The Improv Tx Comedy Network · The Improv Tx Comedy Network

The Act Out - S02E09 - Crux Crawford

·1 hr 3 min

1. The Act Out on The Improv Tx Comedy Network centers on Doug’s interview with Crooks Crawford, a Dallas-Fort Worth comedian who is also a musician. 2. Doug is the host, and Crooks Crawford matters because he has worked in stand-up, drums, vocals, and online music projects. 3. The episode asks how Crawford went from early open mics and metal bands to club spots and hosting work in DFW. 4. Crawford says June 2023 marks exactly two years back in stand-up after an earlier 2012 attempt that ended after a bombed Hollywood bar show. 5. He names the Arlington Improv’s Tuesday “Test Your Mic” as his first set when Joel, also called Junebug, put him up. 6. He describes a grind of “eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 plus mics a week” and says he learned by “working, bombing, doing well, fixing, writing, adapting.” 7. Crawford lists Hyenas, Bar shows, and out-of-town sets as the route from open mics to paid opportunities. 8. He says comics like Casey Coleman, Paul Smith, and Mikey B helped him after seeing that he was working. 9. He connects that growth to club spots, then says he later worked with Pauly Shore, which he frames as a full circle moment. 10. Crawford spends a long stretch on music, saying he played drums for 12 years and then sang in metalcore bands such as End of Expectations. 11. He names Lars Ulrich, Abe Cunningham, Vinnie Paul, Slayer, Slipknot, Pantera, Metallica, and Deftones as the artists that shaped his drumming. 12. He says his current project, We Are the Flesh, started from file-sharing sessions with an old bandmate and later focused on songs tied to The Walking Dead and The Purge. 13. Crawford says that project has “50, 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify” and a catalog with “810 million plays or some shit.” 14. He explains that all the drums are now programmed, and he argues that modern production can sound like “a full five piece band” from computer parts. 15. Doug and Crawford compare music scenes before streaming, when Napster, LimeWire, Kazaa, and MySpace changed how artists got heard. 16. Crawford argues that Spotify, Apple Music, and social-media data now help artists plan live dates around where they already have listeners. 17. The conversation returns to comedy when Crawford says he was the kid who got kicked out of class for pushing things too far, not the polished class clown. 18. He tells a school story about grabbing another kid’s nuts at a water fountain and says his father’s explosive reaction shaped the family response. 19. The tone stays loose and conversational, with Doug and Crawford bouncing between comedy, music, and social-media strategy while joking about “fake laughs” and open-mic bombing. 20. Listeners who like DFW comedy, music industry talk, and stage-craft stories will get the most from this episode. 21. Listeners looking for a tightly edited bit-by-bit comedy set breakdown may skip it.

As heard by us

A sharp comic origin story about nerves, ego, and learning how to work a room.

The episode keeps close to a comic’s first real steps in stand-up: nerves, bad rooms, and the slow value of repetition. Doug talks through a first open mic in Los Angeles, at a hotel bar outside Hollywood, where the guest was trying to copy Daniel Tosh and did not even realize…

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Why you'd press play

Hear Crux Crawford revisit the first open mic that left him nervous and bombing in front of comics.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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