Anthony Jeselnik got laughs with off-limits comedy

With his smart, dark and unrestrained humor, Anthony Jeselnik gets audiences to think about and laugh at ideas that normally would make them cringe or cry.

While doing his brand of comedy at Stand Up Live from Thursday, Sept. 11, through Saturday, Sept. 13, Jeselnik aimed to bring up topics often considered taboo, including cancer, dead babies, transgender people and autism.

Jeselnik doesn't set out to be intentionally offensive with his off-limits comedy. He wants to get his audience to laugh at uncomfortable subjects by talking about them in new and different ways.

"I'm fascinated by offensive subjects, and I want people to laugh because it makes it not offensive anymore. Cancer is a terrible subject, but if you make someone laugh at cancer, it takes the power away," Jeselnik said. "To make a joke about an offensive topic, you have to be smart, you have to be unexpected and you have to be confident."

Jeselnik produced, wrote for and starred in the Comedy Central program "The Jeselnik Offensive" for two seasons in 2013 and performed his brand of dark comedy in front of a Chicago crowd for the 2013 special "Anthony Jeselnik: Caligula."

Jeselnik's debut comedy album, "Shakespeare," came out in 2010.

Jeselnik has also appeared on "Conan," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Last Call with Carson Daly,""The Burn with Jeff Ross," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "In Bed with Joan."

For the past year, Jeselnik has gone back to standup, which he said offers him more artistic freedom than writing and producing jobs.

"I had freedom within certain parameters, but everyone was always watching me, and people in suits were telling me, 'Don't do this, do that.' With standup, I have 100 percent freedom," Jeselnik said. "No one can tell me what to do. It's all on me, and I like that."

During an 11-week tour that takes Jeselnik across the country, the comedian hopes to refine his jokes for an upcoming comedy special, which he will film in November in Austin.

Throughout his tour, Jeselnik brings in up-and-coming comedians to open for him. In Phoenix, Alice Wetterlund from MTV's "Girl Code" joined him.

Jeselnik has become known for his work on Comedy Central roasts of Donald Trump, David Hasselhoff, Roseanne Barr and Charlie Sheen.

The comedian has found there to be an art to writing and delivering derisive celebrity jokes in an inventive way while avoiding hurting someone's feelings.

"You have to do the next level of joke, something people haven't thought about, but you have to use information they know already," Jeselnik said. "I don't worry about going too far as long as it's funny, and it's got to be clever."

Jeselnik often brings up the subject of death in his comedy.

"I think death is the perfect thing to joke about because it is relatable. Everyone dies. It touches everyone. There's nothing you can do to escape it, and it makes you uncomfortable," Jeselnik said.

In 2009 and 2010, Jeselnik wrote and appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." He has also written for Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel.

His yearlong stint as a writer for Fallon showed Jeselnik he was more adept at writing material for his style and voice.

Jeselnik has modeled his onstage persona after villains from TV and film, and nothing he says should be taken too seriously.

"Some people will say, 'Oh, you are saying what we're all thinking and can't say,' and no I'm not. You should not be thinking these things. I'm like a bad guy professional wrestler," Jeselnik said. "It is like watching a movie where the villain is the most enjoyable character. You are not rooting for him, but whenever he's on the screen, you are kind of smiling. That's kind of what I go for. It's more interesting to me to be the villain than to be the good guy."

Jeselnik started doing comedy nearly 12 years ago in Los Angeles and was a regular at New York City clubs such as the Comedy Cellar during his stint in the Big Apple before his move back to LA three years ago.

Jeselnik, who hails from Pittsburgh, got into comedy a year after graduating from Tulane University in New Orleans.

When he started out, Jeselnik wanted to be a comedy writer but standup allowed him to develop his own voice, in front of an audience.

"I found when I walked on stage, people already didn't like me. I was a young, tall white kid, and there's a million of these kids trying to do standup. I wanted to separate myself," Jeselnik said. "I thought, 'If you already don't like me, let me see how much I can make you not like me even more. ' As I would insult the crowd and brag about how well I was doing and talk about how I'm better than everyone else, people would laugh at that. I thought, 'Oh, let me see how far I can go with this.'"