10-15-24 Interview - Derrick Stroup is A Local Guy Making it Big

Our next guest. He's definitely on the way up, Derek Stroop.

He's not a native Colorading but he's been here like ten years and lately he's having quite the tear. He'll be opening for John Christ on the nineteenth at Paramount Theater. He's also going to be at Comedy Works Downtown on November first and second.

Derek, Welcome to the show.

Hey, hey, hey, thank you so much for having me on. Excited to be here.

Well, I'm excited because I love I love having fellow Southerners on the show. I don't sound like one because I spent four years in college in voice addiction training getting rid of my accent.

But I am also from the Deep South.

I love on your little fact sheet that it says you're from Harvest, Alabama, located in the northern part of the state, which to me indicates there's nothing even close enough to it that anyone would have ever heard of.

Is that accurate?

Yeah, I mean Harvest. I mean that name is a little bit on a two on point. I mean that's like being from white people, you tall, It's very very accurate.

It's it's out in the country now.

I mean, it's about an How're in thirty minutes south of Nashville. It's right at the Tennessee state line, so there's not a lot around us. But we're not too far from Huntsville, Alabama either, But it is Alabama, so I mean it's pretty country.

Now.

I'm I am a native of northern Florida, which is the said, the redneck part of Florida. And we call the border between Alabama and Florida Florabama. Is there a similar name for Tennessee and Alabama.

No?

No, And there's also not an iconic bar on the state line either called you know Florabama. That's a that's a pretty special spot to us Alabamians and especially you know those in Florida too, right there in the in the redneck riviera on the Painhandle. Let me tell you I had one of my favorite parts of the country. I go to Pensacola on vacation. And if you don't know about Pensacola, that says a little bit about me.

Derek, don't tell anyone, Okay, stop stops, because we see what happened.

To Colorado when the word got out right.

So we don't want people Pensacole is horrible. People you get each as shark, possibly a bear. You don't know what's going to happen in Pensacola, That's right, Derek. When did you decide coming from a real small town, it must have been it must have been kind of a big decision to say, you know what, I'm not going to be a farmer or I'm not going to be a pharmacist or sell state farm insurance.

I'm going to go be a comedian. How did that happen?

You know it?

There was a few different things that lined up for it to happen. But you know, I moved to Denver when I was thirty years old, and I took the first plane I'd ever been on out here. You know, I get it. I get it, honest, I'm really from the country. But what kind of led to it is

I kind of wanted to chase my dream.

I didn't want to get swallowed up in New York City or LA so I chose Denver.

Well, it's a good choice.

We're a great comedy town. I don't need to tell you that, that's for sure. One of the things that I always like to ask people is how did that conversation go with your parents when you were like, Mom, Dad, I'm gonna go be a comedian.

How did that work out?

Well? You know, they don't.

I tell people in the Deep South, they don't understand. If I would have grown up telling them I wanted to be a comedian, it would have hurt me more than it would have helped me. That's just not a profession that you dream of. So, you know, when I told my mom, she cried. When I told my dad he sighed. And those are two pretty on point responses from from Stacey and Bill. They didn't they didn't understand,

And I got luckier. You know that I ever knew.

Denver's really just blessed me more than I ever could have imagined. It's such a great city for comedy, in a great city to live in. So yeah, they weren't pumped about it, but their tune has changed for sure.

Well, I guess when you appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, it changes the dynamic just a little bit. And You've had quite the twenty twenty three You've done a lot of stuff.

You're opening for a lot of people.

You were named the new face at the twenty twenty three Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, which I think that's probably the biggest comedy festival in the world.

Is it still? I know it used to be.

Yeah, you know, they went bankrupt last year or this year, and.

I think they're going to make a comeback, but it is. It is the.

It's one of the ultimate credits that you can have a lot of people, you know, outside of the entertainment industry may.

Not know the rich history of Just for Laughs, but every.

Comic that you've loved that has been great at stand up or been on a sitcom or done anything in their career, more than likely.

Went through jfil Is.

It is a really special thing to be a part of it, an honor to be part of it. And then it led to a lot of you know, I was in Canada. I did seven different Canadian cities this summer. So it's led to a lot of a lot of great things, and it's definitely something I'm proud of.

