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Yannis Pappas goes for the funny bone
By John Benson
When you go by the name Yannis Pappas, you can expect plenty of folks to butcher it.
“Oh, yeah, that’s the best,” said Pappas, calling from his New York City home. “Yanus Poopus — I’ve been on job interviews and they hit me up like that. As a comedian coming on stage, I’ve gotten it all. Especially when you do black rooms, some reason comedians can’t handle my name at all. ‘Give it up for Yaynay, Yaan or Yanini.’ I’ve heard it all.”
What Pappas has heard of late is nothing but critical praise for his observational material that he said is influenced by the likes of Chris Rock, George Carlin and Bill Burr. Also, the rising funnyman often receives comparisons to the late Greg Giraldo.
If there’s a common denominator among those comedians — Pappas included — it’s intelligent material that gets close to the bone.
“I try to just observe what I think is underneath it all,” Pappas said.
Take for instance Pappas’ bit (you can find it on YouTube) about Derek Jeter. In one fell swoop, the comic targets homophobia, racism, bad cops and fans of the New York Yankees. However, he slyly delivers the commentary to a room full of Bronx Bomber fans without a hint they’re part of the joke.
Another quintessential bit finds Pappas talking about why he’s lazy.
“I remember my granddad telling me why he’s working so hard,” Pappas said. “He used to own a diner working 24 hours a day. It’s like the Greeks invented the 24-hour diner. It’s a great way to stay away from their wife for as many hours as possible.
“But he said, ‘You know, I worked so hard so one day you don’t have to.’ I just feel like me not working hard is just fulfilling his wishes. Every time I’m lazy, this is what he wanted for me. He told me — I’m putting in all of this work so you don’t have to. So I’m living his dream right now.”
Pappas’ star is currently rising in the comedy-club world and the mainstream thanks in part to his characters Mr. Panos and Maurica. The latter is a Puerto Rican transsexual who the funnyman describes as a “loveable character.”
Though on the surface Maurica may appear to be flying in the face of today’s political correctness, Pappas said the character has been embraced by not only the LGBT community but also Latinos. He said he’s humanizing the transgender role, and she’s very loveable.
“Ironically, Mr. Panos, who is Greek, has caused much more controversy,” Pappas said. “He’s actually very polarizing. He’s more of an Archie Bunker and small-minded. He’s just an amalgamation of a lot of my observations of sort of the foibles of Greek culture, and every culture.”
Pappas said audiences attending his upcoming Youngstown area debut Friday and Saturday at the Comedy Cellar at Mojo’s in Austintown should know coming in that he’s definitely not a clean comic.
“I definitely don’t censor myself, and that’s really about it,” Pappas said. “I think humans between whatever the legal age is to get into a comedy show in Youngstown and, say, 75 will probably enjoy it.”
He quickly added, “If you’re 9 years old, maybe you’ll want to sit this one out.”