John Caponera grew up in a large family on the south side of Chicago.
The family home sat just across the street from a large park which became a playground for him and his friends. No matter what season, they played baseball in the warm months and when the pond froze over in winter they played hockey and fit in every other sport in between.
John went to college wanting only to play baseball but he felt he wasn’t getting enough playing time so he took his English Professor's request and auditioned for a main stage production of “ One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
He not only was cast but he was bitten by the acting bug.
He would act in all the MainStage theater productions until his graduation.
When he couldn’t afford to move to New York where he could study acting at the level he wanted to, he moved back to his hometown and started tending bar.
Once again providence kicked in and he was coaxed by friends to enter a comedy contest for $500 prize money. He won first place and took the laughs and the cash!
His final exam in acting was to perform a ten minute comedy act and he had not only gotten an A+ and the reward of honest laughter and applause from his teammates but an additional spark went off in his head that he was getting laughs and encouragement from classmates and teachers who are not always an ideal audience and will be the first ones to tell you if you are barking up the wrong tree.
John's journey from this point parallels what every person who ever decides to do stand up for a living should and must do! Get stage time as much as possible even 4-5 sets a night which is why the early stand ups from cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco and others got better faster because in their formative years they are going up five times a night to different crowds and grinding it out. The second key is to always be writing, never let your act atrophy as John says on this podcast. Keep writing, keep pushing yourself to not rely on the same jokes that work, because as you go on more and more television shows, repeating material is the sure sign that you are coasting along and just getting by.
John, who I have been a big fan of from the first time I saw him on television and live on stages rarely repeated material on successive tv spots and he was always working on new stuff if you saw him performing at the Comedy Store.
Beyond doing the Tonight Show, dozens of episodic shows like ER, L.A. Law, The Drew Carey Show, he even had his own sitcom titled: THE GOOD LIFE which is the brass ring that all stand ups aspired to get at that time.
Without any nepotism or connections to show business in the least, John is a great example of what you can achieve if you put your mind to something and work very hard at your craft and always keep learning and keep your eyes on the prize. John was and still is one of the funniest guys I have seen come out of my generation of comedians. Check him out on you tube and the next time you are in Las Vegas where he performs regularly there at the clubs and casinos!
Please welcome to CUWC: John Caponera
