We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Scott Holt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with scott below.

Scott , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I am usually full of bad ideas but ideas none the less and ideas are fun, right?! Friends and family have been talking me out of my half-cocked schemes all my life. Sometimes when I feel strongly enough about one I go for it anyway. This one was at the beginning of my comedy life (bad idea). I wanted to paddle board across the Hudson River in a business suit during the morning commute. I shoved off down by the ferry station in Morris Canal Park, Jersey City, NJ. I had a briefcase, coffee, and fake papers exactly like the rest of the daily travelers. Everyone in my life was telling me this plan would have me dead or in jail. Except my wife. A bit unusual for her. I found out later she had taken out a term life insurance policy on me, so that’s real love, right?!
Anywho I get out there at 8am, dress shoes on a surf board in the middle of this choppy river. The disregard for the no wake zone signs had be contemplating who would show up to mine. I had all these gags planned. Flip out on phone calls, conversations with passersby, corralling papers on the water. Then I got out there and there were no gags. I was just trying to survive. Waves were hitting me from every angle as shipping container ships seemingly screamed towards me. I did not believe it was a bad idea until I was half way out there aimed at Staten Island. Imagine landing on Staten Island with wet loafers. Oof, double gross. It felt like my little board was listing at 90 degrees 90 percent of the time as I was sweating in the 90 degree heat. I was so tired and thirsty from this athletic endeavor but so committed to the bit all I had was hot coffee to drink.
I later learned I accidentally picked the perfect time to try my stunt, it was during a slack tide, whatever the estuary that means. As they say sometimes it’s better to be lucky than stupid. I, believe it or not forgot to even lease the board to my ankle. If I fell off, the board would have skated away pretty quickly with the current. I could have been just a head bobbing in the water, ready for a propeller to gulp up. Oh man, to die doing a bit. What fun.
So there I was still attached to my board I got from New York Football Giant’s legend Phil McConkey. Surfing barefoot I find to be much easier than with clearance rack shoe barn shoes I’ve worn through countless work days and weddings. Pulling up to NYC with boatloads of people mad at me (I think I might have made some of them smile) with regrets filed right next to my phony papers, I was desperately searching for a ladder to climb out. Apparently New York is very stingy with their ladders.
Finally I found an old run down water taxi dock. Who was waiting for me? A waterway employee and two police officers. The worker had a heart as big as his mouth (and his ass). He was cursing me asking if I was trying to die today? I promptly told him “I was just trying to make my meeting,” reflecting at my worthless watch while adding “time is money, ya know!” He continued berating me while also assisting in pulling my board up. Very nice fella despite his language. The police officers told me they could arrest me because they didn’t know what was in the briefcase. I could be a terrorist they said. Would you believe some sharp dressed city slicker surfer with a silver tongue smooth talked his way out of it? Well eventually they let me leave to attend to my business. Silly bastards should have arrested me. There was no meeting.
They really should have been mad I was disrespecting all the maritime laws. Not my first time in the brig. I now know I needed a life vest plus a whistle (that’s what a one person vessel needs according to the coast guard (how about just putting more police force in the subways and stopping citizens from witnessing homeless poops and peen rather than bothering a well dressed man trying to get to “a meeting”)). The Battery Park gardening team I think was the most impressed with me for being completely dry and making it across in only a half hour.
Next thing I know I was being interviewed on AM and FM radio. Friends were calling, telling me they saw me in the back of taxi cabs and those little TVs on gas station pumps. There were write ups in the New York Post, Weird NJ, and other local papers that have since ceased to exist. I made the news in Canada, Germany and China to name a few different countries. I was asked to be on Good Morning America. Went live on the panel for Good Day NY. Those ladies told me they liked my core strength, asking if I was in good shape. I told them “I was in the worst shape of my life. I had just taken up cigarettes because I was trying to kick my soda habit.” I was also asked to be on Inside Edition. They wanted me to do it all over again. Dress back up in the suit and paddle around Jersey City for some footage. I said “How many suits do they think a guy like me owns?”
I did all this for a joke, make a weary worker crack a grin, maybe make a funny video for some friends on my YouTube. Instead I became fake news. There was no meeting! It went internationally viral and I’ll tell ya, I did not like it. I was not ready for that kind of exposure. It was too early in my comedy career. Was everyone but my wife right? Maybe? But hey, you have to play to your strengths and I’m chock full of bad ideas.

