PopRad sits down with Comedian, Cam Bertrand: “People Don’t Fail, They Quit.”
By Gabby Alfveby
Cam Bertrand is best known for his appearance on America’s Got Talent (Season 16) but also became the youngest comic to win Florida’s Funniest competition where he beat over 300 comics in 2019. Bertrand dropped out of college just before the 3-week mark of his first semester to pursue comedy as a full-time career. He has contributed to the MTV show ‘Wild’N’Out’ for 2 seasons as a writer and gained over 90 million views already on his first half hour special ‘Sophisticated Ignorance’ for Dry Bar Comedy. Bertrand is set to begin his tour on February 2nd and has big dreams to create his very own comedy special that is produced exclusively by him.
PopRad: “Why did you start stand-up comedy?”
Cam: “So, when I was 14, I would stay at my friend’s house a lot and he'd go to bed super early and so I would just stay up until three in the morning watching comedy central presents and I just watched everybody's comedy specials. And so even when I was a kid, I would just see comedy and I’d just be like, ‘oh that's a job you can get paid to do that. So, after that I would just watch all those specials and I would go to school and I would just try to make my friends laugh and then I would write jokes and then I would try them at the lunch table and sometimes they worked and sometimes they wouldn't but that was the first thing that got me into stand up,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “What was your experience of being on Americas Got Talent like?”
Cam: “It was super stressful. It was exciting but the year before they had kind of extended the offer to be like ‘did I want to do it’. But it was the covid year and I was like, ‘well if I do it I want to do it with an audience.’ And so by the time that I got to do it, they told me we'd have an audience but we didn't. There was only about 50 people. That was so much more stressful doing it to this empty theater and just the judges and then all that area. So, you know, I grew up watching Simon and Heidi and you know, Howie and all these people since I was a kid and just watching the show. So, that was nerve-racking because I was basically just telling jokes to them in a giant, essentially a warehouse. There's just a big building with me telling jokes to them so separated so that was super stressful but, Terry Crews is super nice. Everybody's really sweet. It was just a lot. Especially to go from doing comedy clubs to doing a giant theater. Yeah. It was a lot. No, they were cool. It was fun. It was definitely fun. It's just a lot of pressure. I have 90 seconds to prove my value as I've worked 10 years to get here and you finally do it. You just hope that it pays off. Sometimes it doesn't go well, and you can never really dictate that,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “Who in your life has inspired you the most as a person or a comedian?”
Cam: “Not to be corny, but my mom. Just watching her work two jobs my entire life and just try to support us and try to give us the best life that she could. And when she let me drop out of college to do comedy full-time, realizing now how crazy that is as a parent to just allow your kid to chase their dreams is insane. Because a lot of parents would rather be like, ‘well, you got to have this type of job. You gotta make this type of money because that's the only way you can live’. And she just kind of trusted me to do that. So, that was super inspiring to know that she just went on a limb to let me pursue the thing that I told her, ‘This is my dream. This is what I want to do.’ She was kind of like, ‘all right.’ So, that meant a lot to me. It's inspired me every day to try to take that next step and prove her right and try to succeed for her,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: Was there a day or moment that made you have an epiphany to drop out of college and pursue comedy?
Cam: “It sounds so ridiculous, but they gave me two biology classes and science was never my strong suit. And so I was sitting in this second bio class and I was only three weeks into college at this point and I couldn't keep up with what they were trying to teach us and so I was sitting there next to this girl and the teacher was talking, I didn't know what they were talking about. So I leaned over and I try to make a joke, ‘does anybody know what she's talking about’ and the girl goes. ‘Hey, we pay for this.’ I was like, ‘oh no’. I was like everybody takes this so seriously, and I'm not good at this. So after that class, I was on my way to the next class. I called my mom. I said ‘hey, I don't think I can do this. This isn't really for me.’ It's not that I didn't like the school. The school aspect of it was great I just didn't like the classes. I didn't like the things that I was learning. I decided, I just want to do comedy and so at that point I had only done three sets. I had only been on stage three times and I was like I want to do that. I want to do that forever. And so my mom was just kind of like ‘Alright’. She had already not even a month before helped me pack all my stuff up and move to Tallahassee. And then for me to call her and go I want to drop out you have to come help me move all of my stuff back was insane. But yeah, there was that defining moment of me being like ‘I'm gonna be in debt if I stay here’,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “What’s your favorite thing about doing stand-up comedy?”
