You’re going to bomb. A lot. That’s part of the business. Nobody hits a home run every time. Even the best baseball players in the world strike out. If they blasted it out of the park every time, they got up to the plate then there’s no drama. Failures make the successes that much sweeter.
As a part of our series called “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ivan Decker.
Ivan Decker is an award-winning stand-up comedian and writer known for his sharp, polished, and multi-layered observational comedy. He is originally from Vancouver but is now based in Los Angeles.
Ivan’s first comedy special, “Underwater Scissors,” is a part of the “Comedians of the World” collection on Netflix. Ivan has had numerous television performances filmed at the Just for Laughs Montreal festival, the Winnipeg and Halifax Comedy festivals for CBC Television, and can be heard across North America on Sirius XM radio. Ivan can also be seen and heard on the popular CBC radio program “The Debaters.” In 2017, Ivan was named a “Comic to Watch” by TBS at the New York Comedy Festival, and subsequently made his U.S. television debut on “Conan.” Ivan’s debut comedy album “I Wanted to be a Dinosaur” was the recipient of the 2018 JUNO award for “Comedy Album of the Year” which can be heard on all major streaming platforms, including iTunes. His second comedy special, “Popcorn” is now available in both an audio version and a video special which is streaming on YouTube.
Ivan has performed across the United States, Canada, Australia, and Bermuda
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in the 1990s in a rural suburb of Vancouver, BC called Ladner. It was relatively close to the city but at that time it had quite a small population and was mostly inhabited by farmers, fishers, and aspiring hockey players. My parents moved there from Montreal — the city where I was born — in the late 1980s. After that flight as a two-and-a-half-year-old, I wouldn’t fly on an airplane again until almost two decades later; this time as a professional comedian. I had a typical lower-middle-class upbringing: Bike rides, abandoned barns, firecrackers, getting yelled at for drinking juice boxes that were supposed to be for school lunches, all that good stuff.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path as a comedian?
I am the middle child of 3 boys. My parents got divorced when I was about 8 and as the middle child you usually end up being a sort of family mediator. I used humor to do this and really found myself gravitating towards anything that was funny. I loved any sort of sketch show or comedy movie and it’s all I wanted to watch. Until, of course, I discovered Stand-up Comedy. Stand-up was something that seemed so incredible and metropolitan for a hayseed like me. One single person on stage with no set, or props, or a huge production budget. It was just a person talking and it made me laugh harder than anything I’d ever seen. I was fascinated. I loved watching comedians on TV, but I never thought I’d be able to do it. I was never any good at writing in school but for some reason when all I had to do was be funny, I found myself able to focus more. I collected my funniest thoughts into a little notebook and waited until I could get on stage. At that time, there was only one comedy club in the city, and they didn’t allow minors, so I called them on my 19th birthday, and they booked me for the following week. I drove into the city with my little notebook and did stand up for the first time in November of 2004. I was immediately hooked and haven’t stopped since.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Occasionally comedians get asked to do fundraisers which I always think is a good way to give back. If the cause is something I believe in I’m more than happy to donate my time to help an organization that is doing good work. 8 years ago, I was approached to do a show for the MS society of Canada. MS is common in my family, and I lost an uncle to it several years ago. Sometimes fundraiser shows can be a little soft, but this crowd was fantastic, and I even got a message after the show from a woman saying she’d been a fan for a while and was so happy I donated my time. We ended up keeping in touch and a couple of weeks later we had dinner together. We are now married!
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Very early on in my comedy career I got booked to do a show at a yacht club. I thought, “I’ve been on a boat or two this will be fine.” It wasn’t until I was halfway into my first joke that I realized that most of my material at that time was about being a broke 22-year-old living in the city. This was a yacht club! Everyone there was a multi-millionaire. They stared at me while I tried to relay how tough it is to ride the bus or eat at Subway restaurants… Both things they had never done. The lesson I learned is to know your audience. Plan and remember that not everyone has the same life experience as you.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m so grateful for having met Ryan Hamilton. He’s an incredible comedian and I was lucky enough to work with him a bunch when he would come through Vancouver to headline our club, back when I was just a feature act. He’s gone on to have one of the best Netflix specials in recent years and sell out incredible venues across the world. He’s also recommended me for lots of things and to other comedians that were looking for opening acts. He helped me get into the comedy and magic club (my favorite club) and recommended me for some gigs opening for Gad Elmaleh.
