Laugh Lines Comedy

Lord Carrett’s comedy is like an iceberg. There’s a lot that doesn't immediately meet the eye, both in the jokes themselves, and the way he puts them together.

Lord says: “People don't realize how much they really learn about me from the jokes. Ninety percent of my subject matter is the truth: my dad did own a bar, my sister is super religious, and my second wife did tell me "I want my life back" 90 days after I moved cross country to start our life together. Most of my comedy comes from my trying to make sense of nonsense, or vice versa."
He's a ‘recovery artist." Lord elaborates: "There are a whole lot of jokes that don’t have a set place in my act… they ‘float’—they're insults to the audience, or jokes about my own discomfort, or the situation I find myself in, and I fall back on them when a joke doesn’t get a response.”

The result is a little like watching a high-wire act nearly fall, and it holds the audience's rapt attention--it’s one reason people come to see him again and again. “It creates tension when a joke fails, and I use that tension to springboard onto an even bigger laugh with the ‘recovery’ line. It frees me up to work on new material, and to improvise, during every set.
"My detractors say I should lose the jokes that don't work... but no one can predict when a joke is going to fall flat. If a waitress drops a tray of drinks, or someone heckles, the best joke is going to fail. I prefer to have a 'Plan B' and audiences like the cat-and-mouse quality, because they never get the same show twice.”

One of Lord’s biggest influences, Johnny Carson, was famous for the same ability. Lord maintains: “Anyone my age that says they weren't influenced by Carson is lying.” His other influences include radio comedians Groucho Marx, and W.C. Fields, which seems fitting, because radio is where most people know Carrett from.

Lord’s managed the rare feat of headlining theaters without a sitcom or major television exposure. While he's appeared on television ranging from Showtime to"A Dating Story," radio is where he's made his reputation. His ability to work within that medium's verbal confines without sacrificing any of the impact led The Baltimore Sun to describe him as: "A cross between Sid Caesar and Sid Vicious."

He's made eighteen appearances on the nationally syndicated BOB & TOM RADIO NETWORK--reaching more people with each appearance than he would on The Tonight Show. His CD "UNSWEETENED" is in heavy rotation on both XM and SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO's comedy stations. He also had his own comedy special on XM. All the exposure led to his first CD: UNSWEETENED being re-released on the KOOL KAT imprint and receiving international distribution. (Ask for it at a major retailer near you!)

The idea behind "UNSWEETENED" is as unique as Lord himself. It was recorded in one show, one take with no editing or laugh track added. It's the only comedy CD with "the heckling left in and a woman thrown out!" Lord explains the concept (from the liner notes:) "Why UNSWEETENED? I figure any idiot can record a couple of week’s worth of shows and edit them into a killer comedy CD, but it takes a special kind of idiot to record and release a single show intact. This is one show, one take, exactly as it went down, with the mindless heckling left in (and a woman tossed out!)"

The unsweetened approach drives home his knack for consistently coming off a joke that's fallen flat with one that's worthy of applause, which gives his act an interesting punch/counter-punch rhythm. The Sacramento Bee's Jim Carnes said: "His 'Unsweetened' CD was recorded live, in one take of one show, without any editing or laugh-track manipulations, and it shows why he's so good at what he does. A joke that doesn't work merely becomes a set up for one that does."

Lord’s reaching an estimated ten million people with each of his appearances on "Bob & Tom" and gets as many as 10,000 hits to his website from each spot. He got another nationwide boost when XM Satellite Radio (with over two million subscribers) gave him his own hour-long special/interview.
XMregularly plays cuts from "UNSWEETENED," and led to Lord being quoted in The Wall Street Journal in an article about XM Satellite Radio's Comedy Channels, and featured alongside Brian Regan in another in The Journal entitled Comedy Comes Clean. SIRIUS Satellite Radio requested recordings of Lord in action, and he provided them with exclusive clips recorded at two shows at Gary Field's Comedy Club, a previously promo-only CD called "Lord Battles Battle Creek". Lord has also been on The Craig Shoemaker Show, The Tom Leykis Show, The Joey Reynolds Show (4x), Court TV Morning (on SIRIUS) and an interview is online at: First Wives World.
Like his heroes, the "radio comedians" of the 30's, Carrett comes across effectively in that medium because he simply writes good jokes. Most of which can be done on morning radio—jokes that are frequently shocking, but rarely vulgar. Like Groucho Marx, W.C. Fields and Jack Benny, Lord has a strong visual image, but his jokes can stand on their own when stripped of it.

He’s a master of misdirection whose punch lines land with the unexpected, thud of a sucker-punch. Frequently shocking, but rarely vulgar, Carrett somehow manages to distract your attention from exactly what he's saying by combining tons of stage presence, a killer smile, and a slick "who...me?" likeability.

He combines a traditional joke-based approach with "rock-star swagger" which has frequently landed him in the company of music acts--he's appeared in concert with acts as diverse as Weird Al Yankovich (on two tours) Taylor Dayne, Bigger Than Elvis, Billy Preston, Rita Rudner, Bobcat Goldthwait, Emo Philips, Deke Dickerson and Los Straitjackets. He was co-founder of the Sick, Sick, Sick, but Funny, Funny, Funny Comedy Tour, and has appeared in concert with top comics, including Jake Johannsen, Bobby Slayton and Patton Oswalt.

Growing up in his dad's bar, Lord was equally enthralled with comedy and music. He was always fighting sleep to either stay up to watch the bands, or to see the comics on The Tonight Show. While a generation of musicians saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and immediately went out and bought guitars, Lord's "Beatle moment" came while watching HOLLYWOOD SQUARES. They asked gravel-voiced Jan Murray what the penalty for bigamy was. He said: "TWO Mother-in-laws," and a comic was born. Lord says: "I remember thinking at nine years old that it was a perfect joke--one that would still be funny a hundred years from now--one you could translate it into Japanese, and it would still get a laugh. I started writing my own jokes the next day, with an eye toward making them just as universal!"

Lord must have met that challenge, as January of 2006 saw him wrapping a successful six-week tour across The Netherlands as well as headlining clubs in Amsterdam, England, Paris and Milan! Lord's quick to point out that they were club and theater shows--not U.S.O. shows. As he jokes: "Anyone who's willing to get shot at can get booked on U.S.O. shows!" He's on his second tour of Europe right now.

In February, Lord headlined a show at (legendary punk club) CBGB's Gallery that included Air America writer Bruce Cherry, Shaffer The Dark Lord (a white rapper), bombshell burlesque artist Nasty Canasta, and peerless pop band, The Cucumbers. Two months later Lord and the producer of that show got married at that very same venue in a ceremony that was covered in The New York Post Unfortunately, the doomed punk club lasted longer than their marriage... by November, he was wifelessly wowing crowds in Montreal with jokes like: "I learned a LOT from my second marriage. I learned they won't sell you a hand gun if you're crying."

Lord's fortunes turned in 2007, when he was chosen to be part of the prestigious New York Underground Comedy Festival, starting it off with a headline set in Tompkins Park.

Check out Lord's interview in SHECKY MAGAZINE: sheckymagazine.com, Underground TV ugtv.org, The Cincinnati Enquirer CinciEnquirer a nice feature article