T.J. Miller Takes Aim at the Hamptons in August 23 Show

If you need proof that the Hamptons has become a hotspot for standup comedy this summer, look no further than T.J. Miller’s upcoming appearance at Main Prospect in Southampton next Friday, August 23 at 9 p.m.

Miller — who has a home in Sag Harbor with his wife, Kate, and her father who lives here year-round and LOVES Dan’s Papers — is well known for unforgettable comedic roles, such as Erlich Bachman in HBO’s hit series Silicone Valley, Weasel in the first two Deadpool films, Ranger Jones in Yogi Bear 3D, and voice acting in The Emoji Movie and Big Hero Six, among many other films and television shows.

But it is through Miller’s improvisational skills onstage, performing hysterical standup with specials like Dear Jonah and Meticulously Ridiculous, that his unique brand of magic is truly on display. He has a knack for finding the empathic thread and tapping into our shared humanity through jokes, observation and audience interaction that hits on something deeper than your typical TikTok crowd work clips. As evidenced in his long-form video specials on YouTube, each show is completely unique and born from the venue’s location and the people in front of him.

Miller’s first and only Hamptons performance before this upcoming show at Main Prospect was at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett and he had a great time playing with all the inherent comedy that comes with regular local folks and the impossibly rich co-existing in one place.

“It was cool that when I did Stephen Talkhouse it was mostly local. It was people with homes there, but it was also people who lived in the neighborhood — local, not “citiots” … my father in-law loves that expression,” Miller says. “And that was even more fun because all the jokes I made about the Hamptons, they loved, of course. … I kind of like to talk about the loving relationship between locals and townies and citiots,” he adds, noting that his father in-law would be more proud of this Dan’s Papers story than he was seeing his daughter’s husband live on Ellen.

“And what is better, in terms of an opportunity for comedy, than to be around these ultra, uber-wealthy people?” Miller says, pointing out that he does a show at the Ned NoMad hotel in NYC for “finance and tech bros” and “the hottest women you could ever imagine” (besides his wife, he’s quick to correct), and these kings of industry enjoy the jester’s playful ribbing. “You just are firing from the hip in every direction, and you’re hitting people who kind of deserve to be made fun of, and they love it because it’s attention on them,” Miller says, noting that he becomes a sort of “benign insult comic” without actually trying to hurt anyone’s feelings “because that’s not worth anything.

“But when you do that, then you’re in this great position where you’re not only making fun of these people and taking them down a notch, they love it. That, to me, is really fun, and I love that, and that’s what I’ll be doing in Southampton at Main Prospect,” Miller explains.

While “crowd work” clips have become the hot thing on social media these days, Miller prefers to call what he does “improvisation,” which directly ties to his background and training in show business going all the way back to high school and college with a sketch comedy and improv group called receSs.

“I usually say improvisation, because I’ll do crowd work, but I’m usually riffing. I’ll talk about the crowd as much as I’ll talk to the crowd. I like to interact, but I’ll riff in the sense that I’ll talk about what happened that day. I’m sure I’ll go to Sag Harbor in the days before (the Main Prospect show), I’ll spend the morning and afternoon in Southampton and I’ll sort of be discussing those things, and that’s all improvisational. I improvise an immense amount,” Miller says, revealing that the Southampton show will touch on social satire, such as race relations, white people and millionaires without getting into social justice warrior territory.

“People do a lot of crowd work now online, but it’s not good. A lot of people say I’m one of the best in the game, and I trust their opinion. I think seeing me live is the only way to get the full experience,” he says.

Like his opinion about the current state of crowd work, the actor and comedian has become somewhat infamous for his unvarnished takes on his work in Hollywood, his costars and colleagues. Recently, for example, he drew some viral heat for comments he made about difficulties working with Ryan Reynolds in the blockbuster Deadpool films — though they’ve since patched things up. He’s also spoken freely about clashes with fellow comic Aziz Ansari and Transformers: Age of Extinction director Michael Bay, among others (you can find it all online).

“I have a hard time censoring myself because I never think of people as nefarious, I guess. But I thought early in my career that people would really find honesty refreshing. So being honest about: ‘This is what behind the scenes really looks like,’ or ‘Nah, I didn’t particularly care for this,’ or ‘This person’s actually kind of a di_k,’ I thought people would go, ‘Wow, yeah, he’s speaking the truth or whatever. And what I realized pretty quickly is that’s not what people want,” Miller says, before revealing one of the core elements about what makes him so beloved by fans.

“I make a living by being someone who people are like, ‘I want to have a drink with that guy. If he came out with my friends, he would be the best! We have the same sense of humor’ … I make a living off of being people’s best friends. They would want to be best friends. …When people ask about Ryan Reynolds, now, I kind of say, ‘He’s hilarious. He’s such a good dude, so fun and so funny,’ and I kind of tell them the story that they want to hear, because that’s what Hollywood is… So I think speaking my mind is something that I want to do, but I slowly found out not everybody wants to hear certain things that come with speaking your mind. I am trying to not to censor, but to make conscious decisions about what I want to share with America.”

That said, Miller acknowledges that Reynolds eventually reached out to apologize. “He did email me, and he did sort of say, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of stress there. And you know, if I ever said anything to you, I apologize.’ … I think he was like, I don’t remember doing it, but the point is that he kind of owned up to it and apologized, and was the bigger man. So I thought that was important to say. And I find out that people wanted to hear that more than they wanted to hear what that experience was.”

More than anything, Miller says, “My main objective always is to lift people out of the tragedy of everyday life.” And if you watch any of his specials or have the good fortune of seeing him live, he is a master at achieving that objective.

Miller’s many specials and videos are available on YouTube or through his website, tjmillerdoesnothaveawebsite.com, where you’ll also find multiple varieties of his T.J.’s Choice hot sauce, T.P.B. & J. peanut butter and more. The self-described “futurist” also has Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs of his show posters available at tjmiller.kred, if you can figure out how to buy them.

Visit mainprospect.standuptix.com for tickets to see T.J. Miller on August 23 at Main Prospect at 15 Prospect Street in Southampton.