Since debuting on The Daily Show in 2002, Rob Corddry has ascended from hey-who's-that-new-guy? status to become a beloved fixture. A Boston native, Corddry moved to New York in 1994 to pursue acting, eventually hooking up with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and working with a series of troupes. Many of those collaborators turn up in Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, a micro-budgeted, largely improvised mockumentary starring Corddry as a paintball star who returns to the game 10 years after leaving it in disgrace and embarking on a spiritual journey of discovery. After touring the festival circuit, Blackballed is currently making its theatrical debut in New York, with engagements to follow in cities across the U.S. and Canada. Between preparing Daily Show segments, Corddry spoke to The A.V. Club about life as a fake news correspondent, his pretentious past, and what's next.
The A.V. Club: You moved to New York in 1994, but most people hadn't heard of you until 2002, when you joined The Daily Show. What were you doing in the meantime?
Rob Corddry: It was the Giuliani years, which meant we could no longer walk the streets with 40s of Budweiser, but our garbage was taken away quickly. I spent the first couple of my years in New York, probably through '96 or '97, doing very, very important theatre. If it was not four or five "offs" Broadway, then I would not even consider it. Literally. If the script was not written in iambic pentameter, I would wipe myself with it. Taking myself as quite an important actor for some time. And I ended up being cast as jackasses, mechanicals, and clowns. Eventually I found myself in a sketch group, and then found the Upright Citizens Brigade.
AVC: You were in the National Shakespeare Company's touring company.
RC: [Laughs.] Yes, which sounds a lot more important than it actually is. I don't know how this company got the name "National Shakespeare Company," because it was literally like retards employing retards. But I did meet the guy who I started a sketch group with, so I think it was a big moment. And it was a lot of fun.
AVC: That's quite a switch, from doing serious drama to doing comedy. How did that come about?
RC: Like I said, I really wasn't doing serious drama. I was playing all the jackasses. I was in a play with a woman who was in a sketch group. She asked me to audition for the sketch group. And I was at a point in my career where I wanted to become a better auditioner. So I was going out for absolutely everything that was in Backstage. Anybody that had the $10 to advertise an audition in Backstage, I would audition for them. And she was one of the things where I actually got it. And I thought, "Well, I mean, I'll do it for a while. I'll just quit if it's stupid." And we were a terrible sketch group, but it definitely led to better things.
AVC: Are these some of the people you ended up working with in Blackballed?
RC: Absolutely everyone in Blackballed is somehow affiliated with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. I had been in a sketch group with some of them, various improv groups with some of them. But we had all worked together in some capacity before. Except D.J. Hazard, who was a Boston stand-up.
AVC: How did the movie end up getting made? Was it during your downtime on The Daily Show?
RC: No. We shot it two years ago on the weekends of the summer, around my Daily Show schedule. Which was a lot of fun for the actual filmmakers. And it rained every weekend. A lot of fun.
AVC: Did you do any research into the paintball world before making this film?
RC: Yeah, I did some research on the Internet. Just to get familiar with some terms that my character would have to know, and how to actually play the game. And we played a game or two before we actually started shooting. But I didn't necessarily go too crazy. More of my research was about travel and Beat poetry. I saw this character as a wandering, semi-enlightened holy fool who decides to win back his title only because that would redeem his soul. Wow. I am really pretentious. [Laughs.]
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