The Casino File
What’s so funny about January in Atlantic City?
Well, if you’re at Harrah’s on the 31st, the answer to that question will be easy: Joe List.
The 43-year-old suburban Boston native is a standup-comedy vet of some two decades whose act offers observational humor that seamlessly—and hilariously—blends smart-and-silly material with a perfectly tuned delivery to create a top-notch standup experience. That he performs at such a high level isn’t surprising considering List set his sights on a joke-making career while he was still in elementary school.
“I always wanted to be a standup,” he offered during a recent phone chat. “I wanted to be a standup comedian when I was like 7 or 8, but I also wanted to be a baseball player and an astronaut. But when I was a teenager, [comedy] seemed the most possible. As soon as I graduated high school, I started doing it. It’s all I ever really wanted to do. And the only thing I really pursued.”
A family affair
According to List, his family played a significant role in his career choice.
“I was born in 1982, so I was a young kid during that first real comedy boom. It was on VH-1 and MTV, and I inappropriately got to see George Carlin when I was 8 or 9 on HBO. And my family would rent movies on the weekends, and every once in a while, they would rent a standup video, like Louis Anderson or Bill Cosby or Gallagher.
“It was always so cool to see my family laughing. We would sit and watch comedy, and I would be like, boy, this is awesome. So, I think that got in my head. And the idea that that was a job was just unbelievable to me.”
By the 1990s, List was all-in on a comedy career; it was the era in which TV sitcoms were the undisputed province of comedians who made the jump from stage to small screen and the youngster was inspired.
“In the Nineties, it was [Jerry] Seinfeld and Paul Riser and all these guys who had sitcoms, and it just seemed they were killing it. And that was basically it.”
Making the podcast scene
While television was the key medium for comics looking to advance their careers when List was young, today, it’s almost like there’s a law that if you perform standup, you must also host, or co-host, at least one podcast. List’s digital footprint includes the comedy-focused “The Regz,” which he conducts with fellow gagsters Dan Soder, Luis J. Gomez and Robert Kelly, and the far-more sobersided “Mindful Metal Jacket,” in which List and comedy colleagues discuss their personal tales of mental-health issues.
But his primary vehicle is “Tuesdays with Stories,” which has him and fellow standup artist Mark Normand riffing on what’s going on in their private and public lives. As he sees it, podcasts are an integral part of sustaining a modern-day comedy career.
“I think what’s so unique and exciting about podcasts for comedians is that in the old days, you would come to a city once a year or every 18 months, and people wouldn’t hear from you until you came back to the city. And now it allows people to hear you every week.”
He added that doing podcasts is another vein to mine for his standup act.
“Every once in a while, something you talk about or joke about on the podcast makes it into your act. But for the most part, as far as the comedy, it’s pretty separate. [A podcast] gives you a chance to tell stories or, for me, to goof around or talk about stuff that you normally wouldn’t bring to the stage.”
Ultimately, he continued, podcasting is an invaluable marketing tool. “I think,” he said, “a high percentage of people who buy tickets to my shows are fans from the podcast.”
But wait, there’s more
As if List wasn’t busy enough with his standup career and podcasting, he also wears a third hat: filmmaker. In 2024, he conceived and directed “Tom Dustin: Portrait of a Comedian,” a modest documentary about his longtime friend who chose to make a life in Key West, Fla., rather than chase bigtime success in New York or Hollywood. The film also leans into the pair’s discussions of their experiences with substance abuse and mental health issues. While a relatively obscure comic hardly seems a logical subject for such a project, List obviously felt differently.
“I’ve always thought Tom was hilarious. And we were close friends,” he explained. “I really wanted to make a movie about a working comedian who’s very funny. I get frustrated that people seem to think there’s like 25 comedians working at any time, and if they’ve never heard of ’em, or if they live in a different city, they just don’t think of them as worth checking out.”
He added that he found the dichotomy of their career paths worthy of examination. “One comedian pursued the more traditional route of trying to get on TV and move to New York. And then there’s this other guy that never really did that and went to Key West.
“It just seemed compelling. And I think Tom is so funny. And I just thought, if I can get the camera rolling on this guy, it will be entertaining. I didn’t think it would be as poignant as it ended up being or as touching, which I felt it was, but I just thought, let’s roll camera on this guy and it’ll be good. I’m proud of the way it came out.”
If nothing else, the experience inspired List to pursue more film projects. “I’m trying to get into that world more,” he said. “I actually have a script that I’m shopping around right now and hoping to direct this year at some point. So, yeah, I’m trying to do more in that area for sure.”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
