Joe DeRosa explores his dark side and New Jersey

I'm a huge fan of dark comedy. People who go where other comics don't usually go, Joe DeRosa does it with ease, with albums like "The Depression Auction," "Son of the Depression Auction," "You Will Die," and "Mistakes were made, The B Sides." He's the funniest comic I've seen since the late Bill Hicks who's the patron saint of my radio shows and I spoke to him about his dark side while we were working together at The Stress Factory this past weekend.

What made him forgo traditional comedy and explore his dark side? "What always attracted me to comedy was opinions much more than humor. Humor to me was always the necessary evil part of comedy." DeRosa was inspired by people like George Carlin, "because they got on stage and were my parents age yet said things that made my parents cringe, and I thought 'oh there are adults out there that I can relate to.' To put it bluntly, if I didn't have to be funny I would never be funny, it's a real pain in the ass."

Despite the fact that he's edgy, he doesn't think of himself that way. "I write from my heart, I try to write honest opinions, if it's coming from your heart that's all that matters."

You may know Joe from his Comedy Central special, or his many appearances on "Opie And Anthony" or maybe his recurring roles on "Chelsea Lately", "Louie", "Inside Amy Shumer'.'Sullivan and Son", "Better Call Saul" and "Crashing."

DeRosa was born in Collegeville, PA and honed his act playing New Jersey in the early 2000s. His take on Jersey: "Certainly offended less easily, it's a very blue collar progressive vibe, very salt of the earth but it's also very forward thinking. It's progressive but it's not precious, precious is never funny if we've got to protect everything."

One other thing he loves about New Jersey when he flies back from California where he now lives is "Italian Hoagies."

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