Carlton Wilcoxson: Master of Shoutouts

It appears that the Austin com­e­dy scene is grow­ing at an increas­ing­ly rapid pace, and we have come to yet anoth­er com­ic that meets the ​“long over­due” label, Carl­ton Wilcox­son. In a bit of good for­tune, I reached out to Carl­ton specif­i­cal­ly to be our first release of 2020. I had no idea how per­fect the idea would turn out to be. More on that in a moment.

When Wilcox­son isn’t shout­ing out moms and peo­ple in planes, he’s one of the hard­est work­ing comics in Austin. Hail­ing from St. Louis, he came to Austin on an adver­tis­ing agency fel­low­ship and want­ed to see com­e­dy (after a great taste of see­ing some of the best at the Com­e­dy Cel­lar in New York City), and made plans to see a show down­town. As per usu­al, Pat Dean almost ruined the expe­ri­ence for him (we kid, of course). Wilcox­son did­n’t know what to make of the fact that Dean brought his ban­jo on stage, let alone that M.K. Paulsen also per­formed at the same show with his recorder. Wilcox­son did­n’t know what to expect, so when he found him­self at an open mic, he set his mind to giv­ing it a shot.

And he bombed. Or so he claimed. And as many expe­ri­enced comics know, that is a com­mon real­i­ty of new comics. So any­one read­ing this under the guise of a New Year’s Res­o­lu­tion to ​“start com­e­dy”, take note. You bomb and you bomb for a long time some­times. Until that mag­i­cal moment when some­one you respect and hold in high esteem grants you the label of ​“com­ic”. And so it was for Wilcox­son. Once some­one grant­ed him the label, he start­ed giv­ing him­self per­mis­sion to have more fun on stage. Of that time, Wilcox­son says ​“I was very hard on myself in the bomb­ing phase, and the rewards did­n’t nec­es­sar­i­ly come from any­thing on stage. It came from when peo­ple who I thought were real­ly real­ly fun­ny referred to me as a com­ic.” With that, things quick­ly start­ed falling in to place for him. This is not the first nor last inspi­ra­tional mes­sage to be found in this inter­view, but that one may be the sin­gu­lar most impor­tant to any­one pur­su­ing com­e­dy. Per­sis­tence and hard work are tried and trued for­mu­las for any­one we’ve ever talked to, so who are we to ques­tion the formula?

And the inspi­ra­tions con­tin­ue with Wilcox­son, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the last few years as he’s joined with sev­er­al ​“work spous­es” in host­ing long-stand­ing shows: Angeli­na Mar­tin for two shows at The Buzzmill — the long-run­ning Buzz Kill show­case and the new Hon­ey Dip (fea­tur­ing longer form sets), and Hunter Dun­can for Stoned vs. Drunk vs. Sober (comics team up under one of these ​“con­di­tions”). Wilcox­son takes his role as host seri­ous­ly: ​“You’re the com­man­der of the ship, you are bring­ing these peo­ple on board, you have a respon­si­bil­i­ty to lead them to a fun place, a place of good dis­trac­tions.” Oh, and we haven’t even men­tioned the mil­lion-megawatt smile of his that helps make you feel very com­fort­able about get­ting on board that ship, hav­ing a drink, and set­tling in for an enter­tain­ing ride. You might even find your­self doing the lim­bo, though we make no guarantees.

2020 is a new year and Wilcox­son is aware of its poten­tial, with new projects on the hori­zon (shows to co-host, improv per­for­mances, video series, and more), there are chal­lenges as well as oppor­tu­ni­ties. But some­thing new is pos­si­ble for him that was­n’t pos­si­ble for him until recent­ly: men­tor­ing. Much as oth­ers helped him get his foot­ing in the scene and as a com­ic, he’d like to pay it for­ward to the next ​“gen­er­a­tion” of Austin comics. And it’s a com­fort to know that in 2020 there will not only be com­e­dy, but there will be stew­ards of the scene who care as much as Carl­ton does. 

Whether you believe in res­o­lu­tions or not, Carl­ton believes in you and believes in what’s pos­si­ble in 2020. And that’s some­thing we can all ​“woooooooooooo” about.

Carl­ton can be seen:

• Crit­i­cal Hit — Thurs­day Jan­u­ary 9 at The Fall­out Theater
  
• High Priest­ess Back­yard Com­e­dy + Tarot — Fri­day Jan­u­ary 10. Info here: https://​www​.face​book​.com/​h​i​g​h​p​r​i​e​s​t​e​s​satx/
  
• All Star Stand-Up Com­e­dy Show­case — Thurs­day Jan­u­ary 23 at The Fall­out The­ater. Tick­ets $10 Online/$12 Door.
• Buzz Kill — free week­ly show­case co-host at 9pm Wednes­days at The Buzz Mill
• Hon­ey­dip — free week­ly long-form show­case co-host at 8pm on Thurs­days at The Buzz Mill Shady
• Stoned vs. Drunk vs. Sober — month­ly show­case on the last Sat­ur­days of the month at The Fall­out Theater

Fol­low Carlton

• Twit­ter — @Smile_Carlton
  
• Insta­gram — @smile_carlton
  
• Face­book — face​book​.com/​C​a​r​l​t​o​n​W​i​l​c​oxson
  
• Do 512 — do512​.com/​C​a​r​l​t​o​n​W​i​l​c​oxson
  
• Youtube — Youtube​.com/​C​a​r​l​t​o​n​W​i​l​c​oxson