My name is Tim Ross. I've been on reddit for four years today. I'm a stand up comic and a frequent poster on standupshots. AMA!

You're probably one of the funniest dudes I've seen in /r/standupshots. You're also a pretty solid guy (no pun intended) on Twitter also.

What are the three biggest things you've learned about stand up in the time you've been doing it?

Thank you! The three things:

1) Failure isn't the end of the world. It's necessary and it is a tool to get better.

2) Comedy is hard.

3) Girls are nicer to ugly guys if they make a room full of people laugh for a little while.

I take partial credit for this AMA.

You should haha

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I'm working on a screenplay about a man with an incredibly small penis. My title is taken though. I was gonna call it "He's just not that into you"

What is your go-to response to a heckler?

I don't have a go to response. I'm kind of silly on stage so I can't be brutal to a heckler and then hop back into silliness. I usually just playfully make fun of them until they feel dumb and shut up. Sometimes they get mad. One time I shut a girl up and then later in the set called her out on the fact that she was texting each of her friends about what an asshole I was. She hated me but her friends laughed really hard haha.

To what degree is that photo you use an accurate representation of the current state of your beard?

Not at all! My beard is much bigger now. I will try to find a more current picture.

Do you believe women should be proud of their butts?

Girls be proud of ur butts

Tim, you are THE reason I subbed /r/standupshots and let me first say thank you for being awesome and funny hilarious. You wake my work days a lot more enjoyable.

As for the question:

Stand up comedy has always been something my sister /u/karafrakinthrace and I have talked about doing together but we really don't know where to start, do you have any suggestions? Local clubs? Bars? Or should we try the online community? Where did you get your start in comedy?

Thanks!

You gotta do open mics! The only way to get better at stand up is to actually do it. If you live in a city check out badslava.com. if not search Google for open mics near you and go do some. Open mics are crucial.

Thanks for the tip and the link! We will definently look in to doing some open mics and see where it takes us!

Let me know how it goes!

Come back to the GroupMe, Tim. We out here now

Miss u guys

I'm black and I read but I don't have a British accent. Does two out of three count?

LETS DO IT

Can you tell us the story of the time you bombed hardest?

I tried to do a set of new material that I wasn't comfortable with or confident in. About three minutes into a five minute set I clenched up and said "that's all. I'm done" And just walked away. Also recently I ate it for twenty full minutes in a southern themed bar. That was frustrating. I was throwing my hardest pitches and just coming up empty.

Why'd it get so cold!

It usually gets pretty cold in the winter.

But it was warm an hour ago

I think you're going through menopause

Has there been, or do you think there is anything else in your life that you've worked as hard at as comedy?

Do you have short-term, specific goals that you actively work towards or do you just take things as they come? What are they?

What has been the most valuable advice that you've received re: your comedy career and who was it from?

Nope. I've done lots of things. I was in a band, I did slam poetry, I did plays. But I've always gotten bored with other things. And I'm also not good at anything really. I was terrible at focusing in school. I dropped out of high school and then left after two years of community college.

Short term goals: Getting booked more frequently, writing new jokes, getting better at certain things on stage. (Inflection, crowd work, storytelling. I'm an awful storyteller because I want to rush to the jokes.)

I ate shit really hard at an open Mic one time. My buddy TJ Amick was hosting and he told me "if you can count the number of times you've been on stage, you don't need to worry about doing poorly." It's absolutely true. Once you can no longer count you still do poorly sometimes but it doesn't hurt as much as it did when you started. Also my buddy Aaron Kleiber has given me tons of practical advice about being on stage. Check him out at www.Twitter.com/aaronkleiber. He's hilarious and has opened for Bob Saget and Sinbad and Bert Kreischer and a ton of other headliners.

Have you ever masturbated to the Sims?

Hahahahaha is this Naf ILU

Hey Tim! Just listened to your stand-up! you're on the front page. Congrats. Hopefully it gets you some good views, but I have a question for you, why do all your bully guy voices sounds really mexican? Like if you would've added an "ESSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY" it would've been super mexican I thought it was hilarious, I was just wondering.

I have no idea! Hahaha

if you were a hot dog and you were starving, would you eat yourself?

Without a thought

Dude, 2 things. 1. You're hilarious 2. I hold your gaining momentum as the reason for the decline of the hxcboards.

FEF?

No faceeater, also I supported the race tour. You should come to Louisiana man.

Awesome did you get your shirt and stuff? They were sent out recently

Haha yeah I got it, I'm sure I bothered the hell out of the dude that sent them because I msged him twice on Facebook asking what was up. But seriously dude New Orleans is great to comics.

