Steve Miller was a comedy staple in the Tampa scene long before he got on a professional stage. He spent years throwing jokes and insults to bartenders, regulars and friends whether they wanted to hear them or not.
Miller has known he wanted to be a performer since high school, but it wasn’t until three years ago that he did something about it. He finally braved up and went to an open mic.
“For me, I can only talk about something for so long without doing it," he said. "And realizing I’ve become that guy that only talks about doing something. It became this thing where I can’t talk about doing standup anymore because it’s ridiculous that I haven’t done it yet. I don’t want to be that 65-year-old guy at the bar that says. ‘I could’ve made it in the NFL if it wasn’t for this bad knee.’ I didn’t want to look back and have that regret.”
After performing at open mics for about a year, he acquired gigs hosting regularly at local comedy clubs and has featured for some well-known comics. He opened last year for, among others, the greasy but loved Neil Hamburger as well as Jim Jeffries and Brian Posehn.
This weekend he is hosting at Side Splitters Comedy Club for Amy Schumer, a former Last Comic Standing darling and most recent Charlie Sheen Roast badass.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.