Let’s start swimming in that Gator Growl ocean. Now, take a trip into how, when he was 32 years old, one of the most surrealistic comedy performers of any generation remembers Gator Growl as – a monumentally surreal experience. His warmth and kindness far exceeded anything I expected going into this. And the undoubtable sincerity.įull disclosure: Of all the interviews I’ve conducted for this project with comedians and comedy industry insiders, Steven Wright was hands down the sweetest gentleman in asking me about the project and encouraging this as a worthwhile pursuit. I once again owe a major tip of the hat to Ritch Shydner, my comedy history guardian angel, who vouched for me to Steven that we should get in touch.Īnd if you’re wondering – as is the case with so many comedy legends, talking with Steven Wright for the first time gloriously ends up being EXACTLY like what you would think it would be like to talk with Steven Wright. They were asking us: ‘What’s it like as a comedian in front of 80,000 people?’ And Steven said: ‘If you’re swimming in the ocean, it doesn’t matter how deep the water is. LOUIS CK: “What did George Burns do at Gator Growl?” George Burns had done it (a few years*) before.” JERRY SEINFELD: “Steven Wright (and I) did a gig in the eighties at a college football stadium called Gator Growl. Once Louis’s anecdote ends, Jerry immediately launches into this memory that happened more than twenty-five years earlier: One instance: a 2014 episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.Īs Jerry and his guest Louis CK spend an afternoon boating along Manhattan island, an anecdote develops about collaborating with comedy mastermind Steven Wright.

Author’s Introduction: ‘All You Can Do is Swim’Īlthough Gator Growl’s four-decade stand-up comedy era can be considered the biggest untold story in the art form’s history, there do exist testimonials about “The World’s Largest Student-Run College Pep Rally” that hide in plain sight. Want to know what it was like to perform stand-up comedy in a packed college football stadium? Check out the Gator Growl Comedians Oral History Series.

The Gator Growl pep rally at the University of Florida became a history of stand-up comedy unlike any other. Source: The Independent Florida Alligator, University of Florida Digital Collections.

Gator growl applications fall 2015