The laughs just keep coming: Josh Blue feels like ‘I’m the best comic that I’ve ever been’

Despite having made people laugh practically his whole life and being a proud class clown in high school, comedian Josh Blue said he didn’t know he was funny until he got to college, when student after student told him how funny he was.

Even though he left peals of laughter in his wake, Blue said it took him a while to realize that comedy could be a profession.

“I looked at stand-up comics as something other than what I was,” he said. “I didn’t realize that I could do it or anybody could try to do it till I was all of a sudden doing it.”

Blue dipped his toes into stand-up one day while a student at Evergreen State College. He recalls being in a room with friends and picking up a microphone that was lying around, which wasn’t even on, and telling some jokes.

With a good reception from his friends, Blue decided to study stand-up comedy. His coursework included, as one might expect, watching a lot of stand-up, including Richard Pryor sets on VHS.

But Blue also studied the comedy with intent, looking at body movement and delivery and setups, trying to figure out what made each joke, and comedian, work.

“When you dive deeper into it than just a laugh, I learned a lot that way,” he said.

As part of his curriculum, Blue also found a weekly show at which to where he could try out his jokes for an audience. He found a show at a coffee shop in Olympia where he performed his act between sets by two bands.

Blue remembers that it was standing-room only. The first band performed, then Blue. After he left the stage, the audience began leaving the shop. The next week, the same thing happened again, with the crowd thinning out after Blue finished his set.

The owner of the shop caught on quickly and told Blue, “Clearly everybody is here for you, so I’ll give you your own night.” Going forward, Blue performed an hour of new material every Wednesday night.

Blue said it wasn’t until he began performing after college that he was told most comics repeat the same jokes from show to show and that most sets are under five minutes, not an hour.

A comedic storyteller, rather than a comedian who throws punch line after punch line at the crowd, Blue, who brings his “Berserker” tour to the Spokane Comedy Club from Thursday through Saturday, said he fills an hour easier than a short set and keeps audiences engaged with stories that have punch lines sprinkled throughout.

He’s never been one to write down jokes and said he essentially writes on stage, which allows him to read the audience and go with the flow. If the crowd is really interested in one topic, Blue might stay on it for a while. Or, if something the audience laughs at reminds him of another story, he might pivot to that new topic.

“I can’t do verbatim,” he said. “There’s no way. I have jokes that I know I’m going to do, but the order is different. The timing, I just play off of the room versus force feeding you the joke that I want to tell at that time. I’m open to whatever comes up.”

His storytelling style caught the attention of “Last Comic Standing” producers when he auditioned for the comedy competition show in 2006. Audiences were taken by his self-deprecating humor, much of it regarding his experiences with cerebral palsy, and voted him the winner of the show’s fourth season.

Blue’s early comedy didn’t always mention his cerebral palsy, but as everything he says comes from the perspective of someone with cerebral palsy, he felt he had to explain it to the audience to make them feel comfortable with disability.

After winning “Last Comic Standing,” Blue said he felt like the poster child for disability but that feeling has subsided over the years as his star has continued to rise.

“People are paying money to come see me because they already know who I am,” he said. “I don’t have to explain it as hard.”

That fanbase came in handy when “America’s Got Talent” producers approached Blue about participating in the show’s 16th season, where he placed third, in 2021.

More than a decade after his time on “Last Comic Standing,” Blue said he never thought he’d be on another competition show, but it was easy to say yes to the opportunity.

“Getting to be on the biggest stage in the world and do my thing, that’s pretty tantalizing,” he said.

And though he did a lot of work during and after “Last Comic Standing” as the poster child for disability, Blue also chose to participate in “America’s Got Talent” because he saw it as another opportunity to advocate for the disabled community and “show the world what disabled people can do.”

Speaking to The Spokesman-Review in 2017, Blue said people thought things were smooth sailing for him after his “Last Comic Standing” win, but in reality, he had to work even harder to maintain that newfound success.

This time around, appearing on “America’s Got Talent” felt like “a cherry on top of a pretty great career,” which has included multiple specials, such as “Freak Accident,” which is Blue’s favorite special he’s released, and his book “Something to Stare At,” which will be released in July.

Blue said since the release of “Freak Accident” in December, he’s created a new hour of material he’s ready to fine tune for his next special.

“I remember when specials used to be special, but now everybody has six,” he said. “I’m going to try to leave this body of work after I’m done. I do it because the material keeps coming and I need to get it down and move on …”

That seemingly endless supply of material has been with Blue since his days performing weekly in coffee shops. So too has his love of making people laugh, something he feels he’s become even better at as the years, and specials, have gone by.

“I feel like I’m the best comic that I’ve ever been,” he said. “I’m tired of traveling and being on the road, but as far as the shows go, I’m killing it right now. I think the crowds like to hear that you’re actually enjoying what you’re doing, so let them know I’m excited to come out there and do my thing.”