Michael Rowland

Why watch Michael

There is a particular kind of comic who leaves the South and spends the rest of his life explaining it to people who never asked. Michael Rowland is that comic, except people keep asking. Originally from Atlanta and now based in New York, he has built an act out of the gap between where he came from and where he ended up, and the gap turns out to be wide enough to park a career in.

His Don’t Tell Comedy set, “How to Ruin Family Dinners,” is a decent summary of the project. Rowland’s material on family, politics and growing up in a conservative household works because he never plays the sophisticate who escaped. He talks like a guy who still has to go home for Thanksgiving, which he presumably does, and which presumably goes about as well as the set suggests.

The résumé is the kind clubs like to print on posters. He made his late-night debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was named a New Face at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, the showcase industry people fly in to scout. He has been featured multiple times on Comedy Central’s This Week at the Comedy Cellar, appeared on Stupid Questions with Chris DiStefano and on Pause with Sam Jay on HBO Max, and has a Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring set. In 2019 he was a finalist in New York’s Funniest Stand-Up at the New York Comedy Festival.

Then there is the acting job, which is the part that makes people say “oh, that guy.” Rowland stars as Fred “Shred” Taylor on FOX’s Animal Control alongside Joel McHale, a role that has given him a steady network sitcom gig while he keeps working the clubs at night. That’s a better deal than most comics get, and he’s used it to stay a stand-up first.

Off the main stage, he co-hosts the podcast In the Minivan and has produced shows in Brooklyn, the sort of scene work that keeps a New York comic sharp between television seasons.

Why watch him now: he has the polish of someone who has done all the right showcases and the looseness of someone who still enjoys bombing a little. The South gave him the material. New York gave him the timing. Animal Control gave him a reason for strangers to recognize him in the deli, which he will probably turn into a bit.