Stephen Lynch (comedian)

Stephen Andrew Lynch (born July 28, 1971) is an American comedian, musician and actor who is known for his satirical songs mocking daily life and popular culture. Lynch has released four studio albums and four live albums along with a live DVD. This DVD, '' Live at the El Rey'', was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

He has appeared in two ''Comedy Central Presents'' specials and starred in the Broadway adaptation of ''The Wedding Singer'', earning multiple award nominations. Lynch released a double-disc album, ''Lion'', in 2012, and a live concert video, ''Hello, Kalamazoo'', in 2016. Like ''Lion'', 2019's ''My Old Heart'' was half recorded in studio and half from a live concert. The A to Z Entertainment website has written, "His unique blend of musical based comedy has earned him fiercely loyal fans around the world who live to experience his sold-out live shows."

Early life and education

Lynch was born in Abington, Pennsylvania. His family later moved to Saginaw, Michigan. He has a younger brother, Andrew, known as Drew (not standup comic Drew Lynch, who is unrelated), who also became a stage actor. Their parents, Leo R. and Judith (Hayes) Lynch, were a former priest and a former nun. Both parents became teachers, and Leo Lynch sang in a folk trio, The New Image. Stephen Lynch told an interviewer, "I don't really use religious imagery in my act, so from that perspective it wasn't really a factor. However, our parents always encouraged us to express ourselves creatively and it was always a very musical household."

Like his sons, Lynch's father was a stage actor as well as a singer. Lynch's earliest work in the theater was performing with his father in local community theater productions in Saginaw as a child. The first live musical he saw was ''Man of La Mancha'', a community theater production in which his father played the role of the Padre.

Lynch would perform in community theatre and musical theatre while attending Arthur Hill High School and The Center for Arts and Sciences (now Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy), from which he graduated in 1988. He received a theater scholarship to attend The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before transferring in 1990 to Western Michigan University, where he graduated with a BA in drama in 1993. While attending Western Michigan University, he began to write comedic songs.

Considering himself a musician first and a comedian second, Lynch cites singer/songwriters Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell as his childhood inspirations, rather than comedians. He was inspired to go into show business after seeing the mockumentary '' This is Spinal Tap''. The first song that he wrote, at age 15, was a country song titled "Beefy Burrito". In it, a cowboy breaks up with his girlfriend, then goes to a diner, where his entrée reminds him of his lost love.

Career

Early career

After spending his first year out of college with friends in California, then working summers from 1993 to 1995 at The Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, Lynch moved to New York City in 1996 with the intention of becoming an actor. Upon his arrival, a friend at the West Bank Cafe on 42nd Street suggested Lynch play, for an audience, some of the comic songs he had written while attending university. He soon found success in comedy clubs and other venues around the city (notably Catch a Rising Star and Caroline's), and became a regular on radio shows such as ''Opie and Anthony''. Lynch spent his early years in New York City doing what he called "totally mindless work" as a temp worker. He quit such temporary jobs permanently, signing with What Are Records? in 2000 and Vision International in 2002.

Over the next few years, he toured colleges, universities, and nightclubs around the country, avoiding the comedy club circuit as much as possible, which he has stated is not to his taste. He periodically returned to Michigan to do summer stock. During his March 6, 2009, appearance on ''The Bob and Tom Show'', Lynch mentioned Steel Toast as the name of the band in which he first performed. As of the start of his '' 3 Balloons'' tour in spring 2009, Agency for the Performing Arts books all of his concert dates.

2000 to present

Lynch often played venues more often suited to music than to comedy, including locations such as the House of Blues, The Town Hall and the esteemed Carnegie Hall. He gained national exposure with his ''Comedy Central Presents'' special in 2000, which became one of their highest-rated performances. He has made appearances on ''Comedy Centrals ''Premium Blend'', ''The World Comedy Tour'', and ''The World Stands Up''. He has also made four appearances on ''Last Call with Carson Daly'', and has performed at the '' Just for Laughs'' Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Lynch has opened for comedians Jay Mohr, Jeff Foxworthy, Steven Wright, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Lewis Black. In the summer of 2004, he went on a tour co-headlining with Mitch Hedberg. The tour was such a success that they added an extra leg and ran into 2005. This was Hedberg's last tour before his death.

He has appeared in five short films, including ''The Love Seat'' in 1999 and ''The Confetti Brothers'' in 2001. Both films were written and directed by Kirker Butler. ''The Confetti Brothers'', a satire, screened to packed houses at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. It continues to play the film festival circuit. In 2002's award-winning ''Pillowfighter'', he played Chet Sheplynn, a folklorist/folksinger.

