AVC: Steve Martin said he stopped doing stand-up when people were shouting out the routines along with him in the arenas he was playing. Would you ever kill a routine if it became too familiar, lest you become the catchphrase guy?
JG: I don't think that's something I really have to worry about. I'm a long way off from my own baseball cap. People who've enjoyed my stuff have always been, and I mean this in the most positive way, comedy nerds. If that expands, that's great, but I don't have any expectation that there's gonna be flags with some slogan, like Larry The Cable Guy. He's more popular than Bush.
AVC: There are dolls of him now.
JG: I was back in Milwaukee and there's dolls in the drugstores. But that's filling a need. It's a great conversation when the audience is a willing participant. But I don't have any delusions that I'm gonna reach any kind of level like Larry The Cable Guy or Dane Cook.
AVC: You can at least have more confidence in your material when people are buying tickets to see you at a theater, versus you being fifth on the bill at Zanies.
JG: Yeah, totally. Even if people don't know who I am and their friend got them tickets to my theater show in Denver or whatever, you've still got the okay of their friend. There's a little bit of "prove to me what you got" that exists in any kind of performance, but if people have seen my special, they'll say, "All right, this guy is funny." It makes it easier, but more importantly, more fun. I'll do some corporate gigs where it's a captive audience that has listened to four days of seminar stuff and then they have to see me, and they're very nice, but it's not the same as doing the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis.
AVC: You've appeared on some of the VH1 specials where comedians riff on popular culture. Do you know ahead of time what you're going to be talking about?
JG: They send you information. I did some of those, like I Love The '70s. I know people love those things, but it's kind of the same joke over and over again. I've tried to keep a distance from it. It's kind of the Viacom formula of "Let's get these comedians to do all the work, and we'll pay them nothing." But yeah, they give you a list of topics that are gonna be discussed. Michael Ian Black, he's a master at that stuff.
AVC: Sometimes it seems the people on those shows have no idea what they're commenting on.
JG: I get the same impression. They're like, "Oh, you didn't know what this doll was? Can you say that you loved it? Because we need a segue from this part to another part."
I think it's important to control your opportunities, because in the entertainment world, it's not up to you. I'm not sitting here under this naïve belief that someone in Hollywood is going, "Gaffigan! What kind of a show can I build around him?" So you have to find things that can showcase your point of view. Comedy Central is really valuable for me, because otherwise, I'll get some audition and they're looking for a Robin Williams type, and I'm not a Robin Williams type.
AVC: You guest-hosted The Late Late Show when they were looking for a new host. Was that your audition?
JG: Yes and no. I don't know that I'd have turned it down if they'd offered it to me, but it's a huge commitment. I'm trying to focus on being a failed actor now. It's not something you go into lightly. If they really want you, they come and get you. In other words, I didn't turn anything down, but it wasn't like anything was offered. But it was fun, and I thought I was pretty good. I thought Michael Ian Black was good, too.
You never know where you're gonna end up. There was part of me, when I started stand-up, that said, "If I could be a writer on Letterman, that would be amazing!" And now I think of writing on a late-night show, and it's not appealing at all.
AVC: It sounds like there's a risk in this career of doing something that locks you in and doesn't give you the freedom to do more.
JG: There's a certain balance between finding an opportunity to do what you really enjoy and getting caught up in the flattery of people wanting you to do things. There are sitcom auditions that I turn down, but with the Sierra Mist commercials, a lot of people are like, "You're doing commercials?" And I honestly feel like those Sierra Mist commercials are better than a lot of sitcoms I get offered. It's hard work, and I'm paid a lot of money, and I do it because I love the soda. Michael Ian Black and I have a great time.
It's really interesting being a struggling actor and a struggling comedian. When my special was airing the first time on Comedy Central, there was a blurb in Entertainment Weekly that said, "Gaffigan has an hour special on Comedy Central. Let's hope it's better than those annoying Sierra Mist ads." And I go, "But I didn't think they were that bad!" And then there was this thing in USA Today where the TV critic said, "Jim Gaffigan has failed a couple times in sitcoms, so now he's trying stand-up."
I don't expect anyone to know who I am, but it's a crazy business where like, "Wow! That guy doesn't even think I'm a comedian!" I just think that shit's fascinating. He's a TV critic! I've been on Conan like 18 times, Letterman 12 times. He's never seen any of them.
AVC: As a stand-up comedian, are you expected to go looking for work on sitcoms?
JG: It's not necessarily a standard thing for stand-ups. I am very grateful that I get the auditions, but it's a pretty daunting task. Yesterday I had three auditions for three different shows. If I had a photographic memory, it wouldn't be such a large task, but it's a pretty big task to get off-book for nine pages of dialogue for each show.
Of course I'm complaining about things that I would have loved to have seven years ago. The whole pilot-season thing, that's a pretty fascinating little endeavor they have going on. I'm a character actor, and I feel like some of the things that I go in for, if they saw a headshot, they'd say, "Yeah, he doesn't have to waste the three hours preparing. We're not going with a balding, doughy, white guy for this."
Aren't I positive?
« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3
- Comments