The hosting slot on a comedy show is a serious job for any stand-up. They arrive early to warm up the crowd and stay until the bitter end even though nobody is left to watch them. A host is also responsible for introducing every comic onstage, mentioning their credits and not butchering their name \u2014 all while hoping they actually make it on time for their spot.<\/p>\n
Given the task, few comics can successfully keep a show running and still manage to steal it at the same time. But for Chris Powell, a.k.a. Comedian CP, it\u2019s the spot on the lineup where he shines as one of the funniest hosts to hold a mic in L.A. <\/p>\n
On a recent night at the Hollywood Improv for the monthly show Hot Mic, <\/a>presented by Kevin Hart\u2019s LOL Radio, the late-night audience piles into the dimly lighted main room at 9:30 where CP wakes them up with his punchy, Detroit-bred delivery that cuts through murmurs and side chatter with a voice like a gas-powered chain saw. He stirs up the room with an animated flurry of short bits, crowd work and googly-eyed characters he makes up on the spot. With braids dangling under the sides of a Detroit Tigers ballcap, the comedian opens with a joke about bestowing extra nickel bags of crack to a drug-addicted uncle back home in Motor City \u2014 his way of showing his family that he\u2019s movin\u2019 on up in the world. It\u2019s the first hit to get the crowd hooked for the rest of the show.<\/p>\n As the crowd is laughing, they\u2019re probably not even thinking about the countless others in the satellite radio audience who will be cracking up later when the live recording of Hot Mic gets its monthly broadcast on Sirius XM\u2018s Channel 96.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I have a unique style of creativity so that when I host a show it\u2019s like a fingerprint on the show,\u201d CP said. \u201cI\u2019m never hosting it the same way so Hot Mic being live across 131 countries every month puts the pressure on me to always bring new, fresh material to the table and sometimes the material is not even really necessarily ready to be put out, but it\u2019s also fun for the audience to see a comedian brave enough to create on the spot in a way that makes them feel included in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n His skill of improvising jokes on the fly has also crossed into acting, writing and producing on recent TV shows like FX\u2019s \u201cHow to Die Alone\u201d and BET sketch show \u201cThe Hospital,\u201d created by fellow comic KevOnStage. Last June, his debut special \u201cSunday After Six\u201d<\/a> debuted on the streaming platform Veeps and CP recently made Vulture\u2019s list of 25 comics to watch in 2025.<\/a> For the seasoned stand-up and father of two, it\u2019s all been building toward his career goals of doing it as big as comedians like Hart, Katt Williams and Dave Chappelle.<\/p>\n Powell aspires to follow Kevin Hart\u2019s path, saying he wants to \u201ctake it to the next level when Kevin Hart is ready to pass the torch.\u201d<\/p>\n (Bryan Proctor)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n \u201cA lot of people want to come right out [in comedy] and be at the top of the game, but I feel I have the type of talent where I can afford to be selective, be patient and be ready to take my spot at the top when it\u2019s time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Before getting his start in his native Detroit, CP\u2019s first brush with comedy hosting came as the chapter president of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity at Michigan State University where he would host packed student events on campus, often encompassing more than 1,000 people. Winning them over with humor helped him with \u201choning my bravery on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t be shy in this business; shyness is a part of being humble and in order to get that out of your system you have to work on it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way you work on it is putting yourself out there for criticism, for ridicule and learning how to limit the bad experiences by being good.\u201d<\/p>\n Like most comics without many comedy clubs to perform in, CP cut his teeth doing spots and open mics at local bars. The brand of comedy built on quick-hitting punchlines that can get a buzzed crowd warmed up in seconds is a style CP says is epitomized by fellow Detroit comedians like Tony Roberts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe basically performed at bars and there weren\u2019t a lot of comedy audiences; it was just the alcoholics who were there for that night, that\u2019s their bar,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difference between an audience that wants to hear comedy and an audience that doesn\u2019t really care about it is that it\u2019s harder to make the latter laugh. So once you start to make the people who don\u2019t really care about it laugh, it becomes way easier to make someone laugh who actually wants to listen and follow your bits.\u201d<\/p>\n His energy over the last decade or so in L.A. has become a staple at long-running local shows like Crack \u2018Em Up Thursdays<\/a> at the Comedy Store and Chocolate Sundaes<\/a> at the Laugh Factory. It also earned him the latitude of longer stage time that he needed to act out his more elaborate bits. One includes a story about visiting his mentally ill cousin at a psych ward that continuously unfolds into a full one-man comedy sketch with plot twists, a full cast of characters and pockets of laughter erupting throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cYour jokes are like your wardrobe, once you buy a shirt that\u2019s your shirt, you own that shirt until you basically get rid of it. Sometimes you might be a little too big for that shirt, it doesn\u2019t fit right, you need to work out \u2014 that\u2019s how jokes are,\u201d the comedian said. CP first wrote the story about his cousin 12 years ago but says he\u2019s only recently started performing it on stage. \u201dSome of these jokes I\u2019m telling now I\u2019ve wanted to tell this way since the beginning of my career. I just knew I couldn\u2019t tell it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n A big part of why the comic \u2014 who\u2019s become a headliner on national tours while writing, producing and acting on TV \u2014 is excited about Hot Mic is the chance to boost the signal of other L.A. comics on the rise.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/j60i4zF0f6I\/hqdefault.jpg\")
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