Scott , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a husband and father of two. I have an older sister and a younger brother. Could you have guessed I am a middle child, starved for attention? Both my parents are one of seven. My mom the eldest and my father the second youngest. Everyone grew up in Jersey City and the whole lot of them are funny. I grew up in a fun home with my family and then eventually with my grandmother. There was an accident when I was younger that is disputed between my sister and I. Either way the corner of a sink did have the pleasure of pushing my front teeth back and turning them black. OK, twist my teeth, it was my sister’s fault. I was standing on a radiator just barely looking over the sink trying to play with my sister and her friend and she pushed my hands away. So I say. But because my front teeth got shoved to the back of my gums, when my adult teeth came in they didn’t expel them out. The second set of teeth just also came in. Leaving me with a shark mouth for a while and you know what? I loved it. Dentists usually tell you to chew food 37 times or whatever. Not me. Two gnaws and it was like a smoothie going down. No, I resented my sister for years. So much so I found out she didn’t like finger nails and toenails and so I saved them up for years. One day I went into her room, pretended to trip and spilled them everywhere. She was like “how could you do this to me.” I said “how could you do this to me, I look like a monster” while pointing to my binary bucked fangs. Then yelled “have fun stepping on big toe nails for 6 months you ****” and like a sad pac man chomped away. Needless to say I was bullied about my deformed face for years. Even though I was on the outside most of my life, I was still always a class clown. I worked hard and became good at basketball and eventually grew up big and strong and vowed to bully all the bullies. But now I say whatever to whoever just to get a laugh.

I come from a great big’ Irish family with a lot of jolly ol’ personalities. You really had to step up to be heard and you really had to be funny to get a laugh. A lot of my family begrudges me for doing stand up comedy because I’m probably only the ninth funniest person in my family. Around other people though it came naturally to me. I remember riding in the car with my dad listening and hysterical laughing to Chris Rock’s “Bigger and Blacker” and thought how could this man make both of us laugh so hard, I want to do this. I went on to work a horrible corporate job and would stare in the mirror at my dumb matching mass-produced tie and hate myself. I put my head down and wrote for two years before I built up the nerve to try an open mic. The guys there corralled me into to doing a competition (bad idea) and with no experience I came in third place. I have been hooked ever since.

Now I walk a fine line of making you potentially hate me while still laughing. I’m not making fun of the art form when I am up there but I am also not not making fun of the art form. I bring a steady diet of being a disheveled dad mixed with absurd observations whilst always reminding you death is coming for us all. I don’t usually get applause breaks I get girlfriends slapping their boyfriends on the arm breaks.

It is hard for one to say what sets themselves apart, especially in a field where putting yourself down is swiftly uplifted. I have collected compliments and testimonials over the years to go back to when I am feeling like I want to (insert whatever the new slang for “hang yourself” here), don’t worry I’m not going to do it. It’s pretty inappropriate to even be seen tying a noose these days.

