On: April 30 at 03:33 PM
Let’s get down to brass tax, here. Tim Babb is a geek.
How much of a geek is he? For starters, he listens to a Star Trek podcast that’s done by two British guys. Awesome!
“There’s no one in my immediate circle I can talk to about it,” Babb said with a laugh. “(My friends and family) are like ‘you are a geek, and an idiot.’
“I’m totally proud to be a geek,” he added. “I guess because, geek culture, it’s still not ‘cool,’ but there are pockets of people that think it’s cool, and if you can find them, it’s like the new Dungeons and Dragons culture.”
Outside of his immediate circle, it seems that there are plenty of people that the Stockton-native comedian can talk to about his geekage, and those would be the people who buy tickets to his shows.
Babb returns to Stockton and the “Laugh Track Live” comedy series with two shows on Saturday, May 3 at the Matinee Lounge, at 1825 Pacific Ave. The shows are at 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., and tickets are $15.
Tickets are available at www.laughtracklive.com, at Matineé or at 800.838.3006, and the show is open to those 21 and older only.
Now based in Los Angeles and coughing up $4.20 a gallon for gas, the Lincoln High School class of ’95 graduate still enjoys a warm welcome when he returns to perform in Stockton.
“I had a lot of fun (at the last show), a lot of people came out that I knew at various points in my life, it was a very positive response,” he said.
“It’s weird, I’m amazed at things that weren’t around when I left,” he added, “I don’t know why I thought Stockton didn’t have a Jamba Juice and a Starbucks.”
His headlining show at the Matinee in October was a sellout affair. That's why he’s doing two shows this time around, and the promotional poster has him in an Indiana Jones costume with the tagline “Tim Babb and the Return to Laugh Track Live.” His 8 p.m. show May 3 is nearly a sellout.
The affable comedian without a day job has been keeping himself busy working on new material (and catching up on episodes of “Star Trek: Enterprise”), but even though he wears his geekiness like a badge of honor, it’s not all about that when he’s on stage.
“I’ve been writing a lot since I’ve been down here; married life, plus L.A. life, and just random things that were happening,” he said.
Obama vs. Hillary jokes, maybe? “I try and stay away from the ‘political’ end of it, and just focus on the absurd end of it.”
He’s not just focused on the stand-up stage these days, either. Ever the internet junkie, he’s been throwing up several of his “Kingdom Comedy” clips on Youtube and his MySpace page (www.myspace.com/timbabbcomedian).
The latest video (which he says function as much as a promotional tool for his shows as a comedic outlet) feature several clips of him at Disneyland, which he frequents about twice a month.
He’s also busy with rehearsals for a 10-minute play (part of a short play festival) that he was recruited for after the writer/director saw him perform.
“He said it was for a thugged-out black dude,” Babb said jokingly, ”and I’m like ‘uh, were you just watching the same thing I was, I’m a fairly wiener-ish half black dude.’”
As he progresses through life in Los Angeles, whatever other outlets might come along for Tim Babb, he’s ready for it.
“Whatever I can get my foot in the door with; commercials, television, film, tap dancing, whatever, I’ll figure it out,” he said. “Give me five minutes and I’ll entertain someone.”
