Matt Braunger brings a conversational voice of the everyman to the mic while embodying a style that lampoons topics as airy as pet owls and as lurid as dragon blow jobs. With a background in theater, the 35 year-old’s comedic capacity developed through years of improvisation in the Chicago comedy scene. While most recognizable for his work on the fi nal season of MADtv, which included an over the top Weight Watchers parody commercial, Braugner’s stand up has been featured on television landmarks such as The Tonight Show and The Late Show. Braugner’s success has also landed him a radio show and a guest spot on the Showtime series The United States of Tara. The Travesty had an opportunity to talk with the busy Braugner about life on the road, behind the scenes of MADtv, and what the future holds for him.

Texas Travesty: When did you first decide you wanted to be a stand-up comedian?

Matt Braunger: I don’t remember. I was an improviser/actor in Chicago and I got kicked off my team because they added an extra level at the school I was going to and I couldn’t afford it and I wasn’t going to intern and lift kegs all day. So I got kicked off and it made me kind of go to—I was already doing some stand-up, but it made me kind of turn to the dark side of the force a little bit more in stand-up comedy. So that’s where I feel the sort of tipping point was. But it was something that I was interested in since I was a kid. I think when you’re an only child and you’re already doing performance and you’re like, “oh, you get to be by yourself and everyone listens to whatever you say? I’m in.”

TT: When you got started did your persona on stage just sort of kick in or did you have to work at it?

MB: I found my voice a little faster than some people I knew. There was never a time when I was doing stuff just like another comedian. I always tried to talk like I normally talk. I think that when you get really good, you start just being funny like your being funny at a party. You get comfortable with the audience like they’re your friends.

TT: You got your start in comedy in Chicago. Did that city have a big influence on you? Would you be a different comedian if you had started in LA?

MB: Yeah, I would say so. I originally moved to Chicago after college just for selfish reasons. I wanted to get good and I wanted to live in a normal apartment. There’s that claustrophobic feeling about New York. LA I knew nothing of, and it would have been a disaster if I had started out in LA. I mean, who knows? I might have gotten better faster in New York, but just because I was exposed to improve and these great comedy environments in Chicago, it made me better. Because Chicago is really blue collar, but it’s also extremely intelligent, and they always say play at the top of your intelligence when you can. And not that I do that a lot. I do it some, but it was great to be around all of these people who had these brilliant minds but a great work ethic at the same time.

TT: What is your take on the Conan/Leno debacle?

MB: Team Coco, definitely. I mean I was on Conan. Just from a comedian’s stand-point, I know for a fact that he told his booker that ideally they wanted to have a different comedian on once a week, which would be huge. And also, he said, “I don’t care who’s famous. I want the funniest people out there. They could be unknowns.” And that would be sweet. It would be like the golden age of Johnny Carson when someone would go from being totally unknown to doing that, and people would be like, “oh, that guy’s great or that girl’s great.” And also, not even to weigh in on everything, but I’m just a way bigger fan of Conan.

TT: I read an article about this written by the head writer of the A.V. Club and he said something like, comedians necessarily have a dark side to them and almost should be using drugs. What’s your take on that?

MB: Yeah, I read that. Well, I agree with that [laughs]. I agree with that to an extent. I think that a lot of us do have that darkness in us and I know that I do a little bit. But I have friends who make fun of me who are like, “Your parents are still together and you had a great childhood. Where is this coming from?” And it can come from all kinds of things. It’s just the kind of position of being an artist that you do reflect the fact that we are living in an enormous black hole a lot of the time. We’re floating in space, and is there any meaning to life, and all of that stuff. Part of it is, “laugh to keep from crying.” And of course a lot of us do turn to substance abuse. But that one thing in the article where it was like, “Leno is so together and people don’t trust him because he doesn’t do drugs.” That’s BS. I don’t agree with that. It’s not that, it’s just that his stuff is so milk toast. And just, terrible jokes. And Conan’s jokes are great. But yes, I do agree with it in that a lot of us turn towards escapism, because that’s a lot of what comedy is. And when you do start making a living at it, like I haven’t had a day job in the past two, two-and-a-half years, you do have a lot of free time, and you’ll be like, “Yeah, I’ll have a beer. I don’t have to get up for nothing tomorrow.” But you just have to be careful, that’s all.

TT: What is your writing process like?

