Kris Tinkle Doesn’t Feel Like Smiling
For an undersized kid with a nervous stutter and a last name that elicited giggles, comedy seemed to be a natural refuge for Kris Tinkle.
“I used to watch and record the comedy channel constantly and memorize all the jokes. Then I’d go and tell all those jokes at school, before I realized you don’t just go and use other people’s material like that,” Kris Tinkle said. “I used to kill when I was 15.
Now Tinkle is using his own material, and he’s still killing. He just released his second comedy album, “Maybe I Don’t Feel Like Smiling” (available at http://kristinkle.com/store), where he discusses his failures as a high school wrestler, his ill-fated foray into elementary school politics, and the logistical difficulties in coordinating a sleeping schedule with his girlfriend. His first album, “Almost Awesome,” was released in 2009.
Tinkle draws on real-life to deliver genuine, relatable laughs. His sharp delivery – syncopated with accentuated bites on certain key words and phrases – is the result of 12 years of speech therapy and plenty of time honing his craft on stage – and watching from the back of the room at The Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco. “I spent more time at The Punch Line than I did in my own apartment,” said Tinkle. “I used to go there and watch every single headliner to see what I could learn.”
Tinkle said that Doug Stanhope was a major influence on the way he came to view comedy. “I never heard a guy go up on stage and tell a story about accidentally getting a blowjob from another guy before,” Tinkle said. “He took things that were so embarrassing and so personal and he just owned it, and shared it. He shared those embarrassing stories and made it hysterical. It was amazing.”
Tinkle has since relocated to New York City. He has worked as the co-host of “Comedy By Request” on SiriusXM Raw Dog Radio and was featured in the New York Comedy Festival. He has made multiple USO tours of Japan, Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq. In addition to his stand-up act, Tinkle also does a podcast with Jason Shebiro called “The Paper Champions.” The show allows him Tinkle to combine two of his favorite passions – comedy and MMA/wrestling. “I always liked pro wrestling as a kid. I would watch it every Saturday at my grandparents’ house, watching Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair,” he said. His passion for wrestling compelled him to try out for the sport in high school, but he quickly learned the differences between pro wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling. “I was a small kid, five feet tall, 105 pounds, and a soft 105 pounds, not a ripped 105 pounds,” he said. “It became very clear that I wasn’t going to be very good at it.”
In a bit on his new album, Tinkle describes a match against a one-legged opponent as his mother watches in shame from the bleachers, realizing “she had wasted $100 on wrestling shoes.” Fortunately, he proved to be better at telling jokes than he was on the mats. “The Paper Champions” gives him an opportunity to interact with MMA fighters and wrestlers on his own terms. Tinkle got to know some of MMA’s top names as they were coming up, training in the Bay Area. An interaction with one well-known MMA fighter helped inspire a particularly funny track on “Maybe I Don’t Feel Like Smiling” called “Say It To My Face.”
Tinkle also appears in Jordan Brady’s comedy documentary “I Am Road Comic”, a sequel to the 2010 documentary “I Am Comic.” Tinkle is featured alongside comedy road warriors like Jim Norton, Marc Maron, Judah Friedlander, Maria Bamford, and many others. “I Am Road Comic” is currently making the rounds on the film festival circuit.
He will be appearing on the side stage at The Oddball Festival on September 12 at The Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California.
Visit Kris on Twitter | Visit Kris’ Website
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