Sean Donnelly is a Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based funnyman. Originally from Nassau County, Long Island, Sean is blowing up the New York City comedy scene. He plays all over the city, and he finds that there are different comedic experiences in different neighborhoods.

Sean and I quickly discovered that we are both residents of Williamsburg, so we gabbed about our beloved neighborhood quite a bit (he lives on the North Side and I live on the South Side). He also shared his art of set writing, his up-coming projects, and most importantly, quite a few laughs.

Times Square (TS): You grew up on Long Island, so sarcasm must run through your veins; did you always know you wanted to be a comedian?

Sean Donnelly (SD): I knew I liked comedy. I used to listen to stand-up from a very early age. I would listen to it with my dad. I probably realized that I wanted to be a comic when I got older, but I always knew I had a love for it?

TS: Who have been your biggest comedic influences?

SD: From when I was younger—I was a huge Brian Reagan fan, and I still am. But over time, I got into Jim Gaffigan. It's cool because I know Jim now. Before I got into comedy, I was obsessed with him and loved his albums. Now I know him, and being on a show with him and meeting him for the first time was a huge deal to me. Other people who I wouldn't say are influences because they're not like my act—I like Todd Barry a lot. Also a guy who's maybe not a household name is Pete Holmes—he's super funny. I respect those guys a lot.

TS: What inspires your comedy?

SD: I just try to have fun with it. The things that inspire me are just things going on in my life. I do a lot about our neighborhood and Brooklyn. There are things about my wife and me being heavy. I try to keep it light and I like to have a lot of fun with it. It's stuff that's going on with me is what influences me, or anything I see that I find funny. I'm not politics-driven or anything like that.

TS: What is your run-down of our neighborhood?

SD: I have a lot of jokes about the bodegas. I used to live on a block that was really scary. I have a joke that everyone on the block had a limp. If you go two blocks over it's totally different. I feel like this neighborhood is a melting pot. You get everything from hipsters to Puerto Ricans. I love it here.

Here we digressed quite a bit about the finer points and the not so fine points about Williamsburg. Then we talked about our dogs before we went back on the record

TS: Does your act adjust with the neighborhood in which you're playing?

SD: The crowds do respond differently. I do clubs, and I do alt rooms as well. I have the same act, and a lot of things everything will work, but what happens sometimes you'll have way younger audiences downtown. Sometimes I do the marriage stuff and it doesn't go over as well. I'm doing a club this weekend and the marriage stuff goes over well because there are a lot of married couples. I adjust, but very slightly. Most people can relate, and it kind of translates. I'm doing things that only married people would know, but it's definitely different depending on for whom you're performing—age-wise at least.

TS: How do you select material for a set? I feel like there must be such an art to making a cohesive set when you have a shorter amount of time....

SD: I choose the opener and closer right away. If it's a set where I'm just doing a set at a show, I'll play around with the order. I write a lot of short things that I try and chunk together, so there isn't a lot of slack in terms of where I can put things because certain things make sense next to each other.

TS: What does the rest of the summer look like for you?

SD: I'm going to be up at Foxwoods Casino, and I'm also going to be in Ohio. I just started doing a podcast with a friend of mine named Dan St. Germain. The podcast is called My Dumb Friends. We basically get comic friends to come on, and they talk about dumb stuff they've done in their lives. It can get heavy or lighthearted. We haven't released any yet, but we're releasing them soon. It's on a network called Cave Comedy Radio.

TS: On a day-to-day basis, what makes you laugh?

SD: When you do [comedy], what happens is your sense of humor changes. I've been doing this six years, and what I thought was funny six years ago is not what I find funny now. I find that even when I watch a friend of my do a set, that I find things funny in how he says stuff. On a daily basis, I would say my wife makes me laugh a lot. She's a weirdo, and I love her. My dog makes me laugh. A lot of times it's little tiny things. Especially in New York, there's so much wacky stuff. That kind of stuff makes me laugh, stuff you see on the train and stuff like that.

TS: Especially the L Train! *

SD: The L train is like a variety show!

*For Times Square readers who aren't familiar with the L Train, it is the main subway line that goes through North Williamsburg

Sean Donnelly plays Caroline's on Broadway Wednesday, August 8th. For info and tickets, please visit http://www.carolines.com/comedian/breakout-artist-comedy-series-sean-donnelly/

To listen to My Dumb Friends, please visit http://cavecomedyradio.com/mydumbfriends/

For more Times Square articles like Chatting with Brooklyn's Own Sean Donnelly, please visit the Stage Interviews Section of TimesSquare.com