Steven Wright brings his deadpan to the Gallo Center

Follow back to its roots the intentionally slow, pause-filled style of many of today’s biggest deadpan comedians and you’ll find Steven Wright.

The 59-year-old comic is one of the godfathers of comic lethargy. His distinctive style was recently heralded by The New York Times, which wrote that he was on “top one of the few major and expanding branches” of the modern stand-up family tree. The paper cited popular comics like Tig Notaro and Zach Galifianakis as extending from his foundation.

The comedian brings his tour to the Gallo Center for the Arts on Sept. 18.

Wright got his start in stand-up some 36 years ago when he stepped on stage at a comedy club in Boston. Appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in the early 1980s helped shoot him to fame. He went on to appear in films including “Desperately Seeking Susan” and “Natural Born Killers” and guest-starred on shows like “Mad About You” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

In 1989, Wright co-wrote, produced and starred in the short comedy “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings,” which won the Academy Award for best short live-action film. Today, the comic, actor and artist is working as a consulting producer on the hit FX series “Louie.”

Wright spoke with The Modesto Bee recently about his comedy legacy and his current creative process.

Q: The New York Times profile of you last year called you the founding base of a branch of comedy. Do you see yourself as the forefather for the next generation of deadpan comics?

A: When I grew up, I was watching George Carlin, and he influenced me with how he talked about everyday things, the little things people don’t talk about or notice. And then Woody Allen made a double comedy album before he made movies. These people, they were influenced by me. So I can understand it because that’s what I just said happened to me, too. But I don’t see myself like that. That just happened. That’s what happens when young people see something, whether music or movies or anything.

Q: You’ve been cited as an influence by Louis C.K. and served as consulting producer on the show the last two seasons. How did that collaboration come about, and what do you feel you bring to the production?

A: Well, I used to live in New York a long time ago. I wanted to spend a couple months there again, so about three years ago, I rented an apartment there for two months. During that time, I was introduced to him and we started hanging out. A year and a half later, completely out of the blue, he asked me if I wanted to work on his show. I asked, “What would I do?” While we were hanging out before, he would show me pieces of show. He’d ask me my opinion of how things were edited, in a casual way. So now, for the show, he bounces the stories off me. I read the story and give him my opinion. We’ll discuss the takes, how it worked, if it was funny or not. I basically am a sounding board for him.

Q: Do you think your comedy has changed, evolved much over the years? And if it has, has that been organic or a reaction to changing sensibilities?

A: No, I don’t go by anything just because something is happening in the industry. When I first started out, I wrote a lot of one-liners. But I tried to connect them into stories. Then I stopped doing that, and then left them as one-liners. Ten years ago, I started connecting other one-liners into stories again. The audience may see that as turning one-liners into insane stories, but I really went back to doing what I was doing before. I am just reacting to the world. It was not about “How this will fit into the comedy world?”

Q: So has the comedy landscape changed much with the onset of the Internet and social media? Now there are famous YouTube, Vine, Twitter stars.

A: It has changed it; it’s like a whole other world than when I started. It’s like, when I started to get known, you had to go onto one of the networks or HBO. So it’s great for people. It’s just so different.

Q: Besides stand-up, you’ve acted quite a bit and made an Oscar-winning short. You also paint and play music. What do each of these creative outlets give you that’s different from comedy?

A: Well, the painting is very abstract. I’ve enjoyed painting since I was in elementary school, way, way before I started comedy. The comedy has to have a logic to it; it has to make sense. The painting demands no logic, no sense. It’s just total emotion. The music is a mixture – lyrics kind of have to make sense but also don’t have to.

I just like making s--- up, you know. I am like a kid in a room. You’re coloring, and then there’s a ukulele, and then you’re writing something on a piece of paper. It’s just been going on for so long. I really feel lucky that I make a living from this. I just like to notice the world and like to think and put these things together.

Q: So, finally, tell me about your current tour. What can people expect?

A: They can expect, like, 85 minutes of surrealism. Seeing someone do a show is totally different than seeing someone doing five minutes on TV. It’s like going into a different dimension. They can also expect to see a guy walking around talking.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 2:50 PM with the headline "Steven Wright brings his deadpan to the Gallo Center."