For weeks before his big chance, Billy Schear took in all he could about stand-up comedy.
He knew he was funny, but hoped he could prove it to the crowd at the Comedy Works club in downtown Denver.
Practicing his act, watching other comedians and mentally preparing for the amateur contest at the club consumed the then 17-year-old’s life before the show.
When he hit the stage he didn’t win the contest, but did get a few laughs, most notably from nationally performing stand-up comedian Nancy Norton.
“She said something that changed my life,” Schear said. “She said, ‘You should do this for the rest of your life.’”
Schear took her advice and for the last five years has been sporadically performing stand-up comedy around the Denver metro area.
He took a break to pursue film school and film a movie, but in the last year Schear has been diving back into the stand-up scene.
“I get my comedy from everything and everywhere,” Schear said. “The human imagination is limitless. I take a real Dennis Miller approach to comedy. I’m a walking encyclopedia of pop culture and will spit out it all when I can.”
Schear will perform his stand-up act Aug. 14 at Roosters in Broomfield. His most recent performance was at La Dolce Vita on July 15.
It was his second performance at the coffee shop, just blocks away from his day job at the Army Navy Surplus Store.
Working at the store has given Schear not only the financial means to do stand up, but also offered him a place to embark on his other passion — film.
After dropping out of Colorado Film and Video Institute, Schear created the production company Hillside Strangler Entertainment with friend and fellow dropout Anthony Shepherd.
From December 2003 to March 2004, Schear would work a 10-hour shift at the Army Navy Surplus store, then stay all night to film “Surplus,” Hillside Strangler’s first attempt at a film.
“We wanted to do a giant sketch comedy episode in which every scene would have a punch line and the viewer would be bombarded with all types of eye candy and absurdity,” Schear said.
But after filming nearly the entire movie, a lawyer told Schear and Shepherd that all the trademarks filmed in the movie — numbering in the hundreds — would need to be approved by the respective companies.
The feature length was shortened to a short, which never screened on the indie film circuit.
But the disappointment hasn’t stopped Schear, plans are in the works for another movie.
After filming “Surplus,” Schear got back into stand up comedy, turning to La Dolce Vita to hone his skills during open mic nights.
Doug Ostrander, owner of La Dolce Vita, liked Schear’s stand-up right off and offered him his first headlining show April 29.
“The first time he played here we had the busiest night we ever had,” Ostrander said. “I really enjoy his take on things, the offbeat-ness. I don’t like black and white humor, and he is more subversive.
“It is nice to have someone come in and make people say ‘Huh?”
But not everyone gets Schear’s comedy, as proved during the recent Gold Strike Festival in Olde Town.
While making off-the-cuff comments about one of the acts performing on the Gold Strike stage, Schear offended at least one woman who was aggravated enough to contact Arvada Mayor Ken Fellman.
Schear introduced Leo Everett and the Clear Creek Cowboys as Leo Everett and the Queer Creek Cowboys, which elicited gasps from organizers and a near fight with Leo Everett.
Fellman wrote an e-mail asking Schear to make a public apology. Schear said it was merely a joke and he will not apologize.
“It was not meant to be disparaging against homosexuals, it was what an emcee does which is make fun of people and make jokes,” Schear said.
Although he may seem relaxed on stage, Schear said he takes stand-up comedy seriously.
“It is a science and an art,” Schear said. “I think it is one of the greatest sensations I have ever experienced, being on that stage and being able to say whatever I want to say.”