In 2004, Lynch recorded a concert at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, joined by his brother Drew Lynch (not the identically named "stuttering stand-up comedian" Drew Lynch) and his friend Mark Teich as backup singers. It was released as the '' Live at the El Rey'' DVD. The DVD includes a commentary track, a clip from one of Lynch's earliest live performances (featuring "Jim Henson's Dead"), a clip of Lynch recording "Lullaby" in the studio for his first album, ''A Little Bit Special'' and a short film recorded by Lynch's wife, Erin Dwight, titled ''Lynch and Teich in Brooklyn''.

In April 2006, Lynch starred as Robbie Hart in the Broadway musical ''The Wedding Singer'', which ran on Broadway from April 27, 2006, through December 31, 2006, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. This musical production was based on the 1998 New Line Cinema film ''The Wedding Singer'', starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. The musical, Lynch's Broadway debut, co-starred Tony winner Laura Benanti in the role of Julia Sullivan, played by Barrymore in the film. The April 2006 opening followed a successful preview run in Seattle at The 5th Avenue Theatre, which ran from January 31 through February 19. His performance has earned him nominations for Tony, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards, According to interviews after, he stated that, due to the rehearsals for the show, he had forgotten most of his own songs.

In 2007, Lynch returned to the road again, touring with comedians such as Bob Saget, Frank Caliendo, Louis C.K., Carlos Mencia and others on the Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus Comedy Tour. He performed the song "Two Feet Firm" for the soundtrack of the 2007 comedy film ''The Ten'', with backup singers Rashida Jones, Amy Miles, and Craig Wedren.

Lynch starred in his second ''Comedy Central Presents'' special in January 2008. He also performed on his first European tours in 2008, headlining concerts in England, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. All but two of the seventeen shows sold out, despite never playing a majority of the markets. Lynch attributes this success to YouTube. His newfound European popularity — he became known as "the Beyoncé of Scandinavia" — resulted in appearances at six festivals in August and September 2008. He played in the United Kingdom (UK) at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, headlining the alternative stage at each site. He also appeared at the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands on August 17; Edinburgh Edge Festival (during Fringe) on August 24; The Pimm's Summerfest in Holland Park, London, on August 28; and Bulmer's Comedy Festival in Dublin at the Olympia Theater on September 1 and 2.

He returned to Europe in fall 2009, and toured the UK in March 2010, headlining London's Brixton Academy on March 5, 2010. Lynch's second studio album, '' 3 Balloons'', was released on March 10, 2009.

The Lost Media Archive reports that Lynch announced, in February 2010, that a concert had been filmed in Portland, Oregon ("most likely on March 16, 2009 at the Aladdin Theater"). Lynch's website stated that the film, entitled ''An Evening with Stephen Lynch'', would "air later this year, with a new DVD to follow." However, Lynch was unhappy with the material, his site was edited to delete the promise, and the project was quietly shelved. He explained in interviews with Lost Media, "I re-visited it recently to see if maybe I could put something together and I hated it even more, especially in comparison to the shows we were doing on the ''Lion'' tour. So it is unlikely that any of it will ever be released. Maybe a song or two, but never the full concert. Which sucks because we shot it on film and it cost me a small fortune, but I'm just too unhappy with it to put it out into the world. ..Maybe I'll use some footage for extras on a future DVD, if DVDs are even a thing anymore. If not, it'll be like that Jerry Lewis holocaust clown movie and only be whispered about in certain circles."

Lynch appeared on ''The Opie and Anthony Show'' on Sirius XM Satellite Radio on October 19, 2009. He told them that he had finally returned to his New York apartment after spending the previous year in Michigan with his wife. During a subsequent appearance on May 2, 2013, to promote ''Lion'', Lynch stated that he had returned to Michigan after a financial downturn and creative dry spell.

On March 6, 2011, while replying to a message on Twitter, Lynch announced that he was working on a new CD. When asked if it would be studio or live, he replied "I'm leaning studio." In June 2011, Lynch performed at Chinateatern in Stockholm and at Kulturens Hus in Luleå, as well as venues in Gothenburg and Malmö, Sweden. ''Lion'', a double live/studio album, was released on November 13, 2012, to solid reviews.

In 2016, Lynch recorded a live show at the State Theatre in Ann Arbor, Michigan, called ''Hello, Kalamazoo'', which was directed by Kevin Romeo of Rhino Media. It was released as a DVD.

Lynch began the My Old Heart Tour on January 11, 2017, to begin showcasing material for his upcoming new album ''My Old Heart''. On February 21, 2018, Lynch announced that the album was finished and he was due to record a live album to accompany it at The Reality Factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on March 16, 2018. On March 17, 2019, Lynch confirmed via Twitter that ''My Old Heart'' would be released on June 14, 2019.

