Nick Saverino Rounds the Bases

I don’t always get face time with the come­di­ans we cov­er, but it’s always an inter­est­ing expe­ri­ence; often the off­stage per­sona can vary quite sig­nif­i­cant­ly from onstage. When I met Nick Saveri­no, after a rau­cous open mic per­for­mance (host­ed by Dan­ny Good­win at Cap City), it was a smooth and seam­less con­tin­u­a­tion of the man I’d just seen bring the house down.

The term ​“infec­tious” gets thrown around read­i­ly (yours tru­ly is def­i­nite­ly guilty), but with Saveri­no you can’t help but call it like it is. His high ener­gy act on stage – self dep­re­cat­ing, goofy, and insight­ful – came through nat­u­ral­ly in his per­son­al­i­ty in our casu­al con­ver­sa­tion. I can be a bit shy, but Saveri­no greet­ed me warm­ly and made me feel instant­ly comfortable. 

That con­fi­dence and self-pro­claimed lack of embar­rass­ment prob­a­bly stems from the life­long goal of pur­su­ing com­e­dy; As ear­ly as age 8, in his home­town of St. Joseph, Mis­souri, Saveri­no knew it was the pro­fes­sion for him. He even put togeth­er a 4 step plan to mak­ing com­e­dy a career. 

While his focus in high school trend­ed toward band and base­ball (an obses­sion that con­tin­ues today), it wasn’t until col­lege that Saveri­no attempt­ed his first pub­lic per­for­mance in a com­e­dy com­pe­ti­tion. With that behind him, it was time to get seri­ous about putting his plan into action, and in 2014 he found him­self on the move to Austin to do just that.

Lis­ten to this week’s inter­view with Valerie Lopez to uncov­er more about Nick Saverino’s path to noto­ri­ety, includ­ing his appear­ances in Fun­ni­est Per­son in Austin and the new­ly released trail­er for Call Me Broth­er. Then get out and catch him in per­son in his many local shows, and com­ing up in the near term:

• August 22: 8:00pm, fea­tur­ing at Cap City Com­e­dy Club for Andrew Dismukes
• August 25: 11:00pm (every Fri­day), Low and Inside at The Velv
• August 26: 8:00pm, SURE THING at Austin Java Parkway
• Sep­tem­ber 8: 10:00pm, Live at Cold­towne

P.S.: Shame­less cross-pod­cast pro­mo­tion: Hear more about Saverino’s writ­ing style and approach on his episode of Lead­ing the Blind.