Comedian Bert Kreischer Will Play The Hits, Just Let Him Do Some New Stuff First

"It's probably the most interesting part of my story," Bert Kreischer laughs as he recalls his rise to fame. "In 1997, Rolling Stone magazine discovered me in college and declared me the number one party animal in the country. They wrote a six and a half page article about me, and then suddenly I was optioning off the rights to my life story." As a Florida frat boy in a "Party school," the next few years were serendipitous for a young Kreischer. "I said in the article that I thought I would want to do stand up, so I moved to New York to pursue the dream and six months in Will Smith discovers me." He continues, "I had this real baptism by fire in the media and entertainment. Initially it just happened so fast, and then I just started doing TV and stand up, and I've been doing all that for nearly 19 years now. It's pretty much all I know."

By his own admission, however, Kreischer didn't find his own voice as a stand up until rather recently. "If you watch my first special," he says, "you can see that I tell a couple of stories there but I was always trying to write 'jokes' and trying to stick to a more proper format. And then podcasting came along and I became known in that world for telling good stories." Kreischer says that his tales became so popular that at live shows, "People would yell out for them. They'd be like 'Tell us about that time you peed on your girlfriend's dining room table!' and I'd say "that's not really a joke though" and they'd go 'Don't care, just tell it!'" Speaking on how the rise in podcasts shaped his comedic style, Kreischer says "I think the dialogue between fans and comedians changed during this time, especially for myself. And I kind of grew as a comic and I learned to experiment with storytelling and what makes a story good... my writing process feels very organic, so now I can walk through life and see something and go 'that would be good for stage.'"

It was in this new comedic style that Kreischer eventually exploded online. Having found a platform for his unique way of spinning yarns, the comic went on to viral fame with a story that's affectionately come to be known as "The Machine."

"If you sit there going 'okay, this is my brand' then you can become this really hackneyed version of what you think people think you are."

"I first told that story on a show called Loveline about ten years ago," Kreischer recalls of the tale in which he, as a college-aged exchange student, befriends and accomplices members of the Russian Mafia. "And then I told it in a few more places over the years and eventually on my new special. So I thought, 'great, time to put this to rest,' and then in the week after the special dropped the story got like 20 million views on my Facebook page." Kreischer's fans apparently now demand the story at "every show" he performs, but the comedian is more than happy to oblige. "I totally get it. You know, if I see Ron White I wanna hear the Tater Salad story. If I go see Foo Fighters I wanna hear Everlong, so I totally get it. But I tell everyone, 'listen, I'll do this story every damn show if you want, but just allow me to write a new hour of material every year!'"

Looking back on his colourful career, Kreischer confesses that maturity and fatherhood have helped his comedy evolve to where it is today. "When you start out, you tend to copy the energies of people you like, and the hardest part is finding your own voice and sticking to that. You gotta take some real chances, you know?" He adds, "people tend to know me as this party boy, but if I'm gonna be true to myself I'm gonna do my comedy and the first 30 minutes could be about my daughter or my wife and I'm just gonna do it as best I can.

"I think people just like the mentality of what I'm doing: the idea that I'm impulsive and that I like to have a good time, you know? I think that's what people get attached to. But I try not to over think it because if you sit there going 'okay, this is my brand' then you can become this really hackneyed version of what you think people think you are."

Nonetheless, as Kreischner gears up for his nationwide Aus tour, he still remains humble and appreciative of his fans. "If you had told me 18 years ago that I would have one joke that anyone would want to hear twice, I would've been shocked. If you had told me that I had a bit that people would be calling out for, I'd tell you to shut the hell up. And if you asked me all those years ago if I wouldn't mind telling it again, I'd tell it every single night. Just let me do that hour of new material before hand. I have to do it at the end because if I tell that story at the beginning I'm afraid that they'll just leave!"

Bert Kreischer plays 8 Sep at Enmore Theatre Sydney, part of Just For Laughs, and 9 Sep at The Comedy Theatre Melbourne.