Cam: “Oh, man, honestly the friendships you build a bond with people. It feels like such a fraternity of because you always have these crazy stories that you only get by going through it. Right? So, when you meet another comedian who's been doing it a certain amount of time, done all these shows, you almost swap war stories where you're like, what's the worst show you've done, right? So, everybody is like, ‘oh man. I did a flea market. I did a laundry mat. I did this thing.’ I did a show with Nick Di Paolo one time and right before the show that show was at 8 o'clock. I did a flea market in Haines City, Florida at 5pm. I go there I do the show, it's terrible. I leave to go to this other show and me and Di Paolo are in the green room. And he was like, ‘are you all right.’ I was like ‘dude, I just did a flea market for two 14 years old.’ I explained the whole thing to him. He was like, ‘oof’ and just that camaraderie of other comedians knowing what you've been through because we've all done it. it's just the bond is so crazy. That's my favorite part is getting to hang out with your kin, the people that get. It's almost weird for me to hang out with regular people now because it's all I've known for 10 years, and I just love talking about comedy. I love doing it and I love figuring out better ways to do it. So
when I hang out regular people, I can't say some of the crazy off the wall things that I want to because it's like ‘oh no, this is funny,’ but they're like, ‘hey, you can't say that.’ I'm like, ‘oh I'm kidding,’” Bertrand said laughing.
PopRad: “What is one of the craziest moments you’ve had when performing stand-up comedy?”
Cam: “The worst heckle I ever got in my life was my sister. So, I did a show in Springfield, Missouri and my sister drove up three hours to go to the show, but earlier that day she had sprained her foot. So, to cope with the pain of hurting her foot she started drinking. So, we've been drinking all day and the chiefs were playing and she loves the Kansas City Chiefs. So we're just having fun and then by the time it gets to the show, she's drunk and comedy is one of those things where there's pacing, there's timing, and so was doing the jokes, I was doing pretty well and I was in a pocket where I was letting the laugh die down so that I could get into something else and as the laughs dying down she thinks I forgot my jokes, so she yells out ‘you got it little bro’ and it was the worst feeling in the world. ‘You got it little bro’ is the worst heckle you could ever say to somebody and so I just started roasting her. I was like, ‘I'm telling Mom you did this.’ I was like, this is insane there's 200 people here. I've been doing this for a decade. You think I don't know how to do this? It's just so funny that it was such a moment where I couldn’t have predicted having such a terrible heckle in this moment where I was doing well in front of my family and I just thought it was going so good,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “From here what’s next and what are your future goals as a stand-up comedian?
Cam: “I got a lot of things, I got some auditions that are in the works and hopefully that goes good. I'm planning on taping my own special. That's a super big deal for me because I had no control or say over the last two that I did. So, this one means a lot to me that I'm gonna own it. I'm gonna produce it. Every aspect of this is gonna be the thing that I dreamed about since I was a kid, so when I get to finally tape it and release it, it'll be a pretty big deal for me just because Im finally able to do the thing that I always wanted to do and finally, I'm in a position where I can make that happen now. I've been looking forward to that since I started comedy, that's super exciting. I'll be moving back to LA, that'll be fun. I've gotta go compete with some of my friends and family out there and try to get them to make something happen,” Bertrand said.
Poprad: “What show are you most excited about and why?”
Cam: “I've got a bunch of shows coming up and I know it sounds corny to be like I'm excited for all of them. But just doing comedy is so exciting because especially now that people actually come out specifically to see me that's nuts to me because that's the goal. You want people that want to see you specifically. Not to just be at a place that comedy is happening. Do you know, how many bar shows I've done where people are just there to drink their sorrows away. You just happen to be doing comedy and they're like this isn't what we came for and you got to kind of win them over. But now when I go do shows and people are like we saw you on this, we saw this, we've been following you and that feels so good because you feel validated that your craft of the thing that you enjoy doing other people like seeing you do it. So, that's the most exciting part is being able to actually go on the road and have people come out to the shows that want to see you. So no, I am excited for all of them,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “How do you come up with the sets you perform at your shows?”
Cam: “I just kind of let the jokes hit me as far as something will happen in a day and I'll write it down. The amount of things that I write in a day is crazy. But the amount of things I actually say on stage it's a much smaller thing. You write it, you go back, you look at it later. You go Is this still funny. You go how can I add to it? Where can I put it in this set to make it make sense? I’ll write things that have no place right now but in five years, they'll find a way to make it into this part. I've got some jokes I'm doing now that I wrote five, six years ago that I’m just now able to make them work and yeah, it’s just based on how I'm feeling in that time. So whether I'm single, whether I'm in a relationship, whether something's happening with my family, whether it's something's happening in the news. It's always just kind of a feeling of how do I feel today, what I want to talk about today and I try to build a set around that. I always try to do something different. The fear of complacency has always scared me as far as if I just kept doing the same set over and over and over I would just get so bored and it would just make me such a miserable person. If I just went out there, kept talking about things I didn't want to talk about,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “Are any of your tattoos meaningful and/or related to comedy?”
