Cy Amundson just wants to do comedy again.
“When someone tells you the next time you get onstage could be the last,” the locally launched comedian says, “you start to think about your favorite places to perform and for me it’s Acme by a million miles.”
Well it’s a good thing he’s headlining at Acme this week.
If you’re unfamiliar with comedian Cy Amundson, or you just haven’t checked in on him in a while, let us catch you up: He got his start performing at Acme at 21-years old, during the ‘00s, building a rock-solid comedy career that included appearances on Conan, Comedy Central’s This is Not Happening, and a hosting gig on with ESPN’s Sportscenter on Snapchat. Then came some health problems that not only kept him out of comedy but out of life. The pain started in his back, but soon moved to the rest of his body, making him unable to do simple tasks like getting dressed or brushing his teeth.
After years of tests, he moved to Ohio to be closer to the medical specialists who had actually figured out what the hell was going on: an autoimmune disease. Now, at 40 and finally on a medical regimen that helps, he has a wife, a dog, and a kid, and, this week, he’s headlining a full week at Acme for the first time in five years.
“Getting back to Acme was the most important thing for me,” he says. “When you’re creating stuff, you want to be in the place where you feel the best doing that. For me, that’s Acme. My entire comedy identity is built out of that club.”
It’s a return that’s years in the making, but he’s been slowly building back to it. These days, he and fellow comic Chad Daniels record their Middle of Somewhere podcast weekly, and Amundson has slowly begun touring clubs across the country once again—he’s just more selective than he used to be.
“I won’t ever return to a crazy touring schedule,” he says. “My hope is to build up the cities I really like going to and be able to tour once or twice a month in the cities and clubs that I really care about.”
As for what he’s talking about these days onstage, Amundson refuses to grow up. Which means that even though he’s gotten older, and life has changed, he’s not planning to reinvent himself.
“There’s probably stuff that’s more relevant to me now than it used to be, but my ego doesn’t allow me to see it that way,” he laughs. “My favorite comics are the people who are unchanging regardless of the winds of society.”
While others in his position might dwell on trying to get back to where they used to be, Amundson says he is focused directly on what’s next in his comedy career and, most importantly, why he’s doing it in the first place.
“I think any comic should feel very fortunate to sell tickets of any sort,” he says. “When you first start out, the idea of people buying a ticket to come and watch you is just insane. So, for me, I’m not worried about theaters or anything gigantic like that. I just want to be in front of the people who want to see what I do.”
Cy Amundson
Where: Acme Comedy Co., 708 N. 1st St., Minneapolis
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday & Thursday; 7 & 9:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday
Tickets: $25; find more info here
