Brad Holbrook spews the truth on The Onion’s Jim Haggerty

BH: I did some films, a lot of theater. I scratched that itch. Then somebody said, “Are you auditioning for The Onion?” And I said, “What’s The Onion?” I auditioned for some news clip and never heard back. I’m never discouraged by not getting cast on the first audition. Went back several weeks later. Didn’t get that one either.

Then I got a call: “[Director] Will Graham would like to see you audition with a woman to host a recurring morning show: Today Now.” I auditioned with this woman and didn’t hear anything. They called me back. “We have a different woman we want you to come audition with.” The second time it was with [Today Now co-anchor] Tracy Toth. She and I got along instantly.

The Onion was a very nice adjunct to the life I had put together in New York. It was the greatest experience of my life being part of The Onion for all those years. I’m an atheist, but if I could be grateful to anybody about it, I’d certainly be grateful. 

AVC: InfoWars is a different beast from morning chat. How did Jim end up there?

BH: I [got] an email from [Onion video head] Ryan Natoli in Chicago. He said, “We’re all thinking about Jim Haggerty. Clearly he’s been fired from his hosting job, and now he’s the Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, jaded, provocateur, conspiracy theorist, angered by the system that did him wrong, so he’s going to come after them on a podcast. Could you wear that persona?”

That’s right up my alley. I’m not a conspiracy theorist per se, but I’ve been around the block long enough. I’ve seen it all, and there’s ample reason to be disgusted by what the world is today, and I’d be more than happy to make fun of it any way I could.

I went to Chicago in November last year, and we shot for a week, all the episodes. They kept saying we don’t know when we’re going to be able to post them or show them, because it’s all about the takeover of InfoWars, and the courts had just dragged it out. 

AVC: What was it like taking Jim into the field for Porkin’ Across America?  

BH: The Onion has always been so good at presenting something really outlandish within the context of what could be real. They really copied the production values of the morning show or Porkin’ Across America—it’s like “Where In The World Is Matt Lauer?” Like, where’s Jim Haggerty today? He’s eating pork!

We shot Porkin’ Across America in eight days in Chicago. It was guerrilla video. A lot of that was one take, cameras moving. If you look at it, it’s an 80-minute movie, broken into eight or nine parts. That was the way we shot it. They knew I was game. They want to make me into a pig? Fine, go after it. Make me into a pig. I was in a pigsty. A guy who knows something about farm animals later told me, “Your life was in peril in that pig pen. Those pigs are 400 pounds, and they will crush you like a bug if they want to.”

This whole Onion thing unites my interest in being a storyteller, revealing things to people, and being the conduit for that information. As an actor, you want to be in the weirdest positions you can be in. Let’s do this wacky, senseless TV airhead guy that gets turned into a pig. What’s more fun than that? It was just all manna from heaven. I’m not smart or funny enough to create anything remotely as good as what they were creating. Just tell me where to stand and what to say.

AVC: Is that commitment the seasoned anchorman in you?

BH: Live television is its own training ground. Back in the day, live TV news, there was a lot of pressure and a lot at stake. There was a dedication to getting it done. Don’t get waylaid in some mundane thing. [The Onion is] spot-on in their approach to the sensibilities that exist in those environments. I’ve lived through them, so they resonate with me instantly.

We had established Today Now for a few years. Somehow the producers in New York got the WNYW morning show to allow Jim Haggerty to come on for an interview. I met with the team at The Onion. We went over talking points and what we wanted to accomplish. Both the anchors of that show knew me. I’d been on the air in New York for 10 years. They knew my name, my career path, everything, but were instructed by their producer: No, this is Jim Haggerty, and he does The Onion. They hated to have to do that. You can tell from the moment that segment begins: “You may have heard of ‘The Onion.’ It’s a satirical blah, blah, blah. Here we have ‘Jim Haggerty.'” They were treading the line between not doing it and making fun of it.

That stimulated in me an energy that was so Jim Haggerty, so Onion-y. I steamrolled those people for seven minutes. Steamrolled them! When I die, that has to play on a loop at my funeral. That was all ad lib, and certainly these people were not cooperating. This is what it all has built up to; I’m able to be Jim Haggerty spontaneously. To me, that’s the pinnacle of this job.

AVC: Will we be hearing more from Jim? 

BH: I don’t know what’s going on with Tim Heidecker. I’ve never met this guy. In the interviews he gave to a lot of outlets that he wasn’t going to do the Alex Jones thing for very long. I don’t know what will happen with the InfoWars part. Hopefully, The Jim Haggerty Show will continue to be on those Thursday nights.

I emailed with Ryan Natoli recently, and he told me that he thinks a second season is in, is going to be greenlit, and is in the works, and The Jim Haggerty Show might have a future. He said, The Jim Haggerty Show will go on long after my inevitable martyrdom. No liberal assassin could ever stop me from spewing the truth.