411 Movies Interview: Jim Gaffigan
Posted by Tony Farinella on 03.26.2009
411's Tony Farinella sits down with comedian Jim Gaffigan for an exclusive interview about his new Comedy Central special, King Baby!
Jim Gaffigan is a stand-up comedy who has appeared on David Letterman and Conan O'Brien and also been a part of such films as Super Troopers, Three Kings, and Igby Goes Down. He's also known for his role on the hit TBS show, My Boys. His last Comedy Central special, Beyond the Pale, went Gold within the first six months. His newest special, King Baby, is sure to please hardcore Jim Gaffigan fans. Recently, I caught up with the talented comedian to talk about his new special, the economy, and a whole lot more. I hope you enjoy my interview with Jim Gaffigan and be sure to check out his Comedy Central special this Sunday and pick up the DVD this Tuesday.
TONY: How do you find that balance of giving the audience what they want and what they expect from you while also branching out and being new and different?
Jim Gaffigan: That's a really good question, because there are two kind of philosophies on that. I wouldn't call them philosophies, but there's a lot of comedians that do an hour, shoot the special, and then start from scratch. And that's fine ... except for if you're doing a theater show and people are paying thirty bucks, they're not going to want to see you try to come up with jokes. They wanna see you kill and really do the job. So, for me, I've always done the special, immediately start writing, and then make it different in chunks. But the chunk has to be ready and be able to replace a chunk that worked. So, in Beyond the Pale, I would constantly be finding a chunk to replace the holiday thing. Then I would find a chunk that wouldn't have to be similar topics, obviously, but I would find that chunk to replace the cake thing. There's a good ten or fifteen minutes that you don't put into a special that lives on and all that. For me, I go from the approach that if you're doing an hour, an hour and fifteen minutes, the most important thing is to do really well. But the Hot Pocket thing, the reality is that a lot of people are coming to see me do some version of that joke. So it's not the end of the world, if, at the end of my show, I do the Hot Pocket chunk for me. Some comics, particularly social satirists, they kind of dump their hour every year. In the UK, they dump their hour every year and have to start from scratch. I don't know, I just have the approach that people want a really good show and there is something about if you have a joke that has kind of become an inside joke among them and their friends, it's not the end of the world if you do it for another six months or whatever.
TONY: How do you approach a special on Comedy Central? What kind of pressure do you put on yourself to top your previous special?
Jim Gaffigan: I think it's really important just because I think that when it comes to comedy specials, there are a lot of comedians that have done one good special and then when it comes time for the second one, they don't phone it in, but it's just not as good. Success can kill creativity in a lot of ways. So, for me, there was this driving force. Let me go off on this tangent. The thing I love about doing stand-up is I feel like I'm getting better at it. But when it comes to the special, I feel like King Baby is better than Beyond the Pale, and I definitely wouldn't have filmed it if I didn't think it was ready. Who knows, time will tell, you know what I mean? Comedy Central wanted to do a special probably six months after Beyond the Pale, so I waited a couple years so that I knew I was ready. It's not just the special. The DVD is like thirty minutes of new material. I didn't want it to have any filler in it, because in essence, I am a comedy nerd. I wanted to make sure that if I bought the DVD that I wouldn't be disappointed.
TONY: Do you think considering today's economy that comedy is even more important than ever?
Jim Gaffigan: I feel like this is one of the those hidden benefits of doing stand-up, at least for me. I really enjoy making the mundane funny and having comedy that's kind of universal. If there is some sort of hidden benefit, it's certainly not intentional. It's not like, 'Well, maybe this ketchup joke can help that unemployed automotive worker.' I don't know. I guess I'm not answering your question. It's weird because there's these incredible benefits of doing stand-up. There's an immediate high you get from making a room full of strangers laugh or the whole thing of coming up with a new joke is so amazing. Outside of that, it's something I don't necessarily understand or try to figure out, if that makes sense.
TONY: When you're not performing at a comedy club or on a movie set, are you still in that comedy state of mind? Or do you turn it off?
Jim Gaffigan: No. I've been blogging and there's part of me that's like, 'Oh, these blogs are gonna be horrible.' But some of it is kind of funny. It's very much a sarcastic personality and I kind of turn it on a little bit. I don't feel like I'm one of those guys that's on all the time. Also, for me, if you're on all the time, it's pretty exhausting. It's one of those things where if I'm with some other comedians, we might be sarcastic and stuff like that, but there is some value in not having to have it on all the time.
TONY: One of my favorite characters that you play is the nice guy who doesn't know his own strength. What's it like playing that character?
