Nia Vardalos (My Big fat Greek Wedding) guest stars in this week’s episode and plays the newest woman in Andy’s life. And now that we all know Bobby was on the plane, we see how PJ has to deal with a major announcement concerning his relationship with the smoking hot nanny, Elsa. Hmmm, that sounds messy. Meanwhile, Brando is busily pursuing a different career path, while Kenny revels in his position as the show’s Casanova.
As for me, I get to take an Improv class with Andy and it has been a wonderful week of shooting. Mike McDonald from Mad TV is hilarious as our improv teacher. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the form of imrov, it’s like “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”. That’s the show where the actors take suggestions and create scenes. And for me it’s how I started in this business. I always get questions from fans as to how my career began and although no two actors take the same path to Hollywood, here is how mine goes…
I just got out of the navy and had very little idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I got a job bartending in San Diego at the Pacific Beach Brewhouse and spent my days playing beach volleyball and drinking beer. It was the only time I ever had a tan. My pasty skin finally gave in to the constant barrage of the sun’s rays and actually formed a base. I lived on the beach and each day seamlessly blended into the next. I answered an ad in the paper to audition for an improv troupe. I don’t know why. I’d never really acted before, but I knew from that first rehearsal that I had found what really motivated me. You would do something and people laughed…or they wouldn’t. It was that simple. And I wanted to get really good at the craft of "funny". It was intoxicating and I couldn’t get enough. We weren’t being paid a penny and I couldn’t have been happier.
I ended up forming a group called I.T. (Improvisational Therapy) with my friends Gerhart Welling, Murray Stanley, Gary Bryant, Jeff Kilbride, and Mike Siscoe and we did shows in the back of the brewery using bags of grain and kegs as our props on a hand built little platform that I made from wood from home depot.
It was a blast. We eventually got a little press and became regulars at the San Diego Improv. And I was off and running. A couple of local commercials, an episode of “Renegade”, and I set my sights on Los Angeles to become a professional actor.
I became an overnight sensation (which only took ten more years). During those years, I continued to grow as a performer doing sketch and stand-up. But I always remember my first couple of years in San Diego. There was such an innocence and purity to it.
We had no idea what we were doing. Some shows were amazing and others were horrible. One time we did a show for four people.
It was hilariously terrible. We ended the show when the audience ran out of suggestions. It didn’t take long. I’ve done shows at AA meetings, youth hostels where the audience didn’t speak English, and I even did a show where we used the microphone at the maitre’d stand in a restaurant.
Comedy is one of those businesses where “there ain’t nothing to it, but to do it”. And because of that, the early stages are ugly but beautiful. Bombing is a nightly occurrence. But if it was easy, everybody would do it. Somebody told me early on that I should enjoy the journey, because you never know if you’re going to get to your final destination and nothing could be more true. Working on My Boys is a dream come true, but I still remember my early days in San Diego as some of the best of my life. So, next time you come see me headline a comedy show in your town, be sure to notice the other comics that are opening the show. Because ten years from now they are probably going to be the next overnight success.
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