You are far too young to remember what I am about to tell you, but my audience of Gen xers will completely remember this. They used to put out VCR tapes of some of the Just for Last festival, and that is the first time I saw Stephen Wright, and that's the first time I saw Bobcat Goldthwaite, and that was the first time I saw Sam Kinnison. And so those VCR tapes, because I used to work in the video store, those were a hot commodity on the weekends.

And I've come to.

Realize I think people just got really drunk on the weekends and then watch them. But they were they were they were the first things gone on Friday night and they were not ever brought back rewound.

And so we had to make sure that happened.

But what can people expect from your comedy when they come to see you?

You know, it's a it's a fun experience because it's it's a mix of a few things.

You know. I get pretty worked up.

I'm ranty and angry on stage, and I've got a lot of observational thoughts too, So you know, I'd like to think it's somewhere between Ron White and Bill Burr, and there's a little Sam Kennison involved, because I really do get.

Unhinged every now and then.

But you know, more.

Importantly, I'm true to myself and there's nobody that I'm trying to be like out there. There's no point of view that I'm trying to steal from anybody. And I don't have soapboxes on stage about anything that really matters. There's not a lot of victims in my act. It's just me losing my mind about a lot of things that don't really matter, you know. And it's a fun riding and a lot of people seem to enjoy it. I gaining a lot of steam out here on the road.

Some of the things that grind your gear? What gets you going?

I mean, it's never anything that's serious, you know, And I think that that's kind of the where I get away with being angry like I do on stage because it's never anything that matters.

Like what would set me off.

I'll tell you what, Like my shirt getting caught on a door knob when I'm walking by makes me want to remove the door from the.

I mean, I just talking about it.

Things that don't make sense, like that when people eat trail mix and they pick out one thing at a time, when they should just reach their whole hand in there and get what they get, because that's what you if you wanted EM and M's, you should have hate a bag of M and M's.

You know. It's it's small, silly things like that.

Last night at dinner, I ordered a salad with my burger because I'm trying to be a reasonable person but still have a burger and can I looked at my husband after my salad arrived and I said, you know what, I could probably do a ten minute comedy show on how much I hate spring mix in salad. You know, when you get the salad and it just looks like grass clippings. Oh, and you're pretty sure they just went outside and just grabbed up some stuff out of the

So I get that.

No, I mean, that's like, that's so relatable. I hate the spring mix. When I get a salad the same way it is, it ruins it because and a lot of times it won't tell you exactly the type of lettuce. It'll say how salad, it'll say some of the toppings that it will give you, and then it shows up and I'm like, this is not what I wanted at all.

That's very relatable.

Well, and you know, sometimes there's a sandspur in there. You don't know where that thing's been, You have no idea. It's honestly the worst food in restaurants right now, and we need to stop it.

Okay, we just need to stop it.

When you are trying to decide what you put in your act, and obviously you seem to gravitate towards the stuff that is a little bit absurd, like my dislike of spring mix.

But are there any topical issues.

Now that you just think to yourself, like I want to dip into that, but maybe I don't want to do politics. I mean, is there some stuff that you just feel like I kind of want to make fun, but I don't.

Yeah, I use Facebook for that, to be honest, I mean I made I mean, yeah, but I just I try to keep it not controversial. I mean, I wish George Carlin was here to clean up the mess. Oh yeah, I mean he would have some I mean, I have

Target rich environment.

Dumb people is a very target rich environment right now because of the insaneity that is happening. You know, I've always advocated, and I've talked about this on the show. I think that we should all get one paintball every day in our cars. Like you could you imagine having a paintball gun mounted right on the front. So when somebody is an idiot you just think you just you tag them. Yeah, and then you've basically provided a service for the rest of the world.

They know to look out for that idiot on the road.

No, that's pretty genius. And then if they cut you off, you go. Of course, you cut me off, you idiot. You got four paintball marks of your dagam car. You're barely making it. Hall I'm probably the fifth person you've cut off, and you're just.

Changing lanes to get away from him, like, and you speed past him in the coppoles, you over and you're like, did you see how many paintballs that guy had on his car?

I don't want to be near that exactly.

No, that's I mean, I don't hate that at all. There's several people, you know, if you eat a KitKat like a cold cut.

You should be tagged by the government. We should just we'll watch you for a week or two and just see how you behave, but yeah, I agree.

Yeah.

Well I just went to your Facebook and I see you're engaged.

Do you talk about your fiance in your act?