Gad is a very successful and funny comedian from France who was doing some touring in Canada and the US a few years ago and I got to open for him on a tour down the west coast. I got my itinerary for the tour, and I noticed that the first flight was leaving from an airport I had never heard of. I plugged it in to google maps and didn’t think too much of it. I thought, hey maybe people from France use different planes. When I arrived, I realized the reason why I had never heard of this airport was because it was for private jets. I was excited about it, but I didn’t want to make a big deal, so I didn’t take any photos or post anything to social media. I got on the jet and went on the tour. We did 4 cities. Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, and then a final show in LA. When we get to the show in LA my manager was there and asked Gad, “how has it been working with Ivan?” He said, “I mean he’s funny, but I fly him on a private jet, and he doesn’t make a big deal of it? No photos? No social media? Who does he think he is??”
So I guess the moral of the story is: If anyone invites you on to a private jet, make a big deal of it!
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Just get up and do it. If you’re thinking about wanting to do comedy start today. It’s not going to go even remotely close to how you imagine but at least you got it over with and you’ll only get better the more you do it. I’ve met so many comedians that waited so long just to do that first set and then when they do they wish they’d done it earlier. So go! Find and open mic tonight!
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
I’m very excited about my latest special. It’s called “Popcorn” and it’s streaming now on Youtube. We shot it last year and I’m just so excited for everyone to see it. The response has been amazing and I’m so grateful. From here I am just going to keep producing. I have more great jokes in the works and I’m coming to a city near you!
What do you do to get material to write your jokes? What is that creative process like?
For me, the most important part of comedy is relatability. When I was a kid watching those comedians on TV, the ones that hit hardest were comedians that I felt like they knew me better than I knew myself. So when I am writing new material, the most important thing is to gauge how much people connect with what I am talking about. And I never know until I try it out in front of an audience but once I find something that people resonate with on that level, I sit down with it and try to write as much as I can on the topic. Then once I’ve got the observations I go back through and punch it up, make it funnier, take-out extra words, all of the fun stuff that goes into crafting a new joke.
What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian” and why?
- You’re going to bomb. A lot. That’s part of the business. Nobody hits a home run every time. Even the best baseball players in the world strike out. If they blasted it out of the park every time, they got up to the plate then there’s no drama. Failures make the successes that much sweeter.
- If you’re the funniest comic on the show find a new show. Kind of a take on “If you’re the smartest person in the room, find a new room” but it applies to stand up as well. It’s fun to be a big dog and kill all the time but there’s a reason why the best comics in the world gravitate toward each other: doing shows at the cellar and the comedy store together. It’s important to see what the best of the best are doing. It’s different than watching them on a special. Watching someone kill with the exact same audience that someone else just bombed with can teach you so much.
- Pick a favorite airline and get on the loyalty program. Early. The last thing you want is to be recognized by a fan at the airport and then have to explain to them that you’re in boarding group 9.
- When you first start going on the road there are going to be shows that aren’t full. Learn how to change your energy to make it just as fun for a smaller crowd. To me a show can be great if it’s 30 people or 3000.
- Have some TV shows you can binge watch without your wife. You’re going to be away a lot! You need a show you can watch on the plane without needing to pretend you didn’t watch when you get home.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
You learn nothing from succeeding. Trying and failing is the best teacher. So many of us wait to try things because we are afraid to fail but we really shouldn’t fear failure. It’s how you grow and become great at anything you want to do. Stand-up taught me this. There isn’t a comedian on earth that always has incredible sets. No matter how successful you are there will be audiences that don’t resonate to your liking. New stuff will bomb but that’s how you find greatness.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I’d love to have lunch with Julia Louis Dreyfus because she is the funniest person that I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable next level of talent and skill. Pure comedy. She’s such a delight to watch and I think meeting her would blow my mind.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I am on Instagram @ivanwdecker
Facebook is just my name Ivan Decker
My website is www.ivandecker.com
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Ivan Decker: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.