Brently Heilbron Builds an Empire for Everyone

URGENT AND TIME­LY HEADS UP: Make it a pri­or­i­ty to grab tick­ets to the Feb­ru­ary 19^th live tap­ing of Standup Empire. Go now. We’ll wait. 

Done? Great. Let’s continue.

Com­e­dy fans in Austin will almost cer­tain­ly be imme­di­ate­ly famil­iar with the name Brent­ly Heil­bron. Whether from his twist­ed emo pup­pet band Frag­ile Rock, or the ongo­ing PBS series he hosts, Standup Empire, you’ve almost cer­tain­ly run across Heilbron’s work. It’s always a plea­sure when Valerie Lopez finds a kin­dred soul with a fas­ci­na­tion for the art behind the art, and this inter­view is an a shin­ing example. 

Heil­bron got a very ear­ly start in per­form­ing, trad­ing school­work in 8^th grade in his home­town of Dal­las, Texas, for the arguably more valu­able expo­sure and heal­ing expe­ri­ence on the stage. It was a pat­tern that con­tin­ued after he moved to Austin to study at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas and ulti­mate­ly had to make a choice between his the­atre stud­ies and hon­ing his craft. You can no doubt guess which path he chose.

Com­e­dy Wham Presents: Brent­ly Heilbron

With a career that includes fas­ci­nat­ing and some­times ran­dom­ly crossed paths with big names like Woody Allen and Paul McCart­ney, Heil­bron has accu­mu­lat­ed knowl­edge, skills, and delights in a vari­ety of comedic for­mats. From writ­ing a musi­cal about the ass of an icon­ic Amer­i­can actor, to the aggres­sive dit­ties he bangs out on his ukulele, there’s sim­ply no deny­ing the joy he gets from the lime­light and — some­thing he adores — pro­vid­ing a place in that light for oth­ers. While Standup Empire is Heilbron’s show, he makes it patent­ly clear that it’s first and fore­most a plat­form for oth­ers, and for the Austin com­e­dy community. 

There’s sim­ply no way I can cap­ture every­thing Lopez and Heil­bron cov­er in this episode, so down­load and get listening. 

Now that you’ve grabbed those tick­ets (seri­ous­ly, not going to say it again), check out more of Heil­bron at his web­site, and on Twit­ter. For music for all moods, but most­ly the emo pup­pet kind, check out Frag­ile Rock on their web­site, Twit­ter and Face­book pages. He’s also start­ing a month­ly col­umn in the Austin Amer­i­can States­man in March about the Austin com­e­dy scene, so keep your eyes peeled.