Bryan Bartell didn’t set out to be a comedian. In fact, his biggest fear was talking in front of people. But after moving to Pacific Beach from Massachusetts in 2005, he found that stand-up comedy was a surefire way to make friends in a new place. After moving to San Diego, he answered a “help wanted” ad from what was then Blind Melons, located at 710 Garnet Ave. He was hired as a member of the door staff, then worked his way up to bartending, which happened about the same time that the bar became 710 Beach Club. “I met all of my best friends there,” he said of his time at the club. He naturally made customers and coworkers laugh. One night, at the fierce urging of friends, he took more than a few shots of alcohol and got up on 710’s stage to tell some jokes. He didn’t have any written down. “It didn’t go well, but I was like, ‘I love this,’” Bartell said. Despite his rocky first appearance, Bartell’s stand-up routine became a regular Friday night gig at 710 over the next two years. His popularity grew, and he started performing at other locations around Southern California. One of his first appearances in Los Angeles went a little off-track. “The place was called the Falcon, an ultra-swanky restaurant,” Bartell recalled. It was St. Patrick’s Day. He and a carload of other local comedians were reeling with excitement and disbelief that they were about to perform on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He felt as though his comedy career was going somewhere, until he arrived and took a look around. He double-checked with the manager about whether they should move forward with the show as he noticed just how fancy the place was. “I don’t think you’ve heard any of my material,” Bartell told the manager. “These people are eating.” Bartell’s inclusive comedy is filled with antics from his childhood and witty observations on cultural trends. He delivers in a way that engages the audience and makes them feel as though they are being let in on tales of family and friendship only shared around the table on Thanksgiving or after a long night at the bar. “When I was little kid, like most little kids, I had dreams — before they all died a couple years ago,” Bartell said during his 30th Birthday Comedy Show on Aug. 11 at the La Jolla Comedy Club. The two-hour show featured Bartell and a few other local comedians, as well as Kirk Fox, who has a recurring role on the NBC show “Parks and Recreation” and has also been on Comedy Central and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Bartell has a rough, scratchy, loud voice and an almost self-deprecating, humble tone. “The biggest risk I take is to leave my house without my inhaler,” Bartell said of his time on stage. There is no bit and no rehearsal. He pulls his material from stories he has told his friends and anecdotes from life. “Ninety-nine percent of the stuff is just real, true stuff that’s happened to me,” Bartell said. Bartell now lives in Little Italy and left 710 for the time being to pursue the opportunity to be a partner in a bar. He and his business partners will open the Stadium Sports Bar and Restaurant in Encinitas, and while Bartell said he will not be doing stand-up there, he will continue to perform his act in other San Diego locations in the future.
