Tom Segura built stand-up career telling stories, dodging bullies, proving his mom wrong

Probably unwittingly, Tom Segura's family cooked up the "perfect formula" to produce a comedian.

Though born in Cincinnati, he's also lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, and California; the family often moved following his dad's career path, as an executive with Merrill Lynch.

On Aug. 30, Segura can add Tuscaloosa to his touring map, for his first show in the Druid City, at the Mercedes-Benz Amphitheater. Comic Geoff Tate will open the 7:30 p.m. performance.

"I was always the new kid, at new schools," Segura said in a phone interview from the Austin, Texas, home he shares with his wife, fellow comic and co-host of their podcast "Your Mom's House," Christina Pazsitzky, and their two sons. "One of the ways to not get beat up is make other kids laugh.

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"First and foremost, though, I was just a huge comedy fan," at various eras following Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Louis CK and others. "It was a natural thing, and I just stuck to it. I thought I could do it."

His mother, a Peruvian immigrant, wasn't so sure. Segura derives material from often-mundane events, such as being told by your mom you're not good enough:

"She's also a dream-crusher," he begins on his 2020 "Ball Hog" Netflix special. Segura has produced five of those since 2014; two live albums; and in 2022, "I'd Like to Play Alone, Please," a collection of stories fellow comedian Jon Stewart described as "ridiculously funny."

He relates how his mother listened to him describe a dream path, starting with a move to Los Angeles: "Her response was, 'You should go to the post office.' I was so naive, I was like 'They do standup shows at the post office?' "

"She was dead serious," Segura said. " 'I know you're doing this standup, but have you ever considered going to the post office? You could work during the day, do your little shows at night.' "

But he sided with the entertainment capital instead of the postal service, took improvisation classes, and began doing standup, evolving his storytelling voice.

"When you start doing standup, you really want to be who you are offstage," he said, though at first you do whatever gets you through a gig. "Your real self starts to, like, crack through. I'm closer now, because I'm 22 years in.

"When I'm up there telling stories, it's like what I'd do to a teacher at school, when she asked, 'Why are you late?' I'd make up a story," he said. "I always just loved that quality in standup .... I'd always loved a comedian who could just get on stage, say 'Today I went to get a sandwich,; and make that be so entertaining and funny."

The art lies in carving stories into their funniest forms, and still making his onstage delivery seem offhand and spontaneous.

"I think that's the joy, that's the addiction," he said. "It's a puzzle, right? You start 'I think there's something here,' you take it on stage, you try it, and the audience gives immediate feedback. You realize there is something here, but you haven't nailed it yet. You move it around, try different things, until it just lands so perfectly."

Improvement by repetition, with slight alterations until it clicks, is the skill set, he said.

"I still hear from people who say 'I'm always still surprised when you just walk out there and start talking,' like, 'You think I just thought of that in the moment?' " he said, laughing.

Though he lives and co-hosts a podcast with another comic, they don't workshop each other.

"I think it's more where one of us says something," Segura said, "just sharing an opinion or a thought, and the other says 'That is a bit. You could use that.' 'Really?' 'That is a kernel.' We're just kind of doing it, naturally.

"Some of it, obviously, is not for the stage," he said, laughing.

Working podcasts, resembling the kind of unscripted banter at home, feeds standup, and vice-versa. Segura also co-hosts podcast "2 Bears, 1 Cave," with Bert Kreisher.

"They are definitely intertwined, and have been now for a moment," he said, noting he has some fans who like one or the other, but not both.

"But it's definitely changed the touring world," he said. "If podcasting didn't exist, I don't think touring as we know it exists. Touring in standup has never ever seen anything like what's going on now, at the concert level, not like any previous era. It's unheard of."

There are two dozen or more arena-capable comedy acts, he said, and 40 or 50 who can fill theaters.

Before podcasting, in the early part of this century, eras would support five to 10 theater actts, all household names, he said.

"You look up who's playing some of the biggest venues in the nation right now, and they have their fans, but they are not household names," Segura said.

He's one of the top dogs, household name or not. Forbes estimated his worth at $14 million. His "I'm Coming Everywhere World Tour" played more than 300 dates, and the "Come Together" tour that brings him to Tuscaloosa hit 40 cities on its first leg. His July 2023 special, "Sledgehammer," debuted at No. 1 on Netflix. He's an arena act now, though he still plays clubs when possible.

"What (the size) changes is your pacing and your rhythm," he said. "There's little things that you learn along the way: the bigger the venue, the more you slow down.

"But a lot of times, they have these massive 30-foot screens, so you realize that in those arenas, those amphitheaters, you realize your face can do a lot. You can make gestures, simple things, that become an asset to your performance. You only kind of grasp that from doing it. 'Hold that for a second.' "

Clubs remain the lifeline, the "real building blocks of standup," so he does those to develop material. Don't expect a greatest-hits show from him, because Segura figures, when he's finished a special, that material is done.

"Always new stuff. Always," he said.

Though he's played Alabama before, at Hoover/Birmingham's StarDome Comedy Club, he's "super stoked" for Tuscaloosa.

"I'm a big college football fan," he said. He'll attend the Crimson Tide's season opener the following day, with Western Kentucky. "I understand you have a kind of college football culture there."

Any tickets remaining for the first comedy show at the venue since Jim Gaffigan in 2019, are on sale through www.ticketmaster.com, or at the box office, on 2710 Jack Warner Parkway, for $99.50, $59.50, $49.50, and $32.50, plus fees and taxes.

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Standup comedian Tom Segura set for first-ever Tuscaloosa show