Matt Conty: The Jose Oquendo of Local Comedy

I work for a medical device company. It's a real small start-up, so I've been comptroller, I was financial manager. I actually have a finance degree.

But eventually we got to the point where we didn't want the comptroller on the road four nights a week, cranking out dick jokes. So they put me into operations.



There's not a lot of people with finance degrees who are also funny.

Well, nobody's ever done the math. There's not a lot of comics with degrees. Why even focus on one area?

How's your monthly comedy show at Brennan's going?

Depends on how you assess it. Numbers-wise, I think it's pretty slow, which I expected. But the shows have been amazing.

The weird thing about comedy especially in a small room like that - if you like the guy, you're ten feet away from him, then after you meet the guy and you have a drink with him. You're right there with the entertainer.

The whole thing with comedy is that circular energy. If you've been in a room where everything's hitting, bouncing back-and-forth -- when it's good, it's a hotbed of laughter that feeds on itself.

But it can go either way, it can be uptight. That room can be a ball-breaker. You've probably seen me bomb down there. I have to embrace the crowd.