing caught his comedic eye, albeit a bit dark.
“People were writing on his Facebook page. ‘We miss you’ and the like. The first thing I thought was, ‘When people pass, do they actually have access to their Facebook account?’ My wife told me it was too soon …. but it’s just how I think now,” Minnick said.
Minnick, now a husband and the father of a 3-year-old son, has worked at comedy clubs across the country, including Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club in Las Vegas, The Funny Bone Comedy Club in Cincinnati, Dry Bar Comedy in Provo Utah, the Improv Comedy Club in Chicago, the Punch Line Philly in Philadelphia and Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle in Detroit.
He has also performed abroad in Dublin, Perth and Stockholm.
Becoming a father has slowed the frantic touring pace that is a norm in the stand-up comedy grind.
“It makes it harder when you have a kid. My schedule next March is so packed that I just stopped taking shows. I would rather miss shows than miss stuff with my son,” Minnick said.
Minnick is also a published children’s author with his first book, “The Adventures Of My Crazy Uncle Adam,” which has sold domestically and internationally.
Like all comedians, Minnick was impacted by the COVID pandemic. But unlike comics who focus on politics and culture, his show hasn’t been forced to change due to so-called “cancel culture.”
He said audiences these days have changed to the extent they “want to feel bad” for comics who use self-deprecating humor.
“I have a female friend who does comedy and she talked in her show about being overweight … how she is fat. The audience wants to feel bad for her. But it’s a joke.
“I do a joke where I talk about how when my wife was pregnant, she had a craving … for other men. People feel bad … but it’s a joke, OK?”
He encourages residents to escape from their homes and computers and smart phones and attend a live comedy show.
“Seeing comedy live is so much better than the TV. There’s an intimacy about live comedy …. people want to come out and be together and laugh.
“This is not an expensive show. It’s affordable. Come out and have fun.”
