Q&A with Demetri Martin

Demetri Martin is about to kick off the second season of his Comedy Central sketch show “Important Things with Demetri Martin,” but first he’ll make a stop at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Tuesday to try out some new material. The comedian, musician, artist and all-around multitasker spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Saba Mohtasham about his feelings toward UCLA, what’s in store for season two and inspiring bathroom art.

Daily Bruin: How’s filming going for the second season of “Important Things?”

Demetri Martin: Things are going really well. The schedule’s really challenging, but we’re nearing the end of it, so I’m excited for the break. I think we’ve made a lot of good things here, and switching the show from New York to L.A. made a lot of things easier ““ easier to find locations, casting …

By the way, when I used to visit L.A., I’d always end up on the UCLA campus because I like your campus. I like that you guys have benches and tables outside, and as a New Yorker I could just park somewhere and then just walk around. …

But sometimes people recognize me, and they’re like, “What are you doing here?” …

There’s a fine line between treating it like it’s a park and then people looking at you like you’re a creep and being like “What’s that guy doing on our campus?” I think I’m in getting slightly too old now.

DB: For 36, you look like you could still pass for a college student if you wanted to.

DM: If I shave and wear the right stuff, I can kind of blend in.

DB: What are your secrets to aging so well?

DM: I don’t know. I’m waiting for it all to flip over and all of a sudden look really old. That’s probably how it goes for somebody like me. You look like a boy, and then you just look like an old man. There’s no in between … just like a weird man-boy.

DB: What are some important things that we’re going to learn about this season?

DM: Attention is one of the things. Lines and space. Those are a few of them.

DB: Your show also uses some alternative publicity tactics, too, like asking fans to print out and post fliers themselves. How has that been working out?

DM: It’s going really well. People were really cool last year. They’d e-mail me and say, “Hey, I put a couple fliers up in my school.” I’m really grateful for that.

It’s really hard to get yourself out there, and I’m not that comfortable with the self-promotion stuff. I mean, I’m a comedian, so you end up promoting yourself whether you like it or not. But I always just try to find a way to do it in the least annoying way possible.

DB: Have you ever just walked around and seen one of your fliers up?

DM: No, I’ve never seen one but a couple times I was in a public bathroom, and I’ve seen “”˜Toy Story 2′ was OK.” So somebody had heard my joke, and they did the actual graffiti.

DB: What can people expect from your Upright Citizens Brigade show this Tuesday?

DM: I’m going to be trying out some new jokes for (“Important Things”) and showing the audience at UCB some of the sketches that we’re editing now to put in the series. The crowd is really helpful to tell us what’s working and what isn’t.

DB: As someone who dropped out of law school, do you have any advice for pre-law UCLA students?

DM: Are you pre-law yourself?

DB: I have no idea what I am, actually.

DM: Oh that’s cool. … In a weird way I think that ends up being the most honest position to be in. Because I’m a guy who tried to work my life out on paper when I was younger. … And I think that I was a little misguided about how I thought I could figure everything out. I think it takes a little more than that.

So if I learned anything between college and now it was pay attention to what I would be spending my time doing every day. Like what would I spend my time doing if I could do anything? And then my second question was, “OK, now how do I get money for that?” So if that ends up being law for somebody, that’s great.

DB: There’s a good number of comedians who build most of their acts off of their ethnicity, but you don’t seem to work being Greek into your bits very often. Is there a reason you don’t?

DM: My mom used to say, “Why don’t you do stuff about being Greek?” like once she started getting more comfortable with the fact that I became a comedian. …

I always see it as just making comedy that seems not generic, but there’s something more basic about it. I just like the idea of making things that weren’t tied too specifically to a certain time or ethnicity, but more just to a point of view. … So somehow doing ethnic stuff or stuff that’s too much about my family is kind of just too limited for me.

DB: What’s your favorite palindrome?

DM: I still dabble with the palindromes. I used to obsess with them more especially before I was a comedian in school ““ wanting an escape I would mess around with palindromes. I don’t know how interesting that is to anybody. But one that I thought of in the last year that I liked was: “Snub no man, nice cinnamon buns.”

DB: How do you remember your college days at Yale?

DM: What I remember most is my friends … and how fun it was to literally just hang out all the time. I don’t remember working very hard. … And if I have any regrets, it’s that I just took everything a little too seriously, and unfortunately I think I still do that.

I’m doing a comedy show and I still get so worried about all these little details. … I often tell my friends and people on the show, “God, this show feels like exams all the time.” … It comes toward the end (of the semester) and everyone’s like … I didn’t do anything; I better scramble and catch up. I feel like that all the time.

That’s what it feels like having a show, like I’m preparing 10 big papers all at the same time. I wish it felt more like the middle of the semester. That’s the part of college that I liked. … I don’t know what college is like these days but when I was in college in the ’90s, it was like that.

DB: That sounds pretty accurate.

DM: And also, flip flops. … Most people who have jobs after college and the rest of your life, you don’t get to be in just flips and sweats. … I don’t know if UCLA is that way, but at Yale, people looked pretty rough.

It’s not like people in comedy are the fanciest dressers, but somehow you end up in meetings, and you’re in the real world, and you’re grown up a little bit, and you have to clean it up … which is probably why I ended up not being a lawyer and being more a guy who tells fart jokes because you can wear a T-shirt and jeans, and it’s fine.

DB: What is the one thing you’d suggest all college students do before graduation?

DM: Just take one time to question everything you think you know. Whether it’s like right before graduation, or right before you decide to take your first job or when you’re declaring your major. It’s like every point feels like it’s just so important, and I guess it can be, but what I found is when I questioned my assumptions, I’d sometimes find something way better than I would’ve just because I wasn’t bound to something that I had to do.

E-mail Mohtasham at [email protected].