Cam: “They're all super meaningful. I do have a couple comedy tattoos. I do have the Chapelle show logo. I have that, I have the logo of the comedy club that I first started at. That was actually my newest tattoo. I've just got that recently. I have the clown Pagliacci I don't know if anybody knows this story of Pagliacci it’s from The Watchmen. I have a couple comedy tattoos. I've been getting tattoos since I was 17. Almost my entire body is almost done. So that's fun. I got a little bit of space left I’m gonna fill that in within the next year or two. But yeah no, I love tattoos,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “What does your day-to-day routine look like?”
Cam: “Stressed out. I wake up, try to post a clip. I try to get it out around 11 a.m. or so.
I gotta edit, I gotta respond to emails, respond to texts, respond to messages, try to call people back. I'm literally the worst at the phone but I try my best but it's so stressful. I hate how much I'm on it. I'm usually up until four or five in the morning just trying to get things done and then I sleep until 10, it sucks. Yeah, it's a lot. It's what I asked for, you know kind of. But the travel part of it like when I have shows that's the tough part because I'll book an early flight. So, I'll get up around like four or five am, go to the airport, take the flight to that City, try to check into the hotel. Sometimes they don't let you check until three. You gotta get the rental car, you go do the show, you go back to the hotel, you go back to the airport at like five in the morning, Go to another city and yeah, it's a lot,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “How has the town(s) you grew up in shaped you to be who you are as a person?”
“I actually moved a lot like a lot a lot. So, when I was a kid, we lived in a bunch of different cities. We'd move almost every year. I was at a different school for most of my childhood, but we'd always move from Florida to another state and then back to Florida. So, I've lived in Alabama, Texas, Baltimore, Michigan, Missouri but every time we moved, we’d move back and then the only place that I went to school the entire time was Brandon. I went to Brandon and graduated from Brandon High School, went there all four years. So that's really the only place I kind of stayed growing up. Other than that, yeah, we're in different parts of Tampa, Temple Terrace, Ruskin a bunch of different little towns in Florida. But I do love Florida the most. I love my little swamp. Every time I leave, and I come back I go ‘ugh’ because it's gross but I know this city. It's my gross City, you know,” Bertrand said.
PopRad: “Do you have any life mantras that you live by?”
Cam: “My best friend passed. He was a genius. He's the greatest human being I’ve ever met. I always just try to think about how much harder he would be working right now if he was here. I always try to kind of keep that in my mind and how hard my mom works and I just try to stay focused and know that all the stressful things are temporary and you work hard now, so that later everything's easier. Yeah, no, it's interesting to think, if I think of anything on a day-to-day basis that gets me through the day. I just kind of try to distract myself if I’m being honest. I try not to think about too many things because then I get overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed pretty easily. I end up having to take a bunch of naps. I don’t know if that’s my mantra. That’s my mantra, I nap,” Bertrand finished laughing.
PopRad: “If you were to give one piece of advice to someone younger wanting to pursue comedy or your younger self, what would that be?”
Cam: “This is actually such a funny question because I've been giving the same answer since I got this advice and I think it's the best advice I've ever gotten. And so the advice is people don't fail, they quit, right? If you work hard enough, long enough at something you will succeed if that is the thing that you're meant to do. So, if you make music there's people out there who will like your music. There's eight billion people in the world. Somebody will enjoy what you do. It's just finding the people that enjoy it. It's working hard, trying to figure out how you market, how you do all these things. I got that advice from Erik Griffin. He’s a very funny comedian. He's a workaholic. He gave that advice to me eight years ago. And it's funny because I'm good friends with Matt Rife and Matt Rife just did an interview. They asked him the same question. He gave that exact piece of advice, and I called him and I was like ‘Erik Griffin?’ and he goes, ‘yeah’, and it's so funny that he gave both of us that same piece of advice and we both have been telling people the same thing for the last almost decade. But it is the best piece of advice that I've ever been given. It’s because you just have to trust the process, how corny of a thing that is, but if you just commit to it and you just keep doing it, you will succeed. Too many people give up too soon or too early before it's their opportunity. So just keep pushing,” Bertrand said.
Cam Bertrand will be performing at Café Eleven, in St. Augustine FL on February 3rd and at High Dive, in Gainesville FL on February 4th. You could purchase tickets for both events at this link: https://www.seetickets.us/event/Comedian-CAM-BERTRAND/575239
