A Pretty Funny Interview I Did With “The Breeze,” Which is the Unfortunate Name of JMU’s School Newspaper
Q & A with Michael Ian Black
Posted: Monday, October 25, 2010 6:53 pm | Updated: 11:53 pm, Mon Oct 25, 2010.
You do a lot of college touring. What do you find to be the biggest difference between college shows and your other dates?
I get college credit for doing these.
So it’s an unpaid internship like thing then?
Yeah, I get three credits for every four colleges I do and I’m working toward my B.A.
And can you tell me what to do with a B.A.?
Yeah, you go work at Starbucks.
You doing stand-up is relatively recent in the grand scheme of your career.
In geological terms, yes.
Like the Mesozoic Era of Michael Ian Black.
Yes, first there were single-celled organisms, then dinosaurs, then I started doing stand-up. It’s essentially how the Earth evolved.
Well, you also had the essay collection released last year (“My Custom Van”). Is that kind of a move away from television or just a case of diversifying?
I would say it’s just more diversity. It’s easier to get someone to publish a book than to put a television show on the air, and it’s more fun to write a book than to write a television show. Because you get to do it by yourself, and nobody tells you that you are doing it wrong. Whereas when you are writing a television show, pretty much every day people are telling you that you are doing it wrong. That’s all they do.
Then they cancel you.
They say, “We love you, we love you, here is a television show, write a television show.” Then as soon as you start writing it, they say, “You’re doing it wrong, we’ve never cared for you, why can’t you be more like somebody else who is more successful.”
And then you do that and they say, “Oh, it’s great” and then they cancel you. That’s essentially the arc of making a television show.
Sounds rough.
Oh, it’s fine. If you like money, it’s fine
So for your stand-up, what material and experiences do you draw on?
I usually just use Louis C.K. jokes. He’s got really good jokes and I figure if they work for him, they’ll work for me.
He does have very good jokes. If you’re gonna steal, you should steal from the pretty good at least.
Well, I don’t consider it stealing. I mean I know him. It’s like if you went to your friend’s house and he had a left over sandwich or something and you ate it, you wouldn’t think “Oh, I stole the sandwich,” it would just be, “Oh, I ate the sandwich.” That’s how it is with Louie. His jokes are kind of like an old sandwich. I just do them.
So now that work of your comedy group The State is available on DVD, what is the typical closing question you’re pestered with?
You just did it.
Thanks for your time.
You are very welcome.
