Comedian Matteo Lane looks forward to Byham Theater show

Stand-up comedian Matteo Lane is really excited to return to Pittsburgh.

“My best friends — who I met through Fortnite — live in Pittsburgh. I’d like a quote in a Pittsburgh paper to say, Donnie and Simmer, we’re coming to Pittsburgh. We’re all going to go to Kennywood together,” Lane said in an interview. “I’ve been to Pittsburgh a lot. … I feel like Pittsburgh is a very Americana city. It’s not the East Coast, it’s not the West, it’s not the South … and then it’s also a steel town, I just feel like it’s very Americana, I don’t know how else to describe it. … I feel like it’s its own region.”

Lane has many talents — he’s a trained visual artist and opera singer. But in 2011, he started doing stand-up comedy in Chicago and has been building his career ever since. He will perform this Sunday at the Byham Theater in Downtown Pittsburgh.

So what can Pittsburghers expect to see at his show? “Stand up,” he laughed. “It sounds so boring but it’s true, I just do stand up. … I feel like my hour that I’m currently working on — that I’m about to film for a Hulu special — the reviews I get from people are it’s like you’re just kind of catching up at brunch with an old friend.”

Lane formulates his comedy in reaction to the experiences he has in his everyday life. “Things happen to me, and then I write it down on my phone and explore it onstage at the Comedy Cellar in New York, see where I go with it. You work on a joke for six to nine months sometimes, it takes a long time for jokes to develop.”

“It’s not so systematic, I think. You go to Scotland, they have the Fringe Fest every year and I feel like now every single person’s hour has to have some dramatic thing. You’re sitting there enjoying a comedy show and then after 10 minutes you’re laughing and then they’re like ‘And that’s when they died’ and you’re like ‘Oh, I guess that’s what this is going to be about.’”

He admires comedians who want to bring those serious topics to their work, but that just isn’t him. “That’s what’s great about comedy. You don’t want everyone’s hour to be the same. It’s like going into a museum and seeing the same painting on every wall. You need variety. It doesn’t mean you have to like everything, but that’s what art is.”

He didn’t get to see openly gay men like himself performing stand-up until he was in his 20s when he saw Bill Cruz perform at an open mic in Chicago. “I know there were, Mario Cantone, James Adomian, Jim David … that didn’t mean that they were accessible to me. When I moved to New York, James Adomian — who I still love and adore — was the comic who I knew was openly gay and was doing stand-up, so he was a big inspiration.

“Gay men have come a long way, but I think because of the gatekeeping system, because of homophobia, it’s nice to be able to have — for me, for Tim Dillon, for Joel Kim Booster, all these comics who otherwise wouldn’t have had … any kind of a voice — we can have a voice. That’s why I love Mario Cantone. Mario was doing it! Unapologetic, funny, original, hard-working. I think Mario Cantone is underrated and I think he deserves way more credit than he gets. He’s a genius.”

He said that Cantone once even sent him a message thanking Lane for his kind words.

Lane is enjoying so many of his fellow funny people right now, especially the comedians he came up with in New York and some staples of the stand-up world.

“You know who’s always amazing but who’s blowing my mind right now? Jim Norton. I think Jim Norton is probably one of the top comics. I think Keith Robinson, his last special on Netflix, I went to the taping, unbelievable.”

As far as pop culture, he watches a lot of YouTube video essays and plays a lot of video games. He’s watching the Marvel series “Agatha All Along” because his friend Sasheer Zamata is part of the cast. “It’s so funny because me and her lived in like an attic together in Brooklyn and then I was just texting her like, ‘Isn’t this so crazy? You’re on Disney+!’”

Lane has recorded a number of stand-up specials and has had three podcasts, including “I Never Liked You” with good friend Nick Smith. He genuinely enjoys the variety of platforms that comedians have now, especially openly gay male comedians like him.

“Comedians, we’re not precious in the way that we come up. We’re like sponges. We’ll perform in a toilet. Ask any comedian what gigs they’ve done and you’ll get a variety of answers. I think part of being a comedian is also being able to wear many different hats.”

He added, “I don’t mind it, I don’t mind the work, what else am I going to do? Sit at home and watch ‘The View’? I like working.”

To learn more about Matteo Lane, visit matteolanecomedy.com. For tickets to this Sunday’s show, visit trustarts.org.