"I like making myself a clown" - he admits

Schultz won a talent competition at the age of 8 by telling jokes. "I have never wanted to do anything else in my life." say the man in his cap in a tired voice.

The sympathetic stand-up star is beaten by a jet lag. He has just arrived a couple of days earlier from Los Angeles for his tour in Finland and the first gig in Pori is just behind him. The body has not fully adjusted to the new day rhythm yet and ahead of him is a high paced tour with shows in seven different cities.

According to Schultz there is a seed of humor in all social situations and in all communication between people. It's possible to grow this seed into usable jokes if people are sensitive enough. A good comedian has a good sense of social awareness and this is exactly what Schultz has been so much thanked for. In his shows the man talks quite a bit about people, relationships and sex.

"I've had many relationships and I have noticed that the differences between men and women have always been the same", he laughs. For the world-touring comedian, relationships are a proper subject also because the dynamics and painful items in them are the same all over the world. Comedy is not that different in different cultures.

To the stage through hanging around

Schultz moved from his home city in Florida to LA after graduating as an actor.

"I had to start from the scratch in LA. Nobody knew who I was, there." In Florida, Schultz was already a seasoned performer but in the entertainment capital he was just one of the newcomers. "I started to hang around comedy clubs, meet people and built up networks with them. I got to know the staff of the clubs and made them laugh outside the stage. One night, when one of the performers did not show up, I was told that I should go on stage.", says Schultz.

From that moment on, his career took off and nowadays he's known already all over. E.g. actor Adam Sandler has spoken very higly of Flip's comedy.

Although the man has always believed in his talent as a comedian, even the funniest comedians can't avoid the occasional "bad hair day".

"There are days when I perform and don't feel a bit funny. Then I don't know what I'm doing, I feel like wasting the time of the crowd.", he admits.

The cruel capital of entertainment

The entertainment business in Los Angeles is a dog eat dog world according to Schultz. There are thousands of actors and comedians in the city, they all want to be noticed.

"It's difficult to trust people there. The cruel atmosphere in there can make a person break down and feel that they have no talent whatsoever.", says Schultz and describes how the city is full of cynical people. But, according to him, LA as well as New York is The capital of stand-up comedy where a comedian needs to be in case he wants to make a living in the States.

"Some people in these cities think that they should be on the stage themselves and that makes their attitude a bit negative. They lean back in their chairs with their arms folded thinking "Well, do it, make me laugh." That attitude is wrong. In Finland, people are different, they practically can't wait to be made to laugh.", says the man who was here already last year.

No Jet Set life

The thought about the life as a comedian in LA makes the finnish imagination fly wild. Is the normal life of Schultz such glamour Jet Set type of living as we think, with all the celebrity parties, limousines, pools, etc?

"No, it's nothing like that at all. I live in an apartment and I have a room mate", laughs Schultz for this question and starts to collect his stuff. He needs to leave to his hotel room and prepare for tonight's show. He prepares by listening to Prince and going through his notes.

Before that, the man who is a professional when it comes to making people laugh, promises to tell the finnish men how to pick up women in a werbal manner. "A couple of times it has worked for me to pretend I'm gay.", explains Schultz. Right after this follows a representation of a situation in which he approaches a woman and starts to speak highly of her shirt.

"I just looove this, you look fucking gorgeous", he shouts with amazement and pretends to finally sail away. Then Schultz demonstrates how he comes back telling the woman humbly how he has tricked her a bit. Finally Schultz makes an amazingly accurate illustration on what the woman looks like after this surprise.

"Oh my god. Oh my god! You…you…damn you!", says Schultz as the giggling woman - and makes the reporter laugh with tears in her eyes.

www.flipisfunny.com

(Special thanks to Tero Auranen & Tomi Heino for the translation)