Now you had this period
of time where you were working on the TV show Punk'D.
Yes. And I'm fascinated by this.
That was my first on camera job
and that was just still my favorite job I've ever had.
And why was it your favorite job?
'Cause I love pranks.
I've always loved pranks.
That's my version of, you know, Mindy lies,
I actually do the work.
I'm not judging. Right, right.
She can just say, oh that person
Oh, since high school. owns Flemish armor,
but he doesn't. I love pranks.
And here was a job
where a professional team
set up the prank for you
and you just knock the pins down.
It was unbelievable
and Ashton Kucher, you know, this was my, I was 23, 24.
I had only been in the writer's room,
I'd started doing standup a couple years ago.
I suddenly got some heat as a standup,
I killed my audition and I'm here
with Ashton Kucher who loomed so large,
especially at that moment.
Now he's sort of an icon that has graduated,
he's been around forever, but he was just bursting.
Yeah. Like cover of
People magazine every week, so cool.
And I was like this comedy writer
still wearing the kind of pleated khakis that you wear
when you grow up in Boston.
And he was like, in my earpiece.
I'm wearing those right now,
you asshole. Telling me
what to say to these pop stars
that would freak them out.
I mean, it was as someone who loves pranks,
it was a dream come true.
Now your job as a performer
was to play the reality of the prank.
Yeah. And--
It was great acting training
Yes. because you
have to be convincing
You cannot-- and funny
and you get one take
Yeah and you cannot indicate or you're fired.
the joke. Right.
Which is, as everyone knows who's worked in comedy,
actually they don't know it, but they should know it,
don't indicate the joke.
It ruins it.
Yes. When you're indicating
that something is funny. And since I've
directed comedy a lot of people show up great actors,
great dramatic actors show up, ready to do comedy.
And they don't realize that by that philosophy
that we both subscribe to, no, no, no.
Play the drama, get the comedy deep down,
but you play that reality.
As soon as you play the comedy, it's not funny.
Well, I think it's
what Steve Carell did so brilliantly was
Yes. he's a brilliant actor
Yes. and he played every moment
with complete honesty
Yes.
as Michael Scott.
He could sell, you could write him
the most insane thing for a human being,
that no human being grills his foot
on a George Foreman grill
'cause he wants to wake up to the smell of bacon
and then Right.
tells his office to treat him as a handicapped person.
Right.
But when he performs that, you buy it.
Right. You see how
a human being could do that.
And he's not rubbing his hands before the scene to say
how do I make this funny?
He is-- I think he is deep down.
I think he has a writer brain
that's coming up with the funny things to say,
but then his actor heart is you know, playing the drama
of this human being in this terrible situation
in that character's mind, you know.
When you were doing these pranks on Punk'D,
was there ever a moment where, because you can't break.
Yeah. I mean,
you're not supposed to break in sketches,
but people do, but if you're part of a prank
and you're pretending to be
someone who, you know is a barista
Yeah. or someone who's
working the counter at a restaurant,
do you know what I mean?
Yeah. And you've got to play
that reality.
Yeah. And you can't start giggling
or the entire thing is ruined.
Yeah. Was that ever a problem?
Yeah, almost never.
I'm actually I think I'm a little too serious
when I do comedy.
I think that if you watch The Office bloopers,
I'm almost never breaking.
And I wish I had brought myself to the level
of being about to break a lot
'cause I do think a lot of great comedy comes
at that teetering edge,
but I didn't generally have a problem with that,
but I did watch something where I saw my face
just bite my cheek to not break.
And there was one outrageous,
I mean some of, my mom hated Punk'D,
but there was one outrageous one where
Rachael Lee Cook was the actor and she,
so they always find like their vulnerability
or their obsessions.
So she and Jonathan Tucker, who's a friend of mine now
was the accomplice.
So he brought her to a restaurant
and she volunteered with the elderly.
And we got a stunt man to
be the waiter, like a forgetful waiter
that kept messing up her order.
