In the Moment with John Tole

How do you jump on a mov­ing train? Bet­ter yet, how do you inter­view one? 

This was the task I had set in my mind when I imag­ined inter­view­ing John Tole. If you’ve ever seen him live or lis­tened to his pod­cast, Whiskey and the Surfer, you know that John Tole is high ener­gy, stream of con­scious­ness, and a force that does­n’t need to be har­nessed, just fol­lowed to its excit­ing dénoue­ment. You can imag­ine my sur­prise when I found him to be one of the most engag­ing and eas­i­ly con­ver­sa­tion­al inter­views I’ve done.

Born and raised in the East Bay area of Cal­i­for­nia, Tole grew up play­ing base­ball. His skills on the field earned him a col­lege schol­ar­ship. Though his edu­ca­tion took a few turns – and three trans­fers – he earned a degree in phi­los­o­phy, which should come as no sur­prise to any­one famil­iar with his work. Sports are obvi­ous­ly still a part of his reg­u­lar ver­nac­u­lar: you’ll reg­u­lar­ly hear ​“swing and a miss” on his pod­cast, Whiskey and the Surfer. Through­out each episode, you’ll also hear his phi­los­o­phy at play, min­gling his morn­ing review of the Drudge Report with dis­cus­sions of faith, life, com­e­dy, and con­spir­a­cy. All this is set to a sound­track of met­al, punk, thrash, and an occa­sion­al slow track, that often gets the boot.

Tole explains his com­e­dy begin­nings back when he start­ed show­ing up to open mics and work­ing up the courage to sign up at The Com­e­dy Store in La Jol­la. No stranger to the stage, John Tole had already spent years play­ing in a band and crack­ing jokes in between songs, but it seems he had an inner desire to tell sto­ries and con­nect with peo­ple in a way that com­e­dy can fill like noth­ing else. Although the first open mic went well, he can clear­ly describe the first time he bombed on stage. It was a defin­ing moment, giv­ing him the ​“this is as bad as it gets” feel­ing of relief to keep going. 

Tole spent three years in Dal­las, but while con­sid­er­ing a move to LA, decid­ed the Austin alt-com­e­dy scene felt like it might be a bet­ter fit for him. After six years in Texas, Tole decid­ed to make that jump to LA. It would­n’t be long before the Mile-high city was beck­on­ing to him. John Tole now calls Den­ver home, with its thriv­ing com­e­dy scene. And true to form, he’s heav­i­ly immersed in that scene as he head­lines the famous Com­e­dy Works club at the end of this month!

John Tole’s knack to spin sto­ry­telling and crowd work togeth­er for unfor­get­table sets was a tal­ent that had always mar­veled me. He makes it seem effort­less, so I asked how he devel­oped this skill. Tole says for about two years he focused on crowd work and going up and just talk­ing to improve on his sto­ry­telling and being in the moment. That atti­tude of being in the moment was per­fect­ly summed up in a con­ver­sa­tion with fel­low comics years ago as Tole says, ​“Do you real­ize no mat­ter what we’re doing in our career, no mat­ter how much mon­ey we make, we’re always just going to be hang­ing out in some ver­sion of a bar wait­ing to go on? We should enjoy this now!”

I whole­heart­ed­ly agree! And to enjoy more of John Tole right now go to john​tole​.com and check out his album, Pre Exist­ing Con­di­tion on iTunes and Ama­zon.