Feature Interview: Comedian Ryan Hamilton 

• Brandon Flint

CW: So, you're headlining the same venue where Adam Sandler is playing a week later.
RH: It is surreal. I've performed there before, but opening for other people. I did a corporate event once on the floor, but I thought, "Well, this will be the only time I perform in the Delta Center."

CW: Do you approach performing differently based on the size of the audience?
RH: [In an arena] I feel the need to be a little bigger, a little more physical. I'm also not acknowledging every little distraction, because even if you notice, only 10 percent of the people are aware it's happening. You have to have your eye on the horizon.

CW: As your career progressed, do you recall having a moment of, "I think I've figured this out, and I know what I'm doing now?"
RH: It's happened several times that I think I've figured it out, but then I realize, "Oh, I don't know anything." Because you get to a different level. First, you just want to be like, a guy who can host a local show. Then you can be a featured [comedian], then let's try to headline. You're never ready for any of those sets; there's no way to do it but to do it. Then you get to year 10, 11, 12, you think, "I can do everything that's required of me to be a professional standup comedian." So yeah, maybe 10 years.

CW: You once had a joke describing yourself as looking like "the illegitimate son of Jerry and Elaine." What was it like to develop a professional friendship and actually end up opening for Jerry Seinfeld?
RH: I don't know if he's ever heard or seen that joke, and I'd prefer to keep it that way. ... I met [Seinfeld] at Carnegie Hall [when I was opening for a mutual friend]. ... Backstage, Jerry's wife said, "You remind me of Jerry." I felt my whole body, my face go red, just kind of embarrassed; I don't want him to think I'm trying to "do" him. Then Jerry said, "Really? I just don't see it."

Three days later, just by sheer happenstance, I was walking out of Gotham Comedy Club and he was walking in. He pulled me aside and told me some very nice things. Then a few months later I got a call to see if I wanted to open for him. ... I've learned so much from him, not just about comedy, but about ... balancing this crazy career with a healthy life.

CW: In January 2022, you were in an accident where you were hit by a bus. Aside from how it affected you physically, did you have any "change the way you think about your life and your goals" moments?
RH: When something like that happens to you, all the things you thought were problems suddenly aren't problems anymore. Just a year before that, my father had passed away ..., and I remember feeling that then. One year later, I'm lying in the hospital, I remember thinking this same thing before. How did I forget so quickly? And I don't want to forget anymore.

CW: How long was it between the accident itself, and the first moment in your head where you started to think of a joke about it that you could work into your act?
RH: I'm kind of ashamed of this, but it happened instantaneously. ... The first thing I thought was, "I can't believe this happened;" then I thought, "I'm going to have to postpone these shows in Salt Lake again [that had already been postponed multiple times due to COVID]. This is like a punch line." ... One of my comedian friends, Tommy Johnagin, was able to come to visit me in the hospital. We started bouncing ideas immediately, because that's what we do. He brought me a notebook, and I started writing. For a couple of days I could, but then I just couldn't for two or three months. I still had the momentum of a comedian right when it happened—this is just how we process life—but then was it like, "No, you have to heal, physically and emotionally."

CW: Opening an arena seems to be kind of the top of a comedian's career, but are there still other items on your professional bucket list?
RH: It's good to have goals and objectives, but this is an interesting enough kind of career that there are a lot of different paths. I never wanted to be an "arena comedian" ... but they came to me and said, "Do you want to do the arena?" and I said, "Sure." That's happened several times, where somebody puts something in front of you and you say, "Do I want to take a different trajectory?" You kind of snake around and just try to keep moving forward. ... No two comedians ever get successful in exactly the same way.