As Lynch's repertoire of material includes duets and a few songs for three voices, close university pals and fellow comedians Mark Teich (of The Second City; he passed away in 2021) and Rod Cone (of The Rod Cone Situation) have been frequent guests on his tours. More recently, he toured with Courtney Jaye, his co-performer for ''Lion''. He has also done shows with his brother Drew and with former ''Wedding Singer'' castmate David Josefsberg.

In 2021, Lynch announced "The Time Machine Tour," a nationwide run, from August to the end of November, organized by his agent, Mike Berkowitz. He told interviewer John Liberty that he had tweaked the lyrics to "Time Machine" (a song about going back in time to kill Adolf Hitler in infancy, as well as other controversial figures such as Idi Amin and Charles Manson), to address COVID-19, which had prevented his touring earlier. Lynch said, "I thought I would be really creative in that time period. It turned out to be the opposite — I didn't want to do anything creative. Nothing was funny. I didn't want to re–tailor everything that I had written up to that point to be about this thing that was consuming all of our time and attention. So, I just sort of didn't. I didn't do anything. I allowed myself to do other things. I cleaned my house. I sold my house. I bought a new house. I moved into that house. I did everything to just not think about that type of thing. I figured when the time was right, I would be reinspired and the creative juices would get flowing again. And that's what happened, especially now that I have (performance) dates to actually look forward to."

He told Liberty in the same 2021 interview that, having turned 50, "You start to think about making something that will last, something you want to last... To me, there's no greater joy than when you have a bunch of new things to play for people and get a reaction and an assessment for how you did. Playing the old stuff is fine, and I know people want to hear their favorite thing or whatever, but, to me, when people ask me what my favorite song is that I've written, it's probably going to be the last song I wrote. There’s something fulfilling with starting at zero, literally nothing, and creating out of the ether a thing. Hopefully a fully realized and good thing.... I look forward to playing all the new material for people and getting reactions and then changing things and reworking things. That's part of the fun of it for me. You're not trying to get it perfect. It'll never be perfect. I want to get it to a point where I'm happy with it, and then I can run into the studio, and that is what it will be forever."

Personal life

He married Erin Dwight on a private beach on Lake Michigan in September 2003, and she is generally the first person to hear his original ideas for songs; if she does not laugh at the initial concept, he will scrap the idea completely. He told an interviewer in 2011, "My wife is a soundboard for all my ideas. I don't go out to offend anyone, I just try to find an angle that is amusing in things that perhaps on the surface are not immediately funny. In the same way that Mel Brooks can poke fun at Hitler and The Holocaust for example, I can make comedy from things like AIDS tests or Anne Frank. It all depends on your approach. You just develop a feeling for what is okay and what isn't, but I don't have any qualms about my material. If I feel that I am picking on someone or being cruel, the chances are I wouldn't find it funny, so I wouldn't use it anyway."

Dwight recorded a short film while her husband was away touring, called ''Lynch and Teich in Brooklyn'', to show that she missed him. This was included in the extras on his 2004 concert DVD, '' Live at the El Rey''. She also co-created the cover concept for the album, ''The Craig Machine'', with her mother, Kalamazoo photographer Fran Dwight.

Lynch has stated that, although they were raised Roman Catholic, religion was not forced upon the brothers growing up. He told an interviewer, "Nah, my parents left the church a long time before I was born. They were actually rebellious themselves — they were 1960s, rabble-rousing, peace-marching people. We didn't go to church much. It was actually a very liberal, progressive home to grow up in, and both of my parents had a great sense of humor."
His father's past included being part of a duo who sang at antiwar protests during the Vietnam War.

Lynch's father Leo died October 9, 2009. Although he canceled several performances as a result, Lynch still performed at Central Michigan University on October 16. Stephen remembered, "He had this folk-music trio that was very much in demand in the Saginaw area, and even after the group 'retired,' he still supplemented his income by singing at weddings and retirement homes, that sort of thing. He was very much sought-after on the Saginaw 'oldies' circuit."

Discography

Demo

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation

Videography

Live Show

References

External links

Official site

Official Flickr Photo Page



Interview with Stephen Lynch at Swigged!
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Stephen
1971 births
American stand-up comedians
American male composers
21st-century American composers
American comedy musicians
American male film actors
American humorists
American male musical theatre actors
American radio personalities
American tenors
Living people
Musicians from Saginaw, Michigan
Western Michigan University alumni
Singer-songwriters from Michigan
Guitarists from Michigan
21st-century American comedians
American male guitarists
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American male musicians
American male singer-songwriters
Comedians from Michigan
American male comedians