And I was an asshole
manager of the restaurant
that was abusive to this elderly waiter
and screamed at him for messing up the order
and then eventually started throwing him against the wall
'cause he is a stunt guy
and you can like Sure, yeah.
so violent and
yeah, watching that, I laugh now
'cause I can't believe that we would do such a thing.
(people laughing)
First of all, you just described my favorite day ever.
It would be a joy for me.
To beat the elderly. Yes.
Well, to beat up people.
It's so funny because
But to do these things and have to convince someone
it's real. Yes, it's real.
Like what you were saying,
the acting training is this is amazing
'cause you have to be funny enough to, you're improvising.
Yes. 'Cause you're making up
the stuff, you have to be completely convincing
so the other person in the scene
thinks this is the worst day of their life
and it's a high wire act 'cause you have one take.
I'm not a, a natural prankster.
I don't think that's something that I was built for.
I worry a lot that someone will get hurt
or upset. yeah, that apparently
was not my problem.
I just do not have that,
but the couple of times in my career that we've,
the writers have come up with something
where I get to kind of inhabit that niche,
I've been so happy.
And my writers came up with something once
that was a great idea, which is
let's get a really good prosthetic person
to make me up to be
someone who doesn't look anything like me
and then I will run a focus group
That's great to show people
Conan O'Brien, people who wouldn't really know me.
How did you disguise yourself?
We got a really good prosthetic person
who added a lot of weight and aged to me
and I did not look like me.
I don't know
if you remember this. No, I do remember it.
I loved it. And I,
it was, I was dealing with a lot of older people
and I was showing them, we intentionally picked stuff
when I'm jumping around or doing the string dance
and the monologue.
We cut together this thing
that would just look very alienating.
And I was showing them this stuff
and they really didn't like it
and they were saying, well, we don't like this person.
And then I started to egg them on by saying, well,
here he's, I don't like to tell tales outta school, but.
Why would a focus group
believe you? I did.
Gossip like that.
I did, but I started
to tell them, That's why it's funny.
I started to gossip with them a little bit
about how I heard Conan O'Brien's not a good guy.
And they were like, what do you mean?
And I said, well, I'm not here to say things
and you didn't hear it from me.
And this is just between you, me and the fence post.
I kept making up these crazy stupid things.
This is between you, me and the fence post,
but I'll tell you, he, that I had dated Cher
and then I dumped her.
And they were like, he dumped Cher?
And they were livid.
And I'm like, well again, you didn't hear it, but from me,
you know I'm as quiet as an aardvark in an onion,
but I'll tell you this much.
And I would just try,
but I was so happy and I would go on long tangents
and then I would say things that I heard about
Conan O'Brien that were really
kind of not great other shitty things and I had so much fun
and I understood the joy of getting to do that.
Yeah. To getting to be.
The whole crew helping you.
Yeah. But that's really,
I mean, you carried that
Well, it was so much fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was so much fun, but
I understand because I grew up with brothers,
I've always been someone who likes to rough house,
to use a term probably no one uses anymore
because it's just a cute way of saying physical abuse,
but I loved rough housing, still love rough housing and
Whoa. so the idea of,
well, yeah,
I will wrestle you
Okay. before this is over
and you'll be very uncomfortable.
Rainn Wilson always wanted to wrestle with me
Yeah. during The Office.
I understand that. Yeah.
I look easy to beat.
(people laughing)
I think someone hasn't wrestled in a while was like.
why don't I start with you
But when. and then move on
to Krasinski's bodyguard. Yeah.
(people laughing)
Whenever I was in a sketch with people,
whenever I was in in a sketch that called for me to
punch someone and throw them through a wall
or for me to get punched and get thrown through a wall
to this day, even at my age
I would sign up for it in a second.
I absolutely love it.
It makes me so happy when show business
involves being a kid.
Yes. Basically,
I think that's what it is.
And when someone like builds a fake wall,
I mean it's so great when a crew goes to such serious effort
to do, for you to do something so ridiculous.