Comedian Christopher Titus is coming to Gainesville to support his seventh 90-minute comedy special, “Born With a Defect.”
Titus, who starred in Fox’s “Titus” and now hosts “Pawnography” on History channel, will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the University Auditorium, located at 333 Newell Drive.
Tickets are available at tickets.performingarts.ufl.edu. Tickets can be purchased for $29, $39 or $49 depending on the price zone.
Amy Douglas, the UF Performing Arts director of marketing and communications, said the performing arts department regularly works with outside presenters to provide venue support for local, regional and national acts.
“We are pleased that we can assist Combustion Live with Mr. Titus’ most recent tour,” she wrote in an email.
The comedian, who last performed in Gainesville at the 2003 Gator Growl, reflected on his experience.
“I would say Gator Growl is one of the weirdest gigs I’ve ever done,” Titus said.
He said that after telling a joke, the crowd’s laughter would slowly work its way around the stadium before he could tell another one.
“I think I did six jokes in like 14 minutes,” Titus said. “Because it was just, it was so freakin’ big, man.”
Students who come to the show can expect to take away some advice from it. He said he encounters a lot of young people who tell him they can’t wait to have kids, a statement for which he has a simple reply.
“Yeah you can,” Titus said. “Trust me, I have ‘em. You can wait.”
The comedian also references a new joke that says for the cost of raising kids, you could buy a Ferrari sports car and live the Ferrari life.
“Between (ages) one and 18, a kid’s gonna cost you 300 grand; that’s base level,” Titus said. “And what you can get with 300 grand is a Ferrari 450 Italia and what you get with a 450 Italia is pretty much anything you want.”
His jokes are brutally honest and draw inspiration from his personal life, including his divorce and upbringing in a dysfunctional family.
One of his specials, “Norman Rockwell is Bleeding,” focuses heavily on his family.
“My mom was mentally ill, and my dad was a raging alcoholic and abusive… and one day I just got how absurd it all was,” he said, “and once I got how absurd it was, it was easy to write jokes about it.”
The comic grew up with a father who would show up to school events and games with a beer in his hand, regardless of what anyone thought of it. Titus said there is a picture of his dad sitting in the water getting ready to ski, with a beer in one hand and the skiing rope in the other.
“He always had a beer in his hand; 100 percent of the time,” Titus said.
That’s who his dad was. He was always having fun and would eventually drink enough and “piss everybody off,” which was even more fun for his dad, Titus said. He would have “fun on top of fun” without caring what anyone else thought.
As he has grown older he has begun to appreciate the way his dad “lived his own life.” His own daughter is a high school student concerned about what other people think of her, he said. He said college students need the same advice that he gave her.
“Listen, it’s gonna go by in a blink,” Titus said.
He said if you want to spend your relatively short time in high school and college trying to fit in, then go ahead and fit in so the crowd will accept you.
“But if you’re deranged, the crowd will make you their leader,” Titus said. “And that’s who you wanna be.”
He touched on this concept in “Norman Rockwell is Bleeding,” saying the crazy people are the ones who pique interest and encourage others to come up and talk to them.
“You know those are the guys that start companies,” Titus said. “Those are the guys that change the world, man.”
Some of his own success could be attributed to this reasoning, because he’s admitted to himself that you have to be a little crazy to be a comedian.
He questions what kind of person can walk into a room filled with a thousand people and believe he is the funniest and most charismatic person there.
Apart from being admittedly crazy, the artist pours a lot of effort into his craft.
Stand-up has been his only paycheck since he began at 19 years old. He had to hustle, he said, and over time his constant hard work and stress became his normal, day-to-day work ethic.
“I’ve kept it going because I wrote seven specials,” Titus said. “A lot of guys become comedians to get a TV show. I became a comedian to be a comedian -- never wanted a TV show.”
Now, the comedian is ready to perform for the Gators again. He said with 90 minutes of comedy, he’s going to rip some faces off.
This time around, he won’t be limited to telling six jokes in 14 minutes.
He’s also expecting to hurt some people with his jokes and the pure honesty that comes from his brand of comedy, he said.
“I do a joke in the new show where I say, ‘I have two kids. I stopped at two kids because my ex-wife’s vagina was busy elsewhere. It had a guest list, and I wasn’t on it,’” Titus said. “People go ‘Oooooh,’ but I can’t say that any nicer.”
Christopher Titus has taken his life and turned it into a comedy skit. The comedian will perform at 8 p.m. on Friday at the University Auditorium.
