Tim Cornett
written by J.T. Howard
At first glance, you might not expect this fellow to be stand up comedian. He seems like the quiet, mild mannered fellow who would help an elderly woman to her car with groceries. While he may be that person, he’s also very boisterous and very funny. This man is Tim Cornett.
He’s originally from Cincinnati. As he describes it, a source of tough times, “Like every comedian, they seem to start it at the worst part of their lives. I was thrown out of art school and I was driving around all depressed. ‘Oh no! Whoa is me!’ and then I saw an open mic and I thought, ‘Comedy! Aha!’ I went home and I typed up a thing for that weekend. And I did terribly!”
But that didn’t stop him from coming back. He had found something that had clicked with him. After doing this for eight years, he’s got a bit more of a handle on things now. His influences were not directly apparent. He didn’t have traditional comic stand-up influences, like other comics, “at least not going into it” he says.
But he does have things that inspire him, “I’ve spent my entire life,” said Cornett, “being raised up on comic books and country western music. I think if you look at my act it’s pretty clear those are the only two things that I’m pretty much informed by. I like some of the Outlaw stuff in country music. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings. They’re the best. You know, punch you in the gut kind of music. As for comics, I like DC stuff. I like super hero stuff. And that’s not really so common in Portland. Everyone’s got the weepy independent thing. But I just like to see Superman punch somebody. I don’t wanna read a comic book about somebody’s feelings. That’s lame to me. You know ‘This is what my discontent looks like.’ Sorry that was visual. (into mic) I’m scrawling a monster. Parentheses.”
Cornett, like most comedians, has spent most of his comedy career travelling around, which he still does, getting gigs in towns around the country, and even lived in Las Vegas for a time. “[Vegas is] not good. Vegas is where comedians go to die,” said Cornett, “It’s filled with old comics and then the regular, local scene of comics, who have lived in Vegas their entire lives. Their entire point of reference is strippers. That’s how they know everything.”
Now Cornett spends his time between two places: a farm in Louisville, Kentucky and Portland, Oregon. When asked why those two places he says “Yeah. You know, it’s a give and take. I’m trying to have the best of both worlds. Whereas I like going to coffee shop and hanging out, but I also hate being mugged and crazy people.” Which he admits is also more of a Cleveland thing than a Portland thing, well, maybe not the crazy people.
Still Kentucky was an interesting choice. “Kentucky has more personal stuff. My girlfriend lives there, I have family there. That’s where Tim kind of does the “farm living” thing. I don’t know why I just spoke to myself in third person… (laughs) I do a little more of the farm living. I get to relax.”
So then that makes Portland a hell of a commute. “I like Portland. It’s got a good scene. When it’s going it’s got more stage time than you can handle. That’s really rare. You can do whatever you want to people. They will pretty much go for it. So you can grow, you can develop. And you can sharpen up bits with so much stage time. If you’re industrious, you can go up fourteen times a week – that’s including mixed mic, you know music open mics and stuff like that. You can get yourself out to those music open mics where the people will hate you! Unless you’re funny. Putting yourself through that level of abuse will make those people laugh.”
So Portland to Tim Cornett is a place, “Just to hang out and do comedy… I like the comics here, there’s a good group of comics here and there’s a lot of stage time.” It’s taken him some time to get used to the comedy scene in Portland. Starting out in Cleveland, he had to be very aggressive and according to him, “Portland is a very friendly town. At first I tried to be angry and I think it scared people.” Now he’s learned to be high energy and friendly. An important combination in this city.
This makes for an interesting transition when he goes back to Kentucky. “Kentucky the stage time is a lot less,” Cornett said, “There are like a handful of really good comics. Louisville (apparently pronounced without any of its middle consonants) is actually a really cool city. I think it’s what Portland must have been like ten/fifteen years ago, before it was really on the map. It’s like the little liberal hub, surrounded by a lot of hillbillies. It’s starting to get a strong international presence. A lot of people come to live there. It’s cheap as fuck to live. Yeah. That is good. They’re not quite to this (pointing out the window) hippie crazy, but they’re on their way. It’s still Kentucky; you still burn your trash.”
He gently reminds everyone that there are noticeable differences between the two, however, “See, here’s the difference between Portland and Kentucky. You see those two lovely old people right over there? (Pointing to a trim elderly couple walking down the sidewalk) In Kentucky they would be five hundred pounds each. They would be on rascals. There are more fat people in Kentucky and I can appreciate that. I trust fat people more… They just want dinner. They don’t have time for any ulterior motives.” So that’s it? Biggest difference is more fat people? Maybe not.
“Although I did see a T-shirt in Kentucky that was “if you’re too open minded your brain will fall out” It was the greatest thing, a T-shirt AGAINST open mindedness. Any new idea that comes up, nope, not gonna happen… That is Kentucky right there.”
J.T. Howard is a writer from Portland, Oregon.
For more on Tim, visit www.myspace.com/timcornett.