“Scott Holt could make any night the funniest of your life” – comic

“So offensively f***ing funny” – audience

“This guy right here, is a comedic gift” – audience

“Scott Holt always wakes up the room to slay, BOOK HIM BEFORE YOU CAN’T AFFORD HIM” – comic

“You got me mad at you because I laughed so hard my head was hurting” – audience member at punchline

“You reminded me of Patrice O’Neal, Real comedy is only half the room laughing” – comic x2

“Killing against your will” – comic

“Your lucky you’re funny because you’re an asshole” – audience

“I’m glad you are doing comedy, that means high school wasn’t a waste” – High School Principle

“Your jelly and jam joke, My brother would not stop talking about it, he kept saying that’s a HBO level joke” – comic

“You’re a funny and original dude in a scene that’s full of subpar art. Keep being awesome and doing what you do.” – comic

“Comedy is already hard and you make it harder” – comic

“You are a Golden retriever up there” – cat comic

Now getting a spit take (someone spitting out their drink from laughter) from an audience member while on stage is some of the best work you can do aside from making someone pee or still better poo their pants. I have been aware of more than a handful of spit takes in my day (no poops yet (insert sad face for me here please)). But one time at a comedy club in Vermont, I made a lady cry from laughing. I went into the audience and wiped away her tears and told her that’s not why we are here. And that is probably the moment I am most proud of.

I understand life is hard and if you can get away from it for a bit by catching some yucks then go support live comedy. Or swing by a Holt Family wake, they are genuinely a good time. I tend to go where I’m needed and everyone needs to know that raising kids is no way to live!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

This question is particularly fun because I get to see both sides of stand up comedy. The most rewarding aspect for me is when a peer of mine is doing really well on stage. Watching them be in a bit and truly living it, is special to witness. Just a touch more rewarding, is observing the audience falling for this person’s tricks I have seen fail before. There is something about seeing the leafs of labor come to fruition in just a moment of pure joy for both parties. This encapsulates the whole stand up comedy experience for me. It’s a connection between a friend and a random group of people. Sometimes I get focused on just one audience member. To see an uptight lady lose herself in laughter is rare air bursting. I have been with the comedian in dark rooms when the light is out behind their eyes doing the same old joke to no laughter. But this time, they light up the room with their dark joke that makes someone giggle so hard their eyes tear. Those moments don’t happen overnight. It takes alot of hard thinking to build your act into something that can withstand the difficult times. Seeing a fellow comedian get through to the other side with a crowd lightens up the ride.
It’s like you get to watch a kid shake a snow globe for the first time. Someone had to pop the snow in there, build the odd objects the flakes falls on and work on closing it all up. Then a new mind gets to rattle it and watch magic. You yourself have seen a snow globe under your nose but you have never seen this little person see this worldly experience before. The whole thing is beautiful to be a part of.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There are two stand up comedy acts that have shared in a way to the younger generations on a bit of a mass scale that not many others have. Now is probably the best time to listen to stand ups talk on podcasts and pick up pieces here and there that can help you. Most of them don’t talk to the people just beginning to run around the open mic circuit though. You need years of experience to understand the ins and outs being discussed. Ari Shaffir and Ralphie May both put up youtube videos explaining how to be better as a young comedian. Each one gave a college professor level lecture and allowed questions after. Those tape recordings have certainly helped me and I have passed their accounts on to many others starting out asking me for advice.

If you happen to be late discovering stand up comedy and/or if you do not know any name on this list, they are certainly worth researching.
You can’t exclude George Carlin or Richard Pryor.
Their brains go without saying what they did for comedy.
Some others at the top of the heap are Lenny Bruce, Moms Mabley, Joan Rivers, Dick Gregory, Bill Hicks and Eddie Murphy. They all broke a lot of ground.

Chris rock is why I started and the hardest I ever laughed in a nightclub was with Joey Diaz but…

Here is my top comics I admire most.
Gilbert Gottfried
Norm Macdonald
Andy Kaufman
Don Rickles
Bernie Mac

Steve Martin
Rodney Dangerfield
Steven Wright
Redd Foxx
Maria Bamford
Dave Attell
Dave Chapelle
Bill Burr
Tig Notaro
Todd Glass
And
Rory Scovel

Contact Info:

• Website: https://scottholtcomedy.com
• Instagram: Ballsyholt
• Twitter: scottyhustle
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scottmholt