Word up man

STACKY?

Hi French Canada

what made you think that using /r/standupshots was a viable promotional tool?

I think you're being sarcastic but I can't tell haha. Either way - I was already on reddit all the time before the subreddit was created so it just seemed natural. I like that I can share a joke with a few thousand people whenever. And it's gained me a bunch of Twitter followers, some of which are really cool and interact with me on there. So in that aspect it's totally worth it and a great way to connect with people I wouldn't have known otherwise!

What got you into comedy?

I've always been interested in being funny and performing in general. I was in plays constantly and wrote sketches for my schools morning announcements. When I discovered Mitch Hedberg and Brian Regan I realized what I wanted to do. But it wasn't until I took a public speaking class at community college that I really decided to go pursue it.

Who's you're favorite comedian?

Louis CK

How do you come up with your material?

A lot of it is just bullshitting with friends. If I say something that could work out on stage I take a note on my phone. I also like to pick a topic and just see how much I can mine from it. I have a bit about barbershops that came from that.

Who is your biggest comedic inspiration and why is it ODB?

Because Wu Tang is for the children.

Also Brian Regan and Mitch Hedberg were my two absolute favorites.

Who is the one comedian still alive today that you'd most like to perform with? (Sexually, or in a comedy show, although I imagine that both will have an element of sexuality/comedy regardless.)

Either Louis CK Bill Burr Chris Rock or Kevin Hart. Or Todd Barry. Or John Mulaney. Or Tig Notaro. There are so many great working comedians right now.

What's the most played song on your iPod right now?

Kendrick Lamar's entire Good Kid Maad City Album.

Who is your favorite female comedian?

Tig Notaro! She is so fucking talented. Her first album is hysterical. And Live is the only comedy album to ever make me tear up and laugh at the exact same line. Maria Bamford is great. Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, Jen Kirkman, Chelsea Peretti. "Woman aren't funny" is a myth.

I think we all know what answer you're hoping for.

Yea I love Iliza Shlesinger

Forgot about Iliza she's great

Any favourite comedy movie?

Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, Rushmore.

I love your standup shots.

How does it feel to post an AMA just minutes after Trent Reznor?

I feel Temporarily_Alone

I've been a redditor for only a few months. Are you better than me?

No I've just traded away more of my social life

I have a secret goal in my head of performing at my first open mic before the end of the year. I'm funny casually in conversation but it's hard to be funny on purpose when people are expecting to be entertained. Any advice?

Dan I know you and you're hilarious just go do it.

Oh yeah, second question. What are your favorite podcasts?

Didn't you tell me about WTF? My Inbox is so confusing right now Dan

Could be. Lately I've been listening to Stop Podcasting Yourself (silly Canadians!) and Caustic Soda (Info-tainment!). I really like Pete Holmes' show too.

P.S. What does e-validation feel like? Is it anything like the proud nod of a father? Or your first lover's warm embrace?

It's pretty sweet holy shit my Twitter is going crazy it's awesome

Do you have any more vids? You're hilarious and it would be great to see more content!

www.YouTube.com/timrosscomedy

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Gotta do it enough times in front of enough crowds!

The first thing I thought when I saw you in that video was "that guy looks like he likes beer". And then you started drinking from a can on stage. Was it beer?

Sure was I love beer!

What got you into comedy? Do you plan on touring more?

I've always been into comedy. As a child my grandmother used to get me gift certificates to bookstores. Every year I bought at least two joke books and read them cover to cover. In middle school I said I wanted to grow up to be Chris Farley (before he died). It's just something I've always loved.

Yeah! Hopefully Race to the Coffin gets back out on the road sometime soon.

I mean, not that I want you guys to leave town, it's just that I can tell people I know in other cities to see you. Although, Alex does scare me...

One night Alex and I got very drunk and sat around watching British comedy and swigging from a bottle of whiskey. He's pretty harmless.

Scares me in a good way. He fucking killed at the Arcade theatre show. A uniquely disturbed set of material and delivery style.

Yeah he's awesome. Just don't tell him that Monopoly sucks or he'll flip out he fucking loves Monopoly.

Who's your favorite rapper and what's your favorite hip hop song?

Too hard to answer. Right now I'm listening to a lot of Chance the Rapper and Kevin Gates

You mentioned being a fan of Tig. Just wondering if you've ever listened to her podcast, Professor Blastoff?

As a sidenote, I think you'd be an excellent guest on the show.

