Meet Ryan Pigg of Historical Roast in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Pigg.

Ryan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
With the last name “Pigg” you develop a sense of humor because you have to. Starting at a young age, I would find ways to make bullies laugh instead of fighting back. This is how I accidentally discovered the power of comedy.

I became obsessed with comedy in film and television from watching Marx Brothers movies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Animaniacs. As you would assume, I had trouble censoring myself in school and church, which got me into some trouble.

I wanted to put my love of humor to good use. Starting at ten years old, I wrote and directed comedy shorts with friends and within eight years I had filmed and released over two hundred sketches online, including several on my high school’s announcements. My high school thankfully had a great media program that encouraged many of my peers to pursue careers in film and TV.

I went to an art school in Chicago, kept filming and creating sketches, which lead to my college’s student-run TV station hiring me. I heard when I sent in my application someone asked, “Do we need to hire him if he’s already sending in sketches for free?” I’m glad they did, I was able to create more sketches for the school, write for different shows, and I created a ridiculous buddy cop web series about art school security called “A.S.S.”… so that’s on my resume forever now.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s still not an easy path. I think overall I’ve gotten a lot of lucky breaks and generous friends and colleagues along the way who have made the experience better than it could have been. Anyone who has moved to Los Angeles will tell you the first year is often the hardest. I slept on many couches and kitchen floors, and in return, I have offered up my couch to friends in the past to crash on when this city was being an asshole to them. I remember working on a slew of random projects getting paid in experience or less than minimum wage. It honestly felt like I was being hazed by Hollywood. It still feels like that sometimes.

After that first difficult year I landed a full-time job, so I was able to relax a little and finally pursue my passions and create content on stage and online. I would say the hard work along the way is worth it. I’ve had the pleasure of being part of every type of show imaginable, like a stoner musical improv show, Roast Battle, a cappella improv, Dungeons & Dragons on Twitch, improv with a team of Bernie Sanders impersonators, you name it, I’ve done it. I’ve also had the best time as a writer and cast member of the live sketch show, ‘The Burbs’. And I’ve created and produced a variety of shows as well, such as Historical Roast, Fictional Roast, Beyond the Disney Vault, and soon I’ll be premiering a new show called “The Late (Musical) Show” this November.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Historical Roast – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Historical Roast started as just an idea a fellow comedian and I had thought up while interning at the once-famous Nerdist Showroom at Meltdown Comics, also known as NerdMelt. Eddie Furth and I were shooting the shit and he asked me what type of show isn’t at this theater that could be. I expressed my interest in roasts but quickly dismissed the idea. If we roasted someone that would bring a crowd, then chances are that person we’re roasting is so big they would hear about it, get mad, and maybe even sue us, so they’d have to be dead. This is how my sober paranoid brain works. A roast of famous dead people. We began riffing on people from history that deserve their own roast. Lincoln, Einstein, Kennedy, Cleopatra.

Eddie told me this isn’t a stupid idea and if we’re thinking about this tomorrow then we should just produce it ourselves. I almost didn’t believe it was that simple, and later I found out it was and it wasn’t.

The basic premise of the show would focus on a historical figure such as John F Kennedy as the roastee. Other figures from history, such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Nixon, Fidel Castro and LBJ would be there to roast him. All of the figures would be played by some of LA’s funniest comedians and roasters, such as Matt McCarthy, Jeremiah Watkins, Melissa Villaseñor, Tony Hinchcliffe, Scout Durwood, Brad Gage, Willie Hunter, Jessica Michelle Singleton, Keith Carey, Andy Erikson and many more comedians that should really be on your radar.

The idea itself was so unique that we sold out our first five shows. In less than half a year after our first show, we were welcomed into Nerdmelt to host and produce the show.

We were also asked to bring Historical Roast to The World Famous Comedy Store, which was a dream for both Eddie and I. To this day, I’m still star-struck whenever I walk into that place and see all the historical comedians’ names and pictures on the walls. And the comedians have been incredibly friendly, giving us advice on the evolution of the show, including the RoastMaster General himself, Jeff Ross.

Years passed and we had been developing the show to be pitched in hopes it would spark interest by some TV execs. Then Nerdmelt, our home for over three years, announced it was closing down along with Meltdown Comics. I think I spent more time at Meltdown than my own apartment. But within a few months after it closed down Netflix picked up Historical Roast for a six-episode run, hosted by Jeff Ross and produced by OBB Pictures.

The writer’s room was filled with roast writing legends, many of which had been on our live show over the years. And the cast we had was a combination of actors and comedians I grew up watching, such as Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried John Lovitz, Jerry Minor, Seth Green and Jaleel White, and actors and comedians, I’ve seen rise to legend statuses, such as Nikki Glaser, Natasha Leggero, Leonard Nam, Yamaneika Saunders, and James Adomian. I want to name so many more, but it would take two more paragraphs.

The whole point of the show was to entertain while teaching the audience something they missed in history class. And what we discovered is some of you don’t know the difference between Helen Keller and Anne Frank! All episodes can be found on Netflix now, so go check it out.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I’m honestly surprised I made it this long out here. At my last internship in Chicago, the woman at the front desk told me to be careful in Los Angeles because “I’ll get eaten alive.”

LA can be a weird and scary place, but it has its moments. For example, there’s a community of comedians that support one another and check in on each other. There’s a lot of humanity in this town.

But then, you look at the mass amount of homeless people struggling to survive out here and you wonder how this place even exists.

I feel like the moment I showed up here California was asking for money. Everything costs too much. People who don’t have to worry about having enough money to make rent are living in their own world. If you have an assistant, make sure you’re paying them a livable wage. And if you’re driving in this city be patient. You’ll get to work, it’ll just take a few hours.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://youtube.com/historicalroast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historicalroast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoricalRoast/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/historicalroast/

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