Brett Goldstein Reveals His True Passion

While most people probably know him as the gruff, foul-mouthed, ornery, yet beloved Roy Kent on Ted Lasso, a role he as won two Emmys for, Brett Goldstein’s started his career on the stages of comedy clubs. He sat down with Jesse David Fox for HBO’s Conversations with Comedians to discuss his debut comedy special, Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life and how even though his career has taken him everywhere from Marvel to Sesame Street, stand-up has never left his system

Goldstein has reached a level of success most comedians only dream about. Yet, when he was asked my question: after all your success elsewhere i what ultimately draws him back to stand-up? He answered without great sincerity, as if suddenly thrust into a confessional, “It’s my favorite thing. It’s my favorite thing, it makes me feel better. I love the connection with people in the room When it’s good – it’s such a privilege, it’s such a sort of wonderful feeling of this energy in the room that you are all part of, and they’re giving you and you’re giving back, and when it works and you feel like, yes we’re finding a thing together! There’s nothing better… all those other things don’t, they take forever and they’re… They’re not live in that way.”

That energy is what Goldstein has chased for eighteen years. He began stand-up relatively late, at 27, doing his first gig in secret simply so he could one day tell his grandchildren he had once been on stage. “I’ve never been better than I was that first gig. I come on the stage and I’m like, bang, bang, bang, and it went really well. I’m still chasing that first one,” confessed Goldstein

After that initial high came two years of “dying on my ass every single gig,” but that could not stop him, he was hooked.

Even after Ted Lasso dramatically increased his celebrity status, Goldstein treated the special as a natural extension the same craft he was crafting for decades. He was not jumping back into stand-up, he never stopped. He had already done four hours at the Edinburgh Festival hours and toured extensively throughout the show’s run. The HBO special captured one of those performances.

“I’d done it (comedy) for 15 years to 50 people. And suddenly there were a lot more people who were interested. I did a big tour of America. At the end of the tour, it was, I guess we should film this. It seems silly not to.”

For Goldstein, stand-up remains the purest form of creative expression ans well as provides a thrill unlike any of his other projects. “I write stand-up in really undisciplined,” he shared My other projects are much more disciplined. I think what I love about stand-up, like I can have a thought now and then I can go on stage tonight and try it and either it works, or it doesn’t work but when it works it’s fucking thrilling.”

He described the stage as the place where he tests more than his material, he tests his own sanity, “When I do a new material night, I’m not asking, ‘Is this funny?’ What I’m asking is, ‘Am I mad? Am I insane?’ And if you laugh, either, oh, thank God, we all feel this way, I’m not completely mad. Or, I am completely mad, but you accept me and it’s all gonna be okay.”

Sitcoms, including his Emmy-nominated series Shrinking, superhero franchises, a fantastic film-centric podcast, and his writing have brought Goldstein fame and awards, but nothing replicates the electricity and connection between a comedian and their audience and he is thankful for it. “I’m so lucky that I do all these other things. I am incredibly lucky. But all those other things they take forever. They’re not live in that way, they’re just not. Sometimes you write a joke for a film, you don’t know if it’ll work until two years later when you see it with an audience, do you know what I mean?”

For those worried Goldstein’s growing success is going to put an end to his stand-up career, it looks like you’ll be seeing him on stage for many years to come.

Watch his Golden Globe nominated comedy special, Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life, now streaming on HBO Max.