Joey Zimmerman Is The Zennest

How did Nebras­ka become a com­e­dy Petri dish? Is there some­thing in the water? The corn? Maybe it’s the atmos­phere. Regard­less, Amer­i­ca’s mid­dle child has sent Austin tal­ent­ed come­di­ans like Cody Hus­tak, Adam Hra­bik, Abby Rosen­quist, Ryan Cown­ie and, and… and Joey Zimmerman.

Zim­mer­man, who is new to Austin, got his start in com­e­dy at 21 while attend­ing the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka. He’s of the gen­er­a­tion that had com­e­dy pret­ty much on request. When he men­tioned watch­ing South Park while grow­ing up, I imme­di­ate­ly devel­oped rick­ets and went out­side to shake my fist at kids play­ing on my lawn (I’m get­ting old and crotch­ety). Age jokes aside, Zim­mer­man and his chill demeanor gives me hope for the future and many of us should learn from his go-with-the-flow attitude.

He decid­ed to focus his stud­ies in film and poet­ry but his par­ents con­vinced him to switch to adver­tis­ing. After grad­u­at­ing, he got a job copy­writ­ing and learned that adver­tis­ing was­n’t his thing and quit. Zim­mer­man took up a bar­tend­ing gig and sought out com­e­dy. After a coin flip, Zim­mer­man packed his bags and marched south to Austin.

Joey Zim­mer­man: The Past

Joey Zim­mer­man gets deep in part two of his inter­view with Valerie Lopez — going in depth on why he digs telling sto­ries, and how he works out his ideas for bits and sto­ries. This is anoth­er one of those episodes that’s great for aspir­ing come­di­ans since it peels back the cur­tain a lit­tle bit to the joke and sto­ry cre­ation process.

Joey Zim­mer­man: Current

Zim­mer­man has a cou­ple of shows he puts togeth­er in town. Good Vibes is a free stand up show­case at Alder­bert’s Brew­ery the 2^nd Wednes­day of every month. He also has a fresh sto­ry telling show at Gen­uine Joe Cof­fee Shop called The Lis­ten­ing Room on the 2^nd Sat­ur­day of every month. If you’ve not gone to a sto­ry telling show, you must. They’re fas­ci­nat­ing. Be sure to check out Zim­mer­man’s web­site where you can see his satire of EDM Deejays.