Comedian from eastern Idaho returning home for performances after serious accident 10 months ago
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IDAHO FALLS – Comedian Ryan Hamilton still has plenty to laugh about, despite being hospitalized earlier this year after being hit by a bus in Salt Lake City.
The 46-year-old Ashton man will be performing at the Colonial Theatre in downtown Idaho Falls later this month for the second year in a row. Hamilton suffered 10 broken ribs, a broken arm and a punctured lung following an accident in January.
A few weeks later, his dad died after battling his own health issues.
Despite the hardships, Hamilton was back on the road just three months later while continuing physical therapy.
Seven months later, he still has some pain, but Hamilton tells EastIdahoNews.com in a Zoom conversation he’s on the mend and “doing pretty well,” all things considered.
“I’m able to do everything that I used to do. I’m still working on physical therapy stuff, but I’m able to travel to the shows. (I’ve) made a lot of progress. It was quite serious, but I’m doing ok. I’ve learned a lot,” Hamilton says, laughing it off.
Hamilton has gotten a lot of support from fans and fellow Idahoans this past year and he’s looking forward to telling local crowds about his accident in his typical humorous way. His Idaho Falls shows on Nov. 25 and 26 will feature all new material, most of which will focus on his recent injuries.
“I’ve never had something that I had to talk about and I had to talk about this, so it will occupy a lot of the show,” he says.
Growing up in Ashton and the road to stardom
Sporting a beard and wearing a black polo shirt and baseball cap in his New York City apartment, Hamilton recalled with fondness his upbringing in eastern Idaho after enduring a difficult year.
Hamilton describes his childhood as being “a little different” than what is typical for a kid growing up in Ashton.
“My mother’s side of the family is from Ashton (many) years back. Been there a long time. But we were one of the only families that weren’t farming families,” he says.
His dad was from southern California, and his grandfather owned a general variety store in Ashton for a long time.
Hamilton remembers being attracted to comedy from an early age, and had aspirations to be a humor columnist for the local newspaper.
“We would read the Sunday paper and there was a humor column that was syndicated. Dave Barry was his name and I just loved it. I thought, ‘This guy has the greatest job in the world.’ We didn’t even have a school newspaper at the time so I called the county paper and asked if I could write a column. They said, ‘Yeah.’ So I started writing a column in the newspaper,” Hamilton recalls.
That eventually led to a job as a sports reporter at Local News 8 in Idaho Falls, where Hamilton incorporated jokes into the nightly sportscast.
Later, as a college student at then Ricks College in Rexburg, he hosted a comedy-themed radio show.
“The first time I ever did standup comedy was for the radio station at what was then Craigo’s Pizza in Rexburg,” says Hamilton.
But he never really thought of comedy as a career until years later. Hamilton was laid off from a public relations job he’d gotten after college. He started doing comedy gigs more frequently in Utah while looking for a job. Without any employment prospects, he decided to spend a year focusing on his comedy chops.
“I moved to Seattle,” says Hamilton. “I just wanted to see what it was like to get on stage every night. I was in a competition and I won the industry night. It was a weeks long competition, but there was one night when people from L.A. came who were from studios. They were looking to represent comedians. I won that night when they were judges and that solidified to me to keep going.”
After years of auditioning, he eventually got his big break and began appearing on talk shows. He’s gained many friends in show business over the years, including Jerry Seinfeld, and wrote a sketch for Amy Schumer to perform at the Oscars earlier this year.
Hamilton’s Idaho roots are a central theme of his Netflix comedy special “Happy Face,” which came out in 2017. And Hamilton hinted there could be another special coming in the near future.
“I would like to sell something sometime soon. We’ll see. It has been a while. I feel like I’m ready to put something out. We’ll keep you posted, but hopefully soon,” he says.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is enjoying sharing with audiences aspects of his life they haven’t heard before.
After such a turbulent year, returning to a stage in eastern Idaho with a new comedy show could be just what the doctor ordered.
“I’m really enjoying this material and I’m hearing from a lot of people that it’s really good. It’s a little more personal than anything I’ve done in the past because it felt like it needed to be,” he says.
There are still some tickets left. To purchase or learn more, click here.
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH HAMILTON IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.