Chris Hardwick
Chris Hardwick
Christopher Ryan "Chris" Hardwickis an American television host, stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer, podcaster, musician, and voice artist. He is the chief executive officer of Nerdist Industries, the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. He currently hosts @midnight with Chris Hardwick, a nightly comedy-game show series on Comedy Central, and voices Craig in the Nickelodeon series Sanjay and Craig...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth23 November 1971
CityLouisville, KY
CountryUnited States of America
I'm just gonna do a podcast because it's mine, I can control it, I have complete responsibility over it, and no one can touch it.
One of the many reasons why I love stand-up so much is when you're performing, you get instant feedback. You know if stuff is working right away.
Television and movies just take so long. If you pitch a show or develop a project, it can be a year before your show even gets on the air, if it gets picked up. Just the concept of "I had this idea" and within a week it was in the world, that was a part of why it felt weirdly empowering as a performer.
Stand-up for me is usually a weekend thing. I go out of town and just do it.
I think people have this stereotypical idea in their head of what a nerd is. People have said to me before, "You're not a nerd!" because I think they think of the classic Revenge Of The Nerds archetype.
Twitter is basically text messaging. Twitter is a guy you can always elbow in the side and say, "Hey, look, a guy in a clown suit just threw up!" And I don't have 400-800 words to say about that, I just wanted to say that one thing.
Twitter is really a hyper-distilled version of how the internet should work - short bursts of relatively useful information.
I feel like being nerd is not about the superficial quality; it's about how nerds approach life. It's much more emotional and mental than it is you're some fat guy living in your mom's basement, which I think is just a hacky stereotype.
If you have laser-like brain it's not always focused on the most productive things. If you want to play Halo: Reach all day, that's fine, but if you want to accomplish some other things, here are some ways to do that using your innate nerd gifts.
I categorize nerds as creative-obsessive. A lot of nerds are creative people who obsess almost unnaturally over the minutiae of things.
I made a lot of changes in my life between my twenties and thirties, and it all sort of revolves around how I think people with nerdier brains tend to problem-solve and approach things differently then "norms."
I don't know why people don't want to talk about their numbers. I guess in a sense, there's a bit of performer nudity, a bit of ego nudity when you expose your numbers, I guess because someone's are higher or someone's are lower. I've never really talked about the numbers with anyone, so maybe I'm not supposed to.
Every time I finish a record, it's sort of feels like, "I can't believe that I'm hanging out and having a conversation, and people are gonna listen to this." It's an odd thing, but it's really cool.
I think some of what makes it a good podcast is that it's organic. It doesn't feel forced. If we can say anything about ours, it's that we're not faking it at all. We're genuinely interested in the people that we're talking to.