Andy Huggins is one of the great links from the comedy scene of Houston’s past to the thriving ecosystem of clubs and theaters that make up Houston’s comedy scene of the moment.
Huggins was an original Texas Outlaw Comic back in the '80s alongside departed legends like Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison, and now, he’s still a big draw at spaces like The Riot and Houston Improv. And this year, Huggins met a major milestone: seeing the major platform release of his filmed concert Early Bird Special through Comedy Dynamics. The special, which dropped online through streaming VOD in October, was a celebration of a 45 year plus career telling jokes in the Houston area and beyond.
“We taped the special in July of '22, and it was released in October of '23,” says the comic reflecting on the journey to getting Early Bird out to the people. “It’s a process I was completely unfamiliar with. That’s one of the interesting things about my career at the moment, at any aspect I have no guideposts to go by. I don’t know if that was long or not.”
Huggins continues: “Slade [Ham], who produced it, and my manager Tommy Barrett, they both seemed calm about it. They didn’t seem impatient about it. It took a while to shop it around, but then...Tommy found Comedy Dynamics, and they bought it. They had a process that they have to go through. It was a while to get it edited and in good shape. Then it was a while to find out where we wanted it to be viewed. Then when we sold it, Comedy Dynamics had things they wanted to do. I guess at that point, when we sold it and that deal was done, then I started to get a little impatient. But I didn’t make anybody crazy with my impatience, so that was good. But given my unique situation, I figured it took as long as it needed to take. Easy to say now that its out!”
While it is standard in the comedy world to refer to a filmed concert as an ‘hour’ – it is with a sly wit that Huggins is quick to correct my phrasing. “It wasn’t an hour,” he says matter-of-factly, “It was about 43 minutes. That was about as long as I’ve ever done, I’ve done about 45 a few times. But it wasn’t an hour.” Correction, noted.
The curating process on picking the final jokes for Early Bird Special is part of the magic of a veteran comedy career like Huggins has had. “It was my act that I had been doing for the last couple of years – a lot of new material, and some material that goes way back. But it is pretty much what I have been doing. And [the only] editing [we did] had to do with camera angles. As far as material goes, the only thing I adlibbed was a tag that landed with a thud, so we got rid of that. Other than that, no edits. No edits at all.”
Making the comedy special, that was easy part it seems. The element that had a bit of a learn curve, Huggins describes, was the marketing angle. “Well, this has been very interesting,” the comic explains. “Comedy Dynamics asked that I get on Instagram and TikTok to help promote it. They divided about 24 clips of about 20 to 30 seconds long, and we would post them everyday on TikTok and Instagram. Again, no guideposts, but I can tell you that on Instagram alone, we’ve had seven different reels that have gotten over a million views. Along with those views, are all kind of [comments]– and I have to say, it has been very inspiring and reassuring. A lot of compliments: great compliments, over-the-top compliments at times, but I accept them. I don’t delete compliments; I accept them with open arms.”
“But here’s the question, and I’m sure there is a formula. But you got this many followers or this many views, what percentage of those people will go on to buy the special? That I do not know. But what I told Comedy Dynamics in our meeting, but I certainly want everybody to make as much money as possible, but my main goal was to get as many people as possible to see me doing stand up. I’m real proud of my stand up, I think I do a terrific job and I just wanted as many people as possible to see it. We’ve had millions see it so far see it in small doses, but at least they have seen some part of it and reactions as I say have been overwhelmingly good. So we made a great start in accomplishing that goal. We got people seeing me do stand up.”
The change is starting to be felt at his live shows, Huggins admits. In early December, Huggins had a bit of a reunion when he was selected to open for Howie Mandel at Performing Arts Houston’s event. Famously (at least for Houston comedy fans), Huggins had a terrific spot on America’s Got Talent in 2018 where the two shared warm memories of the Houston stand-up scene that was.
Flash forward to now, and Huggins speaks of working with Mandel for the first time since the show with fondness. “I was at Jones Hall about two Sundays ago, and we had about 1,000 people. I was opening for Howie Mandel, so they were all his fans. But I think I sprinkled a few of my own in there. So yeah, [the special’s] starting to bear fruit. [Howie is] a very nice guy, and I guess someone told me that he went to Austin immediately after he did the show in Houston, and he sat in on the panel on Kill Tony. At some point, my name came up and he was very complimentary.”
It seems few comics are ever keen to leave the stage for good. Stand up is hard work, but when it hits – there are few things better than making a room erupt with joy at how perfectly you said that line. Huggins has kept at it for generation, and he keeps killing one crowd at a time. But even the veteran keeps picking up new tricks. “I close my act now, and this is something that gets a big laugh, but I say: ‘ Here’s something I never thought I’d say to any audience under any circumstances, but you can follow me on TikTok.’ I never through it would come to pass, but that’s the way of the world now.”
Huggins' next date is opening for Headliner Greg Warren on January 5 and 6 at The Riot Comedy Club at 2010 Waugh. Andy Huggins: Early Bird Special can be purchased through online retailers Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft, Vimeo or YouTube. More information at comedydynamics.com/catalog/andy-huggins-early-bird-special/
