Brian Regan

In the world of stand-up comedy, Brian Regan is a unique constant.

While other comedians have shifted into acting or writing careers, Regan has stuck mostly with stand-up, other than a couple of small acting roles, including one in Chris Rock’s Top Five. He’s spent years refining a craft that many performers, for one reason or another, eventually move away from.

“In stand-up, you’re completely autonomous,” Regan said. “I don’t need to get approval from anybody to try a joke on stage. I don’t need anybody in a suit and a tie to green-light something. I make all the decisions. I’m the writer; I’m the editor; I’m the director; I’m everything as a stand-up comedian, and I like that.”

Since getting his comedic start in the ’80s, he’s become one of the most prolific comics in the public eye, with national tours on an almost yearly basis. His two Comedy Central specials, three DVDs and 27 appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman — the most on the show for any comedian — speak for themselves.

His 30-something-year career is predicated on developing new and unexpected material, Regan said.

“You know, I think some people can make a mistake of figuring out who they are and then sticking too much to that and never growing beyond that,” Regan said. “If you’re a performer, hopefully you continue to grow, and I like to make sure that I’m growing.”

When he comes to the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore on March 13 and 14, Regan will have some jokes that touch on more unexpected subject matter that he’s only recently begun talking about on stage: politics and foreign policy.

“I counted up my foreign policy jokes recently, and I’m like, I have nine foreign policy jokes!” he said. “That’s more than people would think who know of me from my Pop-Tarts humor.”

Regan likes trying news things, seeing “what sticks to the wall,” but not every experimental joke has been a winner, he said. When he was first starting to do stand-up, he used to have a joke about how his parents told him he was named after Thomas Jefferson.

“What do you mean, after Thomas Jefferson? My name’s Brian Regan,” he’d wonder out loud on stage.

“No,” he’d respond, channeling his parents. “We named you after Thomas Jefferson!” 

“I thought it was funny, but you know, some people didn’t like it,” he said, laughing.

Regan first decided to become a stand-up comedian while attending Heidelberg University in Ohio. Originally, he thought he was going to be an accountant and enrolled as an economics major. But once Regan began feeling burnt out, he turned to his football coach for advice.

“I didn’t really have any mentors in the faculty. I didn’t go to the classes I was supposed to be going to. I was a horrible student, and I was a pretty decent football player, so that seemed to be the only person to go to,” he said.

Regan’s coach recommended he look into the communication and theater arts major. After taking his first course, a speech class, which gave him his first opportunity to entertain a crowd, he decided stand-up comedy was for him.

“I think a lot of people look at grades as the only barometer of whether someone’s successful in college, and I felt like I had an incredible world education there,” he said. “It put me on the right path for the rest of my life.”

Critics have praised Regan’s brand of observational humor for its lack of profanity or crudity. But that’s not a result of being prude or wholesome, Regan said. It’s just his personal choice of what he finds funny.

“I don’t get on a white horse and say, ‘Onward, we’re bringing clean comedy to the masses,’” he said. “It’s more of a medium to me than an end result, like some people might want to paint with acrylics.”

Regan’s “off-the-wall” sense of humor can sometimes lose touch with reality, he said, and his comedic physical reenactments on stage to goofy tangents. But as he says in defense of two of his favorite comedians, Steve Martin and Jerry Lewis, “You have to be smart to be that goofy.”

“It’s fun to take off, to get in a rocket ship and put a helmet on and leave what we’re comfortable with,” Regan said. “I like to do that comedically, too.”

Brian Regan will perform at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore on March 13 and 14. Tickets are available through LiveNation.com.