John F. O’Donnell
Most comedians flee D.C. for New York or Los Angeles at any sign of success. John F. O’Donnell did the exact opposite.
O’Donnell has spent the last two years working on RT’s political humor show Redacted Tonight With Lee Camp as a writer and correspondent. And this Saturday, he’s filming his first ever comedy special at the DC Improv as part of this year’s Bentzen Ball.
“I’ve been doing stand up for fifteen years and I was in New York for ten,” O’Donnell said. “Most people start out in a scene like D.C. and then feed to New York or LA, but for me it was the reverse. I think in D.C., there’s less stakes in terms of industry stuff. You’re not consistently auditioning for things. There’s a freedom to be creative and take risks and just do your thing.”
O’Donnell moved to D.C. two years ago to work on Redacted Tonight, in the vein of The Daily Show, but with a harder, leftier edge. As a correspondent, O’Donnell writes and stars in his own segments, often based on man-on the street pieces, like his recent presidential debate coverage. He strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and batshit absurdity, and endears himself to politicians on camera by appealing to their ego.
“There’s a segment we did where I want up to Lindsey Graham and said ‘I’m a huge Lindsey Graham super fan!'” O’Donnell said. “Who the fuck is a Lindsey Graham super fan?”
For the production of his comedy special, O’Donnell has an unusual collaborator: Fugazi’s Brendan Canty will direct the special. His involvement indicated a more punk approach, with talent pooled from O’Donnell’s circle in D.C. and New York.
“It’s a DIY endeavor,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve never done a video special, but I’ve released eight DIY comedy albums. My audio engineer, my good buddy Harris Karlin is coming down from New York to work with Brendan on the audio. My friend Rachel Couch from The Lookout collective is overseeing the video elements. So it is this cool D.C. collective project.”
O’Donnell’s act addresses a tendency to bare his mental health history on stage. It’s gotten his work in front of a diverse audience—psychology professors among them.
“Over the years,I’ve dealt with bipolar disorder and manic depression,” O’Donnell said, “I’ve always been able to claw my way back, and stand-up comedy has been this saving grace that allowed me to get back my sense of self and allow me to heal and deal with these feelings of self loathing. I’ve talked about that a lot in my stand-up and podcasts over the years, and it’s been very rewarding and humbling to have people message me for speaking about it publicly and not being ashamed of it.”
In one of O’Donnell’s boldest pieces of political performance art, he chased down Karl Rove, gushing that he once thought the political consultant was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It’s the kind of sharp, confrontational humor O’Donnell does so well.
The outburst wasn’t entirely fictional.
“In 2008, I had a severe manic episode that lasted nine months. I was in Ireland. I got arrested,” O’Donnell said. While he was in jail, “one of the delusions that really took hold, for real, was that Karl Rove was an evil entity. I legitimately thought he was one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Karl Rove caused me a lot of existential and abstract pain, so to get to approach him this way was really a triumph.”
The larger narrative surrounding the episode has been documented on Kevin Allison’s “Risk” podcast, where O’Donnell performed a spoken word piece about his experiences at The Howard Theater. His tale begins around the 49 minute mark. It’s a stirring, kaleidoscopic look at a moment in his life, delivered with wit and verve and a naked honesty that best typifies what makes O’Donnell such an incredible comic. After all these years, O’Donnell has finally evolved into the kind of comedian he’s always wanted to be.
“When I first started doing stand-up in college, I was getting really engaged politically,” O’Donnell said. “Learning about Bill Hicks and Noam Chomsky at the same time, thinking this is the kind of comedian I want to be, this sort of social commentary. I would try to do it but I didn’t have the chops to write that stuff. Then all this other life stuff happened and I developed autobiographical stuff and absurdist stuff. Then I got this job.”
There’s an enthusiasm about O’Donnell that’s infectious. This comedy special marks the culmination of his journey thus far.
“My best friend from college told me, if you could have told yourself when you first started that you’d be on something like Redacted Tonight. It’s like you manifested it for yourself,” O’Donnell said. “Now I’ve got a congressional press credential!”
John F. O’Donnell records his one-hour special at the Bentzen Ball on October 29. The event is sold out.