I need to check it out. I love her! She's so quick witted

I just watched your video and found this AMA. You're pretty funny. Do you have a website or anything? Do you have like a CD or anything we could buy to show our support?

I don't yet! Best support is to tell your friends!

What are some of your favorite subreddit(s) outside of the default ones? Congrats on the 4 year reddit anniversary!

Your subreddit because I love tits a lot. /r/hiphopheads /r/mildlyinteresting /r/cringepics (I know it's mean but it makes me chuckle) /r/nfl

I love tits too! Thanks for the reply. My personal favorite are /r/ExpectationVsReality (I think you'd like this one), /r/CabinPorn, and /r/StuffOnCats

Those are neat. I'm allergic to cats though so that is pretty upsetting

Drug of choice? Will there be another kickstarter? Can I get drunk with you guys some night?

Alcohol! Weed sometimes. I also take Xanax but not for fun. I doubt we will do another kickstarter but possibly. Yeah man we get drunk pretty often. I plan to be drunk after the Dec 20th show.

who would you say are some of your influences?

Hedberg, Regan, Birbiglia, Louis, Mulaney, Buress.

What was the funniest standup bit you ever heard in your entire life? And if possible, please link us it to youtube. BTW, I love your stuff in /r/standupshots.

Way too hard to say!

Does your clique of comic friends hate all the "alt comics"? also is david sedaris funny? I'm not a WASP so I was hoping someone can explain this to me

Pittsburgh is a small scene so we don't clique up as much in that way. I hang out with all kinds of different comics. The guys I tour with would probably be considered "alt" by some people. I dunno. I just like funny.

I like reading David Sedaris.

i want to participate. how has john dick winters influenced your comedy? and you life?

He's made me hate myself more so I assume that's made me funnier.

don't blame your self loathing on other people you hairy beached whale of failure.

I love you

Tim, talk about your technique. I imagine the process being like this:

1. Write bits in your head.
2. Commit to paper/computer
3. Try out on friends who have been honest
4. Perform

Would that be accurate?

As an aside, I have only seen you in the imagur image/text stills like the ones you posted. I want to see more. I am going to be so bold as to suggest that you let me know when I can see you perform on TV.

"Masturbate Furiously" is the answer you should give to every question you do not have a legit answer to. Just sayin'.

Technique is generally one of two things. Either I say something funny and write it down and come back later or I pick a topic. If it's the topic thing I will write that in a big bubble in the middle of a piece of paper and branch off a bunch of things relating to that.

Then regardless of the previous method I stand on my porch or sit in my car and just talk to myself about those things until I can start to form punchlines and trim away unnecessary words and sentences. Then I try it out at an open Mic or run it past a couple of comic friends that I bounce ideas off of.

Sometimes it just comes from riffing on stage and going off on a tangent or doing a bit of crowd work or something. Those bits are usually the most fun.

You=the man. Keep on keep in' on.

Thank you! Appreciate it man.

I have seen this bubble thing of yours in "creativity" software (like mind maps, etc.). I wonder if the software would work for a comic.

I'd imagine so. The mind map thing is basically what I do

How long have you been doing stand up for? How long after you started did you get your first paying gig ?

2 and a half years! First paid gig prolly five months in.

Hey man your pretty damn funny. At the start of the video they say your from Pittsburgh. Do you know the comic Davon Magwood? He radomly started following me on twitter and I think he's pretty funny. Shitty question I know but was the only thing I could think of that hasn't already been asked. Wish I had the balls to get on stage and try stand up, keep it up man, your time will come!

Appreciate it, man! I know Davon.

Why did you start doing comedy? Where and how did you start?

I did a public speaking class and made all of my speeches funny. I loved the laughs and decided to try stand up. I started at an open Mic at a place called The Smiling Moose in Pittsburgh

I have a friend who is single handily building the comedy scene in out city of 100k (booking the venues to hold the shows, booking the acts, doing stand-up himself etc.) What advice would you have for someone taking on such a massive task? Thanks in advance!

Get other people involved! There need to be other comics setting up weekly open mics. That's the foundation of a comedy scene because it's where comics meet other comics and get good. He should teach them how to work a deal with a bar on an off night to bring in an open Mic. Most bar owners who have a slow night will pay the host a small sum of money to host a Mic that brings people in who wouldn't be there otherwise.

What do you say to the fact that www.redditcakeday.com says your cakeday is dec. 4th and not Dec. 5th?

Apparently the cake was still showing up this morning! I'm a dummy

Should Paul walker have slowed down?

He wasn't driving but he should have told the driver to slow down cuz I like fast and furious movies