Jim Gaffigan: Well, I mean, that's what's so fun about acting is there are kind of these characters that you can kind of fashion into the script or the script kind of informs you about. I love playing this dumb guy who is unaware of how dumb he is or playing the really nervous guy. That's the fun of acting is some of that stuff. There's also part of acting that is so ridiculous. I suppose it's from a practical standpoint, the auditions and everything, sitting on the set for eight hours and doing nothing. The process and the activity of acting on a film or even a commercial, for me, is really fun. I feel like I've been spoiled by stand-up where it's like I come up with an idea and I can come up on stage and try it.
TONY: When I interviewed Kyle Howard a couple of months ago, we talked about his sports knowledge before and after My Boys. Being from Indiana, which is close to Chicago, how would you describe your sports knowledge?
Jim Gaffigan: I grew up in Northwest Indiana, which is essentially a gigantic suburb of Chicago in a lot of ways. I'm forty-two right now, so there's part of me that feels like I never know enough about a sport. I can't make that commitment to know what A-Rod's batting average was in 2004. I definitely like it and I definitely have fun watching an NFL game or seeing who is going to be the quarterback for the Bears and stuff like that. But there's a lot of the sports fandom stuff that I'm just too lazy. I like watching sports, but I don't know if I'm on the West Coast, if I want to get up that early to watch a football game if it's my one day to sleep in. I'm essentially saying I'm lazy.
TONY: You've talked in previous interviews about growing up in Indiana and how everyone thought you were crazy for wanting to be a comedian. Has that changed at all now that you're successful?
Jim Gaffigan: Once I started to make a living, I was less of the crazy one joining the circus. Some of it is I come from a big family, so there's nephews and nieces popping up all over. There's kind of a running joke with my brother Joe who was this great athlete in High School and I was known as Joe Gaffigan's brother. Now, the fact that I might be on Letterman or in some Sam Mendes movie, it's kind of turned that around so that he's Jim Gaffigan's brother. There's a little bit of like you bastard kind of a thing, but it's not that bad. It's all in good fun.
TONY: Have you ever considered doing a roast on Comedy Central?
Jim Gaffigan: Some of it is it's just not my thing. I think those can be funny, but, for me, you do stand-up long enough and it's kind of like, 'Where do you want to focus your energies?' For me, I actually try to do jokes. I don't mean this to sound pompous, it might sound pompous, but I try to do jokes that are not about making fun of someone. I want them to be universal. Some of it just ended up like that. If I do a joke about ketchup, there's no one that's going to walk out of my show going, 'I can't believe he talked about ketchup. How dare he discuss bacon?' The roast thing, it's just something, watch in a year I'll be doing one, but it's not my bag I guess.
TONY: What do you think about Judd Apatow's style of comedy and what he's bringing to the film world?
Jim Gaffigan: Yeah, Judd is pretty amazing and they're all amazing: Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler and all of those guys. It would be great to work with all of them. There's something about a comedy movie that I have no interest in going to see. I don't know if it's because that's what I do for a living and I'm not saying that these movies aren't great, I've seen a lot of them, but if I had my choice, I'd rather see Frost/Nixon or Slumdog Millionaire. I have two young kids and one on the way,so I never see a movie. Essentially I'm saying I'm boring.
TONY: What's it like pacing yourself on a movie? When you're doing stand-up comedy, you're going all out and it's all about you.
Jim Gaffigan: Acting and stand-up, they're so completely different. I mean, I love acting and letting the situation be funny, but it's just so weird because there's an immediacy to stand-up and immediate feedback. In acting, you do something and then they call you six months later and they're like, 'Hey, do you want to do press for this movie you were in?' And I'm like, 'What did I play? A basketball coach? I guess, sure.' It seems like the screenings are always on a day where I'm in some other city doing a show. I love acting. I just do the acting gig and let it go. And I love the process of acting in itself, but I try not to have any emotional attachment to it because I have such little control. You have no control over the writing or how your piece is edited or what take they use. So you have to let it go.
TONY: Having worked with Conan O'Brien in the past, how do you think he's going to do with his new gig?
Jim Gaffigan: I think Conan O'Brien is one of the funniest guys out there and I think that people are going to be really surprised. I think there's something about Conan, when he was on late night, it was just too late for a lot of people to stay up. So when the audience is exposed to him and how quick he is with his humor, I think people are going to be really surprised with how funny he is. I mean, obviously, I'm a Letterman guy too. It's one of those things where an hour earlier for someone that gets up at seven, it's a huge difference.
