Thursday, October 7, 2010
Comedy Speakeasy with Joel McHale
Posted by Noah Gardenswartz on Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 4:25 PM
Joel McHale is the guy that men want to be like and women want to be with. Not only is he a former college athlete, the current host of E's "The Soup," and the star of NBC's "Community," he also has his own national stand-up tour with Live Nation. McHale recently spoke to Creative Loafing about his family, his crazy schedule, and the tour, which comes to the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Saturday, October 9.
How do you work on two different television shows and fit time for stand-up into your schedule? The schedule for Community is always set, so that's something that I work around, and The Soup is on-going throughout the year. It's just about finding time when I can.
How long have you been on tour?
The tour has been sporadic, off and on for about a year.
How and when do you ever take time for yourself?
I take time for myself when I'm sitting on a plane. And when I'm with my family, every moment I can. Sometimes I'll get home from shooting at like 4 or 5 in the morning and get in and roll around with my son.
Community is a great show, and you've had a lot of success with the role of Jeff Winger. Do you know who else you beat out for that part?
No, I actually have no idea. I met with producers and then I had a network test, so it wasn't the same as a general audition where you see a bunch of other people there reading for the part.
The show has so much funny dialogue, how much of that is improvised?
Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, is a mad genius. I've never met someone who can tell such an interesting and funny story, so most of the scripts are air tight. But if there's something in the moment that's funny, we can obviously go with it and do that.
On a scale of 1-10, how similar are you to Jeff Winger?
Oh boy, I guess it would be a 4 or 5. My lifestyle is completely different than his. I have a family, I didn't lie about having a college degree, and my parents are still together. I do relate to him about the way he jokes with people though.
If you went back to college, what would you study?
Well, when I was in college I was a history major, and I probably would have been a history professor. The time that I focused on was WW1, and the time in between WW2. It was a horrible time for a lot of people in the world, but I think that's the time that I always found the most interesting.
When you were in school [University of Washington] you played football, right? How was the transition from the football field to hosting “The Soup?” Did your old teammates make fun of you?
I played a ton of sports, I loved playing sports, but I knew acting was something I wanted to pursue. In college I quit football because I knew I wasn't nearly good enough to go to the NFL, and acting was what I wanted to pursue. You'd be surprised how many athletes want to become actors, or go into broadcasting; and there are a lot of larger-than-life characters in the locker room. The guys were actually all pretty supportive.
So do you enjoy acting more than doing stand-up?
My first love has always been acting, that's why I moved to LA. Hosting and stand-up are both things I fell into.
Is your act similar to the your television personalities? Is it a lot of pop-culture commentary, and sarcastic witty one-liners?
Well, I definitely get to expand on pop culture in my act, but I like doing stand up because I can talk about my family and stuff like that and people can get to know me a little more than just watching me on television.
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