MB: In terms of my act, I don’t write things down enough. I’ve started to try to now, mainly because I used to write down little things to remind me and it would just be a word or a sentence, and that’s still how I kind of hold down bits. I never write out jokes—I just can’t. When I started doing television spots, when I did Letterman, you have to write out everything, and it drove me crazy. I really hated having to write out my jokes. It was like pulling teeth. It wasn’t like it was actual work—it just bothered me.

TT: With not writing things down, do you ever have problems with consistency? Or does your improvisation on stage work every time?

MB: I like to flip it, add things, or take things out just in case someone saw me the night before. They’d get a new little twist on things.

TT: Do you have any rituals you go through before going on stage? Or any superstitions?

MB: Nah, I don’t have superstitions. I stretch a little and I drink a lot of water. And that’s about it [laughs]. Now I make sure to bring my album on stage so I can be like, “Hey, buy this.”

TT: You mentioned that you have a lot of time on the road, and I’ve always wondered what comedians do all day in strange cities.

MB: Hopefully there’s a gym in the hotel. I go exercise a little—like 30 minutes on he elliptical and that’s it. And then I’ll go get lunch and coffee and I’ll try to write the whole afternoon. Sometimes you try to find a movie theater and go see a movie, but I really try to stay productive. Because whether I’m writing jokes down or if stuff just came to me, or trying to write a script. Just some kind of output. Because you really are kind of stuck. Like right now, I’m in a hotel off of the turnpike. There’s nothing near me except a Red Lobster.

TT: Have you gone to the Red Lobster?

MB: I sadly have [laughs]. I had a Caesar salad the other day. And boy those cheddar biscuits, I’ll tell you what. But yeah, there’s nothing around me. I wanted them to put me in downtown or on Congress street or something fun, but they just think it’s too much of a drive. So next time I’ll just make sure and rent a car or something.

TT: What is the worst show you’ve ever done?

MB: I ran a show in Chicago when I was starting out. I hosted it every week, and it was just a way to make myself get better. It had been three weeks, and we had great shows every week and then once, I went on stage and I couldn’t get anything. I mean it was dead silence. I remember just getting off stage and going back stage and just jumping sideways and lying on a couch. It was awful. I just ate a sandwich. It was terrible.

TT: Did you do much stand up when you were on MadTV?

MB: Yeah. MadTV was kind of a fluke. My agent was like, “Would you want to audition for this?” And I was like, “I’m not the hugest fan, but it would be work. And hopefully I could write some sketches or whatever.” But I had to make up characters, and I never do characters. But I made these characters up that I took from my act. And then liked them, and I auditioned maybe six times, and when I got it I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the most fun times of my life. The writers were incredible, and I realized that the things I didn’t like about MadTV was it’s reliance on pop culture references, but it’s that shows bread and butter. And that’s was really made it was it is in terms of its success. But the amount of great sketches that writers would write that wouldn’t get in would make people’s heads spin. I would read these sketches and be like, “This is an incredible sketch.” But of course it wouldn’t go in.

TT: How come?

MB: Because anyone could shoot it down. A producer could shoot it down, the guy who wrote the entire show could shoot it down. And I think there was almost a fear of being like, “Well, let’s do the one about Britney Spear and her baby.”

TT: You do a radio show called “Matts Radio.” How much of that is planned out? I read a list of the topics on the website and it was like, “Thanksgiving. Drunkenness. Homeless kids. Martinis. Heroine.” Do you have a list of bullet points or are those just topics that happen to come up?

MB: No. Matt Dwyer and I are old friends, and we don’t plan anything. We just go out there and just talk about whatever is on our minds or whatever happened that day. And we just riff and and have a guest comedian on and then he or she will play some songs and we’ll talk about them. We’ll play like four-song blocks. Marcia Neumyer, who’s our webmaster, she’s also known as Sparkie Pop online, she just decided when she built that site to write down topics. And she’s just listening when we record in our studio downtown.

TT: What does the future hold for Matt Braunger?

MB: Well, I just got the first of two episodes of John Oliver’s New York stand-up show last night. And then I have another one later this month. In April, my half-hour “Comedy Central Presents” is coming out. I’m in two episodes of “United States of Tara.” I don’t know when those are airing. I think one of them might have already gone on Showtime. And then I’m going to Sundance next weekend for a short film I’m in called “Successful Alcoholics” with T.J. Miller who you might know from “Cloverfield” and some other stuff. And I’m doing Sketchfest at the end of the month.