A Q&A with ... comedian Brian Posehn
If you haven't seen Brian Posehn perform standup comedy, you still may recognize him from a long list of movies and TV series, including Just Shoot Me, Mr. Show and The Comedians of Comedy. Lately, he's been busy promoting three new ventures: Live in: Nerd Rage, his new comedy CD; The Last Christmas, his new comic book; and his new metal band, Posehn, which has two tracks on the Nerd Rage disc.

I figured now would be the perfect time to share my recent chat with Brian, who lives in Los Angeles. While I may not see him at Comic-Con, some of his favorite books and authors will definitely be there.
So I was just watching footage of your 40th birthday party on YouTube ...

I just got into trouble with a joke (I told) on YouTube. I was just trying it out in Austin, Texas, and, the next thing I knew, 17,000 people had seen it. I talked about my wife's niece. ... YouTube is really cool but also the bane of my existence. (Laughs)

It looked like a great party, though.

My wife threw a total surprise for me. She got Metal Skool to play, which is the best tribute band ever. They're hilarious.

Your new comedy CD features a couple tracks from your own band, Posehn. How did that come together?

Well, Scott Ian's a really good friend. He and I had been talking about recording and writing together for a long time. The main idea was (the band would be) he and I and whoever he could get to play on the record. I happened to know the guys he called -- I was thrilled. He got Joey Vera, his old bass player from Anthrax. ... It all just sort of came together.

And how serious is the band? I heard you just shot a video.

The idea is to do a full metal record at some point. Next year (I'll) do one standup record on its own and then another music record, and kind of keep them separately. Nerd Rage is 45 minutes of standup and then two songs.

How did the cover for Nerd Rage come about, by the way?

Well, one of my favorite comic books is a book called Powers by Brian Michael Bendis. The artist (Mike Avon-Oeming) had drawn that original design roughly into the background of one of the pages. ... I called Brian to say "Hey, what was that? I can't believe he referenced me in your book." When I was thinking about what to call my album and what to do with the art, that just made sense.

My act is about a lot of things, but probably the biggest thing it's about is me and my reaction to things. A lot of that comes from being a nerd. (The cover) just felt like a good fit. A lot of my fans are also comic-book fans, so it just felt like a nice thing to do.

What comics do you read?

Walking Dead is probably my favorite. I still read Bendis. I love The New Avengers. The new Daredevil series by Ed Brubaker is starting off amazingly. I read all the same old stuff I did as a kid. I still keep up with Spider-Man and Batman -- those are the guys that got me into comics. And I love Y: The Last Man.

So do I, though now that I've read all of the Y and Walking Dead issues, I need something else.

The Last Christmas!

Oh, that's right -- you have a comic now, too. Wow, it seems like all of your dreams are coming true ...

I tell friends that I think I'm a Make-A-Wish kid and no one's told me yet. I'm getting to do everything I've ever wanted to do: I did a horror movie with Rob Zombie last year, The Devil's Rejects, and I just did a zombie movie called Wanted: Undead or Alive. I did a metal record, I've got a comic book out. It's all my favorite things.

So what's left?

I don't know. Gettin' it on with Wonder Woman, I think. (Laughs)

But back to Last Christmas -- two issues are out now, but how many are planned?

There's five written. We have some more stories to tell if the response is good, and so far it has been. We'll see.

The premise mixes Santa Claus with the apocalypse, which are two of my favorite things.

(Laughs) Yeah, it was a crazy idea. My friend Gerry (Duggan) and I were playing Halo one day and joking around and he was talking about this idea he had with Santa Claus. I had just watched Road Warrior for, like, the hundredth time. And I turned to him and said, "What if it's Santa as Mad Max? What if it's after the apocalypse?" He dropped his controller and started laughing and we started writing immediately.

Cool. And as for Posehn, is this your first band?

Yeah, this is the first, though I was famed for my karaoke skills. Over the years, if I had a couple of beers in me, I could be swayed into doing metal-style vocals on songs that were not meant to be sung metal-style. I got kicked out of a club downtown for singing Kenny Rogers' The Gambler, death-metal-style. I was just screaming, and this Korean gentleman who ran the place was not amused. He yelled, "You're banned for life!" in my face.

Brian Posehn will embark on a Comedians of Comedy tour in the fall. A trade paperback edition of The Last Christmas is planned for -- what else? -- the holiday season.