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As opposed to bad accidents or “accidents", yes. LOL. All the time. I talked about an incident a few weeks ago with my zipper falling and me hearing the girls in front talking about it. But many times I have misspoken during my st and the “misspeak has ended up being a beat in a written joke later. One staple joke I do now at my show now was an accident. During Covid, I noticed that my eye sight was getting worse and I could not read what i wrote as notes for my show and called myself out for not being able to read and need glasses. Thats a bit now. Phones and alarms going off at a perfect time have led to some great organic riffing that I have clipped for social media. I had an alarm go off when I revealed I was middle eastern while in a conservative town, I had a glass break when I was talking about being a lawyer, leading to a riff about a possible lawsuit. Last month, I was closing my set and talking about giving free legal advice if you call me (Better Call Paul) so I just picked up my phone and acted like I just got a call from a former client thanking me for my great work on a settlement. The crowd loved it, some of whom thought I planned the call, which I clearly didn’t. I am grateful that I can stay in the moment and be aware of my surroundings to react to these happy accidents and I am also grateful for my quick wit that I developed as a self defense mechanism as a child and honed as a litigator. #blessed #bettercallpaul #standup #journal 
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I stay in about fifty different hotels a year and, I have only had bad experiences when I did not book the hotel; some clubs book the hotels for you while others reimburse you or make you get your own. Although, one time I booked a room and they assumed since I didn’t check in, that I was not gonna use it, so they gave my room away and because Morgan Wallen was in town, there were no other rooms available but a trucker motel. That was a nightmare for multiple reasons, including, but not limited to the insects I found when the lights were turned on. Needless to say, I bolted out of there as soon as I could and started driving home. I had a room once that was occupied when I entered, but I quickly realized someone was in the bed asleep when I walked in and left to get another room from the front desk. I was very quiet leaving so as not to wake up the first guest. If I am booking a hotel, I always need two things (a) a 24 hour gym and (b) a late check out. I have very weird hours so sometimes after shows, if I can’t sleep, I need to work out and since I am often in towns that shut down at 9pm, I will work out. And again, because I go to sleep late, I wake up later, so a 10am check out is criminal, as is 11am, especially if they don’t allow a late check out or charge an arm, leg and pelvis for it. But most hotels I stay at are amazing and I don’t get paid to say this, but I love Hotels Tonight because the rooms are often cheaper and they usually have quality vetted rooms where you can see other users review it and those users tend to be regular travelers who are savvy and don’t complain about curtains being ill colored or a front desk person chewing gum too loudly.  Thats impossible to answer. I see comedy shows 300+ times a year so I see the funniest comedians every week, if not every day. I have shared the stage with legends like Gary Gulman, Bill Burr, Judy Gold, Jen Kirkman, Chris Franjola, Nikki Glaser, Max Amini, Maz Jobrani, Greg Fitzsimmons, Alonzo Boddin, Bret Ernst, Dane Cook and even Bob Newhart to name a few. This is not to mention all the amazing Chicago comedians I work with on a regular basis or started with who are selling out theaters. I get to see all of them not only on stage but off stage. I am blessed. As a kid, I loved Edie Murphy and Andrew Dice Clay. My brother snuck me into the theater to see RAW when I was 12 and I illegally bought Andrew Dice Clay cassettes at the record store. My two favorite comedians that I used to watch on the Tonight Show and Letterman were Jerry Seinfeld and Jake Johannsen. My friend Tracey took me to see him at Zanies in Chicago for my first real stand up show when I was in law school. The whole time I was laughing, I was surprised I did not go to comedy shows more often. And I was equally surprised and star struck when he was at the door shaking hands (and I think selling CDs). I think I told him I loved him on Letterman. Fast Forward to last year when I got to feature for Jake at the same club I saw him at 25 years earlier. A club I work often in Chicago now. I think he liked me or my stuff because we ended up grabbing drinks and talking all weekend. I opener for him at Zanies Rosemont after that and we stayed in touch, chatting via text every so often. Because I still go to sleep watching Johnny Carson now, (you can watch the Best of Carson live on Amazon Prime), whenever he was I would send him pictures and we chat it up. And honestly, I still woudl crack up by myself in bed watching his set from 35 years ago. Last month I auditioned for the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach and got to work with him again. He made sure to introduce me to all the staff and made me feel less like an imposter. I will be back at that club in October and hope he is there again. So yeah, Jake Johannsen was the funniest comedian I saw live. #standup #comedy #comedian  YES About 9 years ago, I was having a week of horrible shows in Hollywood. Bombing every night because I did not really know how to adjust to a whole new city with whole new sensibilities. Plus, I was performing on shows with headliners and was often the only non-famous person the line ups. I was messing up my jokes by not adjusting from performing mostly in Chicago. For example, I referenced a suburb of Chicago that clearly nobody understood. I also did jokes about being Iranian, which hit differently in Hollywood because of the large Persian community there. I decided after 3 bad shows and 2 mediocre ones, I was gonna close out my comedy career bang and leave comedy and go back to law, which I was practicing full time. I listened to all my sets to see what I can change, called my friend Ross to help me change and punch up a couple of my jokes that I thought could work and prepared for the end, which happened to be a Saturday at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood with the owner present. As soon as I got on stage, I knew I was mor prepared for this moment that ever. And it was a near sold out show (with a lot of my friends in the audience) as my name was called to join the stage. My first joke out, fireworks. Second joke out, a burst laughter and by the time I finished my 15 min set, I had three applause breaks. I remember making eye contact with a fellow comedian in the audience after one applause break and we both were like “what the hell is happening?” It was surreal. So I didn’t quit comedy but that was the last time I seriously considered quitting comedy. Until tonight. #comedycareer #standup #blog #bettercallpaul  Great question. No outright lies on stage but so many exaggerations and stretches of the truth. The biggest one is that I imply I was fired from my law firm on July 3, 2018. To begin with, I was never fired, I left my firm, first to start my own firm and wind down my active cases and then I left the practice of law altogether in March of 2020. I say July 3rd because its a close to a holiday and part of another lie on stage that I received a DUI. Also not true. I was pulled over for suspicion but was released and that was almost twenty years ago. I picked July 3rd after talking to another comedian who told me a date that is easy to remember would work better for the call back to the joke, implying I was fired after receiving said DUI. I thought also that people will remember July 3rd as close to a holiday and a likely day for when one would get pulled over for drinking and driving. It paints a picture in a way and yes, became part of my identity. When I started comedy, I was a story teller and I just told true stories of my life with slight twists. For example, if I was talking about a break up, I would combine the stories of a few different stories involving break ups or a conversation with a friend would be a combination of a few friends. I continue to tell stories now but in shorter form. But as I have said before, truth in comedy is what works best for me and so most of what I say on stage is true or based in truth. #standup #lies #comedy #formerlawyer  |
AuthorPaul Farahvar is a comedian hailing from Chicago, Ill. Archives
September 2026
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