Straight out of the heartland comes a comedian whose “all-American” brand of comedy wrestles laughs from universal frustrations of life. St. Louis native Greg Warren, who was an All-American wrestler at University of Missouri, will be playing a full weekend of six shows at the Pittsburgh Improv in Homestead.
Warren burst onto the national scene through the ultra-popular syndicated radio show, “Bob and Tom,” who played his now-iconic “Fluteman” bit. Warren also has found a home away from home as a regular call-in guest of WDVE's morning show with Randy Baumann, whom Warren calls one of the “quickest comedy minds” he's ever met.
Even though listeners love the “Fluteman” bit, Warren is no one-joke comedian. He methodically uses “free writing” and his unique combination of life experience to create new material on a consistent basis.
Warren credits his many years of wrestling experience with giving him a unique lens in the American comedy psyche. Wrestling also helps Warren deal with the adversity of the “up-and-down lifestyle of a professional comedian.”
Wrestling also exposed Warren to “a lot of characters.” It's from those characters that Warren finds comedy gold. A character-driven comedian, he's been influenced by such people as Eddie Murphy and Bob Newhart.
Some contemporary comedians Warren likes include Ron Morey, Mark Gross and Pittsburgh's own Billy Gardell. Warren calls out those three comedians, specifically, for really helping him when he started out. He says some younger comedians that make him laugh include Tommy Johnagin, Dan Soder and Jared Logan.
Warren wasn't a starving artist. He held a great job at Proctor& Gamble that he had to decide to quit in order to pursue comedy full-time. It was the 8-hour grind that made him decide to pull up his stapler and head to the stages of America.
Comedian Matt Wohlfarth is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.
