Comedian Gary Owen arrived on the scene in 1997, scoring his first huge gig as the host BET’s “Comic View.” It’s no secret that it was Black America thy first embraced Owen with his all-out, innocent, culture-crossing comedy. Owen himself admits his ability to channel differences not just racially, but more importantly, culturally, while sharing personal stories and giving us laughs in the midst of it all. In 2009, Tyler Perry took notice of Owen and gave him a role on TBS’ “House of Payne”. Now, on the heels of the release of his latest film role as “Bennett” in the film adaptation of Steve Harvey’s book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Owen doesn’t plan on slowing down. He also recently released his stand-up DVD, “True Story”, a project released as part of Shaq’s “All Star Comedy Jam” series. AllHipHop.com got a chance to catch up with Owen, and he talks how he joined the Navy just to get into comedy, working on Think Like A Man with friend Kevin Hart and cast, and why he gives his all in his latest stand-up DVD, “True Story”. AllHipHop.com: Before I get into what’s happening right now, I really want to know, before you did “Comic View”, did you really want to do comedy? Gary Owen: That’s all I ever wanted to do, honestly. Even in high school, I wanted to be a comedian, but I didn’t how to become a comedian. I thought you had to start in L.A. For some reason, I didn’t know you could start locally at local comedy clubs. I thought in my mind, because I grew up in a small town, I thought you had to get to L.A, and that’s where everybody starts. I joined the Navy with the whole mindset of “I’ve gotta get to California!” They can get me to California and then when I get there, then I could start going to L.A. I went to bootcamp, and went to Washington D.C. for two years, and then the first chance I got to go to California, I got stationed in San Diego, and I was like “Sweet! That’s right by L.A.” Soon as I got to San Diego, I start making phone calls up to L.A. I would get off work at like 4 or 5 o’clock and then drive up to L.A for 10:00 to 10:05 spot somewhere, and then I’d drive back – and I did that for about a year. Just open-micing in L.A, but people didn’t know I was from San Diego, making two hours up and two hours back. I just didn’t know you could do it in whatever town you’re in. You didn’t have to move to L.A. AllHipHop.com: Where did you go for “Comic View”? Gary Owen: We filmed in L.A. when I got the job. It’s funny. When I first went on “Comic View” as just a regular comic, I had only been doing stand up for probably six months, and then when they called me and said you’ve got the hosting job, I was like “Yo!” I had only been doing stand up for about a year at that point. It was like a big whirlwind honestly. I was doing it for a year, then all of a sudden I’m the host of “Comic View”. AllHipHop.com: Do you think you’ve found your niche? When you first started out were you like “I don’t really know what my role is going to be…how will people perceive me in comedy?” Gary Owen: What it was is, I was driving back and forth to L.A, then in the Navy, guys were telling me about spots in San Diego. You start talking to your buddies and telling them you’re going to L.A to do stand ups on the side and they tell you where you can go, little bars and hole-in-the-wall spots. I start doing all the black rooms, because I played basketball a lot, and most of the guys playing basketball was black guys, so they were telling me all the black spots to go to. That’s when I start doing “Black comedy” so to speak. I just wanted to get on stage, I could care less where it was at. When I’d get to L.A, I was trying to do the mainstream rooms, but I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t get on stage. But, I could get on stage at the black group, real easy. Black groups, you just show up and have one comic vouch for you, and then they’ll give you five minutes. The reason I got into Black comedy before mainstream is because that’s the only place that I could get on stage on the regular. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zc4G0zg8-A&w=640&h=360] AllHipHop.com: They showed you love before anyone else? Gary Owen: Yeah, and until this day, it’s still like that. Mostly, look at the tours I’m on. I’m on the Shaquille O’neal tour, The Royal Comedy Tour. It is what it is. AllHipHop.com: I think it’s perfect that you landed “House of Payne”. How did that happen? Gary Owen: I was doing the Tom Joyner Morning Show a few years ago, and Tyler Perry came in to do just an interview. We just started talking on commercial break, and he said “I think I want to work with you on some stuff. I got some ideas.” I said alright and it wasn’t even two weeks later, I was in Atlanta filming. It was that quick. That’s how Tyler works. He doesn’t have to go through any red tape. He’s like the lowest and the highest common denominator. He was like “Yo! I like you, I want to bring you in.” And then I came in, did a table read with the rest of the cast, and he liked me, and the next week I was filming. It was fast with “House of Payne”. AllHipHop.com: Do you like the sitcom stuff more than stand-up? Gary Owen: I think it’s all natural progression. I […]
