Q&A: Comedian, Cultural Warrior Eugene Mirman

IT'S HARD TO change the world through comedy. But Eugene Mirman, who visits the Rock and Roll Hotel on Sunday, humbly suggests his method is preferable to Stalinism. Born in the Soviet Union and reared in Boston, Mirman honed his sense of absurdity at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, a place where idealism rules and students create their own majors. Mirman graduated with a degree in comedy and basic training in cultural warfare. No wonder his friends include Patton Oswalt, David Cross and Janeane Garofalo. His new album, "En Garde, Society!," is out on Sub Pop Records.

» EXPRESS: What's your indie rock connection?
» MIRMAN: In general, I think my career is more similar to [that of] an indie band. I have a rock booking agent. I never said, "I'm gonna get a sitcom." I wanted to work on weird projects with friends.

» EXPRESS: So you were born in the USSR. Does that make you funnier?
» MIRMAN: You know how there's a school fair? At Hampshire, ours had clubs for the Maoist International Movement and the Trotskyist movement, and they all hated each other. They'd be so disappointed that I left communism and that I think it's a terrible idea. But a 19-year-old kid from New Jersey hasn't figured out what Stalin did wrong and how to correct it. It was a combination of naïve and retarded. Nothing like a world run by the naïve and retarded. Which maybe is what we have now.

» EXPRESS: Sources tell me you built a yurt at Hampshire.
» MIRMAN: I in no way built a yurt. But people built a yurt — a hypoallergenic yurt that's now a radio station. I was part of the endless war between hippie-ish New Agey people and obnoxious go-getters. My first year someone spoke about "chicken rights." There were people trying to "free" the lawn. They put big rocks on it so it couldn't be mowed. I enjoyed the experience, but half the experience was arguing with communists about a hypoallergenic building. I'm sure everybody has a thing like that in their life.

» EXPRESS: You studied Lenny Bruce. Could a modern humorist have that sort of impact?
» MIRMAN: You could argue Jon Stewart has. Maybe [Stephen] Colbert. But also someone like Patton, who has a cumulative effect, a changing of the tide. Humor always has the chance to do something great. For a while, reality shows had this stranglehold on the culture. "What horrible things can you do to your body or face for cash?" But now there's "The Office," a comedy that can raise the bar for culture.

» EXPRESS: Some would argue Bruce buried the bar.
» MIRMAN: His power is not that he swore, it's that he seriously challenged religion and authority. People were out to destroy him because of what he was doing socially. He was both the most poignant comic and the one who infuriated authority most.

» Rock and Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NW; Sun., 8 p.m., $10-12; 202-388-7625.

Written by Express contributor Bob Massey
Photo courtesy Eugenemirman.com