Comedian Dan Mintz, best known for voicing lovelorn eighth-grader Tina Belcher on “Bob’s Burgers,” is bringing his deadpan delivery to The Bell House on March 28.
“I do kind of absurd one-liners, my biggest influence would be Mitch Hedberg, probably,” Mintz said. “And I have the same voice that I do for everything, just that one voice. I guess it sounds like Tina doing stand-up, but it’s a little bit different, because I’m a 45-year-old man.”
The show — Mintz’s first at The Bell House — is part of his “Well-Rounded Performer” tour, which will take him across North America before the release of his new hourlong standup special this spring.
“The great thing about doing stand-up versus doing a show or something is when you have a joke that works you get to keep doing it over and over again, which is fun,” he laughed. “But then, eventually, you have to start writing new stuff, after you release the special.”
Mintz, who is also a comedy writer for shows like “Nathan for You” and “The Eric Andre Show,” had wanted to work in comedy since he was a kid.
“Nothing feels better to me than making someone laugh. As a kid, it kind of took me a while to figure out how to do that,” he said. “I would try to be funny a lot and not be funny. But every once in a while, something would hit, and it would just be the best feeling in the world.”
It seemed like “a very noble profession to be doing something making people laugh,” Mintz said. He always figured he would be exclusively a comedy writer – he didn’t feel like he could do standup. Then, he saw comedian Mitch Fatel perform at The Comedy Cellar in Manhattan.
“He was this really funny, kind of low-energy comic,” he said. “I didn’t really know that was a thing … I’m like, ‘Oh, I could actually do this.’”
Mintz obviously makes people laugh through his writing and voice acting, but he can’t experience those laughs live. Stand-up is different.
“Doing stand up is so great because it’s the one thing you have total creative control over, and it doesn’t really cost money, like trying to make your own movie or something,” he said. “And most of all, just getting that instant feedback. I feel like if I was only doing writing, I feel like I would have this constant level of creative frustration without having this as an outlet.”
Performing isn’t always easy for Mintz, who said he’s a little shy even when recording “Bob’s Burgers,” rarely straying off-script. But he’s embraced it, and his reserved nature has shaped his comedy.
“When I first started doing stand-up, I had so much stage fright, and I just really tensed up in a way that made me even more, like, monotone and weird and awkward,” he said. “Then I kind of realized, oh this is actually kind of working for the character. Instead of trying to figure out how to not be nervous, I actually should lean into it.”
“I do feel like sometimes, when I get comfortable and I’m not really nervous going on stage, it doesn’t go as well,” he added. “Usually I don’t have that problem because I have natural stage fright.”
Mintz’s voice and his deadpan delivery helped shape his character on “Bob’s Burgers.” The show’s creator “kind of built the characters around us and our comedy,” Mintz said in a 2013 interview. And though the show hasn’t really influenced his material, it has changed the way the audience responds, especially when they’re used to hearing his voice come out of an animated tween.
“When I start talking, they hear the character’s voice. I always get a laugh over the first setup, which is not even a joke or anything, it’s just people realizing that I talk exactly like Tina,” he said. “Once I get into the actual set, it doesn’t come up as much.”
Tina has come a long way over 16 seasons. Where Mintz retains his natural stage fright, Tina — who started the show too afraid to deliver a single line in a dinner theater performance — in later seasons took a starring role in a Christmas play and agreed to perform a song based on one of her diary entries at an open mic night.
But some things, like her love of horses and permanent crush on classmate Jimmy Jr., remain the same. And Mintz, who lives in Los Angeles but said it’s “always great to have an excuse to go to New York,” thinks Tina would love it too.
Her first stop, undoubtedly, would be a horse carriage ride in Central Park.
“I feel like she seems like she’d end up going to NYU or something for college. Maybe Jimmy Jr. would be there, or at like, Juilliard, for dance. I don’t know if he’s quite good enough for that, but maybe she’s following him there,” he laughed.
The city has something “crazy interesting” going on every night, he said.
“I feel like that’s why it would be the best city in the world for Tina,” he said. “For every one of her weird interests, there would be like a weird community she would find.”
Dan Mintz performs at The Bell House on Saturday, March 28, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online starting at $32.05.
