Austinist Comedy: Funniest Dude, Bryan Gutmann

Every year comedians from around the area assemble to compete for the coveted title of "Funniest Person in Austin." For this month's installment in our interview series with performers from Austin's local comedy scene, we caught up with this year's winner—Bryan Gutmann.

How long have you been doing stand-up?
About three years now. I had been thinking about trying stand-up longer than that, but it took a while to get up the courage.

What brought you to Austin?
I've lived in Texas for awhile now, but I moved to Austin after I graduated college. I literally had no reason to move to Austin other than the fact that I knew it was a really interesting place to live. Two friends of mine and I moved down here, got a house and then started looking for jobs.

You recently won the "Funniest Person in Austin" contest—tell us about that process. What bit/line do you think put you over the top?
I had made it to the finals the year before, so my goal this time was simply to do the same. I just didn't want to move backwards. Especially since several of the judges of the contest were industry people who had seen me the year before. So I just picked jokes that I knew worked that were also short enough to fit inside a 7 minute set.

I don't know if a specific joke really sealed the deal for me; I think that it was actually the fact that I was clean. That wasn't an intentional move on my part, that's just how my jokes are. But, I do think that it was a combination of crowd reaction and the lack of f-bombs.