Chris D'Elia: Under No Influence Sat., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., Ferguson Hall at the Straz Center, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa, $27.50-$35. strazcenter.org.Chris D’Elia, comedy's skater-boy with wild eyebrows and a spot-on drunk-girl impersonation, will headline the Straz Center's Ferguson Hall on Oct. 25.
D’Elia’s career as an American funny man spans across the entertainment spectrum, including acting, writing and stand-up comedy. Name recognition from roles on TV's Whitney and Undateable have scored him bigger gigs. His first one-hour comedy special, “White Male Black Comic,” aired on Comedy Central in 2013, and has since made him one of America’s most popular young comedians today. His 31-city American tour, Chris D'Elia: Under No Influence, will visit Tampa, where he will have guests belly laughing at his pop culture quips and animated, physical style of comedy.
Audiences should expect to see a top-notch Drake parody, a sassy drunk girl imitation, and as always, those crazy eyebrows and wild-eyed stares that have become trademarks for D’Elia.
CL caught up with D’Elia for a quick phone interview last week while he was on tour in Madison, Wis.
About visiting Tampa, he offered a fairly banal but all-to-true sentiment: "I'm excited ... it'll be warm."
When it comes to the exhausting juggernaut of visiting 31 cities, he's not at all fazed. “I don’t know. I just think I love it that much. I just love doing it,” D’Elia said. “It’s kind of cool to see new cities. Some of them are better than others, but if I don’t like one, I go on to the next one. It’s been really great.”
D’Elia’s jokes can’t be found scribbled on a pad of paper sitting on a desk. His writing process — well, he doesn’t really have one. But based on his audiences laughs, he doesn’t need one. D'Elia's brother came up with the name for the tour "Under No Influence" simply because he doesn't drink or do drugs. There's no sad tale of growing up an abusive alcoholic parent. He just says, "It's not even a decision I made. I just feel like I haven't done it yet."
His mellow abstinence is working out well. D’Elia uses typical snapshots of everyday life and pokes fun at them. The obnoxiously drunk girl we have all seen before, the man reading the nutrition facts on a water bottle and the laughing rapper are all characters in D’Elia’s funny reality.
“I just kind of think of the stuff during the day and kind of have an idea, and if it works, then I'll do it on stage. I don’t really write it, you know?” D’Elia said. “I just try to find the humor in the day to day.”