Troy Conrad went to see Roast Battle at the Comedy Store and noticed that nobody was photographing it. He returned the next week with his camera. The people running the show asked him to keep coming back, and a comedian who already knew the room began documenting what happened inside it.
Photography had first become part of Troy's work because a show he was producing needed pictures. He had toured as a stand-up, made films, and developed comedy formats. Buying better lenses and shooting in low light gave him another way to participate in the world he loved. Encouragement from the people around him helped turn that work into a career photographing performers, festivals, and comedy specials.
Tab asks what makes a good photograph of someone telling a joke. Troy's answer begins with paying attention to how the person looks and which images he chooses to deliver. He recalls Eddie Izzard explaining why photographs of live comedy could be frustrating. Their conversation led to a picture that became a tour poster. Troy describes his own approach as something like wildlife photography: catching comics in their natural habitat, with the energy and rough edges of the room still present.
The practical work behind the pictures interests Tab just as much. Troy remembers paying for his own parking and expenses while shooting for free, starting over with very little money and believing the work had somewhere to go. They talk about the encouragement that can come from unexpected people, finishing a project after the excitement of starting has worn off, and putting creative work where someone can actually see it.
Recorded a few weeks after Troy moved to Austin, the visit also catches him planning another place for those photographs to live. He is looking for space for a gallery, with a body of work much larger than the small fraction he posts online. The camera brought him back into familiar comedy rooms. An exhibition would let people spend more time with what he saw there.