Oh?

Yeah, yeah I do. I mean I talk about our engagement. I talk she's from Kansas.

I talk about that. I mean from a mixed marriage. Yeah that's right.

Well, you know, you think you grow up in the middle of nowhere, living in the South, and then you moved to Kansas and you're like, well, they lied to me. I mean these people can't even see their neighbors out here.

Yeah, it's nice.

I'll tell people everybody should get a partner from Kansas. They're very easy to impress. I mean I show Alyssa a four story building, She's like, how'd they get up there? You know, I'm like elevators, Alyssa, I'm gonna show you the world.

Baby.

You know, how did you meet her?

I met her at work about eight years ago, back when I had a day jump.

Yeah, and what did you get to give up your day job?

About probably four years ago. I haven't had a day job in about four and a half years.

Is that kind of like a I mean, if I were a comedian, that would be kind of like one of those milestones, right, Like, what are comedian milestones?

Like?

Here?

Here I got to give up my day job. Here, I have a comedy special. Here I got to be on the Tonight Show. Do you have those kind of Is that a thing that exists? Because I'm very goal oriented?

Yeah, so that's what i would do.

No, those are milestones, and then you know, yeah, yeah, I'll kick your dreams. You know, when you first get start, like the Tonight Show, jfl all those things were things I dreamed of. You know, if I could just do five minutes on Jimmy Fallon, that'd be good enough for me, you know. And then you get to those those moments and you grow that dream even more, and you know

But yeah, there's definitely.

Milestones along along the way that you're trying to hit that that that mean a lot to you and keep you pushing and and I've already hit several of them.

Well. Your debut comedy album, Eating Dinner Twice, was released on Larry the Cable Guy's record label, How did you get connected with Larry?

You know, Larry found me online somewhere and he reached out to his guys, reached out to my guys, and we got something set up to where we went out on the road a few times together.

He felt like that we had.

A similar brand of comedy, and then we ended up becoming friends and he really enjoyed my work, which felt really cool. I've always loved Larry and his stuff, and one thing led to another and he put me on his label and it only made sense.

And he's pretty picky about who he puts on that label.

He doesn't have a bunch of names on the Good or Done label, and so to be one of the first ones to be a part of it was really cool and we knocked it out of the park.

We're really proud of that album.

Well, you can hear that album on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music.

And YouTube.

But more importantly, you can see Derek performing here. He's opening up for John Christ. How did you get connected with John Chris Because I got to tell you, I bet his comedy and your comedy work really well together.

Yeah, it's fun. Me and John.

We've worked together now for four years, and we're not just you know, we're not just co workers.

We've become really close friends.

And I was at Comedy Works and I worked with him on a Thursday night show. Wendy put me on with him and we did one show together and I got done and he was like, I really enjoyed that. Like your I like your style, I liked your material. He asked me, he said, you've ever been to a Salt Lake City And I said, no, I've never been to Salt Lake City. And he goes, well, you're about to go here in about a month and a half, so let's get your tickets and stuff. And that's really

So the last thing on your press sheet is that you are a waffle house enthusiast.

So how do you order your hash Browns?

I like him smothered, covered and capped. But let me tell you something. You being a North Florida gal, y'all got some of the best waffle houses in North Florida. They truly are. I mean, one time a guy on the radio said, where's the best waffle house you've ever been? To and this is very specific, but it's in Fort Walton Beach and it was the best one I've ever had. But Florida has killer waffle houses unlike Colorado.

So I don't even.

Tell people out here that I love waffle House because the people the waffle houses out here are like rehab sinners with hash browns.

They're they're not the same.

You know, where we're from there, we use them for everything. We go there after baptisms and when we're black out. I mean we use it for the whole thing.

Well, it was my nana's favorite restaurant. Okay, so my nana and I have eaten our share plus more of waffle House. I am scattered, smothered, covered, chunk. Captain Pepper. I bring it all, everybody, just bring just put it all in the pool.

Come on. This comment was brought to you by Tom's Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid to go big and go bold at waffle house.

And you are right. However, here's a little pro tip.

There is a town south of Denver called Parker, Colorado. It has a fantastic waffle house. Oh good, And I'm not exaggerating. Fantastic worth the drive from wherever you are. I don't even know where you are right now, where you're gonna be in Colorado, but it's worth the drive. It's the best one I've ever had outside of Florida or Atlantah. Because you're Atlanta.

