If you’re an entertainer in any genre, you are not born with your stage name nor have it inscribed on your birth certificate.
For Nasty Show host Comedian CP (born Chris Powell), this identity transformation was part of a personal quest for a nickname he could call his own. It finally became a reality when he pledged at his fraternity at Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in communication studies.
Named by his Frat brothers
“When I pledged, there were a bunch of guys who were also named Chris, so we had to come up with new names so there wouldn’t be any confusion. It was my fraternity brothers who came up with the name of ‘CP’. It was an organic process, and I really appreciated it. Shortly afterward, everyone on campus started calling me CP,” he said during a recent Zoom interview. “My whole life I wanted a nickname but I couldn’t think of one. It gave me a whole different personality. With Chris I can be limited and careful; but with CP I can do anything.”
CP believed that his new nickname was a sign on the road to realizing his dream of becoming a professional stand-up comic. But before that dream came true, he decided to take a step toward it by taking a job as an advertising executive in his native Detroit.
Always wanted to work in comedy
“There was always one thing I wanted to do if I wanted to do it, and that was comedy. And who’s a better person than my alter ego to attack this? However, early in my career, I realized that if you’re smart enough, you should do a risk assessment on yourself, which means you make sure you consider something to pursue that is adjacent to your chosen lifestyle; it’s like ex-athletes who pursue second careers as trainers or coaches,” he said.
“I have always loved entertainment in general and comedy in particular. Where I’m from, I was taught that it’s almost impossible to get into television. So my thought process was to put myself into a business that was adjacent to the one that I wanted to do,” he added. “I began to make and sell commercials. From there, I learned what it means to be marketable, and who the important people are to talk to, which I carried into my comedy and producing careers. I worked so hard to create 90 seconds; I let myself work just as hard to create what I wanted in my life.”
TV Shows and Comedy Specials
With that kind of approach, CP has carved out quite an impressive kind of career on both ends. He has had roles in such TV series as Empire, Love Life on HBO Max and Comedy Central’s Detroiters. He tours across the U.S. with his stand-up comedy, has performed on HBO’s All Def Comedy and in his own comedy special, Sunday After Six, and has co-created and starred in the special Ole Bud’s ANU Football Weekly on Adult Swim.
The Nasty Show at JFL
This year marks CP’s third time at JFL, his second time performing at The Nasty Show, and his first time as the show’s host. Joining him on the line-up are Ian Fidance, Rebecca Reeds, Marito Lopez and Maddy Smith. And regarding the subjects CP tackles in his stand-up comedy, there is one he consistently avoids: current events.
“That’s like crowd work without a crowd,” he said. “I tend to poke at nostalgia and shared experiences that we have had. We all do nasty things. What’s so special about the Nasty Show is that I can talk about any and every thing that I am not allowed to talk about any other time.”
He also believes that the Nasty Show has been such a perennial favoruite at Just For Laughs for nearly 40 years because audiences get the chance to experience their favorite comedians live onstage as they have never seen them before. “At the Nasty Show, comedians get to cut up without any judgment, nor worry about being canceled,” he stated. “The audience comes for the grit and the comedians are excited to bring it up. That’s the difference between the mundane and the exciting. They are saying things that will make you laugh not only because they are funny, but it brings out that ‘Oh my God! Somebody is saying this!’ kind of reaction.”
Raw and edgy humour
CP attributes the reason why people like their humour raw and edgy to how comedians can act as a filter and sounding board for saying things that the average person just can’t utter under any normal circumstances. “Comedy isn’t always pretty. It can be very ugly,” he said. “It’s about the excitement, not about being politically correct all the time. That is why an institution like Just For Laughs is one of the last true platforms of real comedy.”
One of the best Nasty Shows ever
I have caught the Just For Laughs Nasty Show practically every year since 1990, and I have to admit that this year’s edition is one of the best Nasty Shows I have seen in a very long time. CP and his line-up of fellow nasty comics certainly delivered the nasty goods at a very high level, and hit every nasty note that resulted in a constant stream of loud, raucous laughter.
CP did a terrific job helming the show as its host, in which he certainly delivered his promise of “extra perverted behaviour”, especially his bit about his first experience with Viagara, especially when he downed six of those blue pills at once. Rebecca Reeds brought out her female energy like a runaway train with the sturdiness of a volleyball coach and the build of a school crossing guard, especially when she talked about dating short guys, being lied to when she is naked and waxing. Calgary native, Marito Lopez displayed his pride at being vertically-challenged (5’2″) and dislikes how people between 5’5″ and 5’11” are exploiting being vertically-challenged as a means of cultural appropriation (one favorite line from him was “A foyer is a room where white people keep their shoes”). New York City native Maddie Smith killed it at her Just For Laughs debut with a nonstop, energetic diatribe on such matters as people confusing an IUD with DUI, watching true crime documentaries and what if women had testicles. Fellow New Yorker Ian Fidance perfectly capped off the Nasty Show with his nebbish persona and raspy voice that sounded as if a vocal cord was about to be shredded, as he tackled topics like his coming out as an adult bisexual guy, the “tricks and treats of the nighttime streets” and how he resembles a plumber that would “fix your toilet and leave a camera in it” (although I thought he somewhat resembled prominent lawyer Allen Dershowitz).
Club Soda
The Nasty Show runs from now until July 19 at Club Soda. Comedian CP will also perform a solo show on July 22, as part of the OFFJFL series. For more information, or to purchase tickets, for The Nasty Show or any other JFL show, go to hahaha.com.
