BY // MAX GREENHALGH
If I had met John Poveromo outside of an interview, I think I still might have been able to guess that he was a comedian. When discussing his life and act, his mouth was working at break-neck speeds, yet he didn’t blend his words together at all. He moved from a tidbit of information to an anecdote and back again seamlessly, and speaks like an old friend from high school that is excited to catch up with you. He weaves “know what I mean”s and “you know”s into conversation in ways that feel less like breaks that give him a second to think and more like he is actually trying to make sure anyone listening is up to speed. This makes even more sense when you understand his comedy style. “Most comedy is visual,” he explained. “You’re trying to paint a picture and put it inside the audience’s head so they can see what you’re saying.”
Poveromo was once a freshman English major at college, but after a summer of dipping his toes into stand-up, he made a decision. “I’d rather put my time and energy into something that I really liked doing.” He later added that cartooning was his backup in case comedy didn’t work out, joking that others would think ‘oh, ok, you’re going to be poor.’
Poveromo is clearly following his heart, and it has worked out pretty well for him. In addition to doing a lot of shows, his book Drawings From a Nobody was published in 2017, and his cartoons have been displayed at the Woodbridge Art Gallery.
He will be performing alongside Joanne Filan at the DC Comedy Loft this Saturday and Sunday night, and if you are interested in laughing this weekend, you can find tickets here.