There are oh yeah, you trip and fall on one in Atlanta there on every corner.

No, I will go there. I promise you, I'll go there in the next seventy two hours. I'm not even joking.

There you go tell him I sent you, Derek. Now we are in and again. Derek is going to be performing at the Paramount on the nineteenth with John Christ and then he's going to be at the Comedy Works South, the one downtown, No Comedy Works Downtown. That's right, Comedy Works Downtown on November. I don't have an infront of eating second, first and Seconds, so you can get your

You won't hang up on me like all the other comedians.

No, no, of course I will. All you'll have to do is bring up waffle House. I'll meet you there for a cup of jill and I will buy Hey, that's a great restaurant to buy somebody else's meal at too.

By the way, seven dollars. You're in for seven bucks.

Here you go, right exactly, all right, now, Derek. At the end of every show, we do this dumb thing called of the Day. And it works like this, I say, and now it's time for the most exciting segment on the radio of its kind. And then a Rod shouts this in no of the day, And now we do this. Arod gives us a dad joke. You can laugh or not. It's entirely dependent on how bad the joke is.

Yeah, I got bad news. Uh, oh my grief counselor died. Oh no, you were so good. I didn't even care.

And that's that's not bad. That's not like laugh out loud, funny man, that's decent.

A chuckle, that's a chuckle worthy, Okay. And now he gives us a word of the day, which we try to guess the definition of.

Usually badly it.

Is a verb and it is this buttologize, buttologize.

What but theologize?

B A T T O B A T T t.

O logize l O G I Z E batologize.

Batologize a verb.

I'm gonna say, it's when you make everything an argument. Okay, I like everything in argument, But dang it, Derek.

Oh Man, buttologize buttologize. I mean you you definitely feel there's some apologize in there.

Buttologize.

You would want to apologize if you batologize, if you apologize?

Uh, is that why you say sorry? Why you belittle someone?

Apology?

I love that?

But no, it is to repeat excessively, like a word or a phrase or a mannerism, over and over and over right right.

Right, yes, yes, batologize.

Okay, what are knock? Now we have a trivia question, Derek, what are nock de? Lucent clouds? Knock to lucent clouds?

N O C T I L see through them?

I think you see him at night?

Yeah, okay, t nighttime clouds.

And when we made witch Is flying through we made a good effort, but we are totally wrong.

Clouds made of ice crystals, not water droplets like regular crowd clouds that have formed around tiny dust particles and cold temperatures. These beautiful clouds can be witnessed at high latitude regions north and south of the equator.

So there you go. That's the thing you're gonna forget right.

That is now, Derek. Here's what we do here. We do Jeopardy. Category. You have to shout out your name if you want to answer the question, just go Derek, and then a rat will say answer it, and you answer it in the form of a question, just like Jeopardy.

Are you ready?

I'm ready and Derek.

So, Mandy, you also are at a disadvantage and have to wait for the word go Derek. So when he gives the question, you can interrupt me any time and say your name.

You can answer anytime if you know the answer.

No more of the clue. All right, here we go.

I can't.

Category is three letter words?

Oh gosh, First up, an actor takes one during his curtain call, go.

Mandy, what is about that is correct?

Throw away your oven and join Woody Harrelson in the movement for this type of food?

Go many, what's raw? I'm really good at this, Derek.

I should have told you that I'm ad Ali stung like a bee with this short straight punch, Go Derek, Derek, Jeb correct.

Here we go.

We're gonna give that to you.

But even though you didn't answer the form of a question, who would never give you that?

You're right?

Yes, you, Derek. If you know. At midway through you can interrupt.

Mandy Camp, a politician taking the low road, is said to sling this.

Go Mandy, what is mud?

That is correct?

And finally, uh manly first name of British plotter f A.

W K E. S and sesame Street game show host Smiley.

Go Mandy what his guy?

I just got pounded, Derek.

It's okay.

I've been this game.

Yeah, I've been playing this game on the show for almost twenty years now, so it's really hard to beat me on the first time.

But you got one, right.

So that's better than a win.

I got a jab in, Yeahry.

Derek Shrupp check him out Derekstrup Comedy dot Com. I put a link on the blog to his website. Derek, I really appreciate your time today, man.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was a lot of fun.