Eddie Pence

Early life

Edwin "Eddie" Pence was born in 1974 in Virginia. Eager to be both a comedian and a filmmaker at a young age, after graduating high school in Virginia at age eighteen, he moved to Los Angeles, California to attend film school in 1992. While in college he started performing standup at venues such as the Comedy Store in West Hollywood.

2002-07: Early standup and film

In the 1990s Pence began touring as a standup comedian, also gaining experience in improv comedy and comedy sketches. In 2004 he performed at the Montreal Comedy Festival, where the Hollywood Reporter dubbed him one of the festival's "Top New Faces." Pence's biography at the Comedy Central site states that in 2004, his "blend of physical, observational and personal stand-up comedy caught the attention of studio and television executives." That year Pence began to act in a number of television shows and films, including spots for AOL Comedy Network and Sprint TV. One of his first television gigs was playing various characters in Crossballs: The Debate Show on Comedy Central, where he appeared in three episodes throughout 2004.

In 2006 he appeared as a character in the comedy film Idol by director Christopher Long, which was followed by two stand-up stints on the Comedy Central TV series Live at Gotham. Pence performed at the Montreal Comedy Festival again in 2006, and in 2007 he performed standup at The Comedy Festival put on by HBO in Las Vegas. He also appeared as himself and wrote a segment for the documentary film Accidentally Famous, which featured a number of Comedy Festival contestants. Pence continued to appear as himself on television in 2007, appearing as a guest on both The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld on Fox News.

2008-09: Tastes Like Pennies and Tuck Johnson

On March 31, 2008, he released the audio CD Tastes Like Pennies, a collection of his various standup routines. He thenappeared as himself in the TV movie History of the Joke, which aired on the History Channel.

Around that time Pence began working on a pilot for Tuck Johnson Professional Porn Star, which he'd been writing on and off throughout 2008. Stated Pence, "I made these little two-minute shorts that I put on the internet; and I got a couple million hits, so I wrote a screenplay." In October 2008, they filmed much of the pilot with actors such as Ed Begley, Jr. and several cast members from Reno 911 and The Office." In 2009 the TV series Rise and Fall of Tuck Johnson, directed by William Butler and produced by Transition Entertainment, was released with Pence playing the title character. Other actors beside Pence included Jessie Pavelka as Peter Porker and Kate Flannery of The Office as Nikki Strokums. Formatted as a mockumentary on the making of a porn film, other actors in the final cut included Ed Begley Jr, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Jack Plotnick. Pence then appeared as himself in the History Channel movie Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black in late 2009.

2010-12: Competitions and touring

In 2010 Pence was a Top Five finalist at the Seattle Comedy Competition held in Lakewood, Washington, and he has also been a semi-finalist at the Boston Comedy Competition. On September 28, 2011, GreenRoomRadio.net aired an episode featuring Pence, and in 2012 he headlined venues such as The Comedy Club on State in Madison, Wisconsin. By then was also "a favorite at the famous Improv Comedy Club" in Los Angeles, according to Isthmus Magazine, and had appeared multiple times at other LA venues such as World Famous Improv.

2013-15: Radio shows and film

In November 2013 he was featured on The Kira Soltanovich Show, and he appeared on the Road Stories podcast with host Murray Valeriano on All Things Comedy, covering topics such as "things thrown at you onstage." On April 7, 2014, The Network Studios featured both Pence and Stacy Brown Jr. in the first episode of Comedians Talking About Bigfoot. In early 2014 he performed at the SLO Comedy Festival and later that year he co-headlined several venues with comedian Sid Davis.

Appearing as himself in an episode of Gotham Comedy Live on Comedy Central in 2014, he also acted in three episodes of the TV show Laughs and appeared as a frequent sketch performer in the TruTV series How to Be a Grown Up. Other appearances include NBC's Last Comic Driving campaign, and he recently had roles in two short films, both due out in 2015: "Out of the Bag" and "The Thumb Wrestler." As himself, he appeared in the comedy film Road Hard by Adam Carolla, also intended for a 2015 release.

He and Nikhil Korula co-host the LA Talk Radio show Wake Up Hollywood, and from 2013 to 2014 he was co-host of the TradioV show The Steel Chair Slamcast. In 2014 he was a guest on The RAW After Show on AfterBuzz TV.

Style and influences

Pence is known for both his improv and sketch comedy, and his stand-up routines regularly use observational, personal, and physical humor. About his proclivity for physical comedy, often verging on self-injury, Pence has stated "I just grew up watching the Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin, or old Buster Keaton films. I just always liked physical comedy and I wanted to do that." Austin Duerst of Isthmus Magazine has called Pence a "master" of physical humor. Further explained Pence, "I look in awe at comedians who can just stand there in front of a microphone and be successful. That takes a lot of talent. But I enjoy creating a space with my body. It helps me tell a story better."