Any number of things can fuel success. There’s talent and ambition, the usual suspects. But don’t discount fear, insecurity or being a wise ass, either. Check all of the above for Nick Kroll, but also add the belief that a career you love can’t be handed to you by anyone other than yourself. He’s created some of the funniest characters in modern sketch comedy for Kroll Show, two of which escaped to the surprise hit Oh, Hello on Broadway. Not all his ideas are brilliant (kale lollipop, anyone?), but Big Mouth, his new animated show about puberty (yes, puberty), may be his best yet. It’s definitely his most personal and brashly original. And likely his most disturbing. It’s also really, really funny. But when someone comes along to give voice to one of our most common, unsettling and hard-to-talk about human experiences, maybe laughs are just icing on the cake.
Tom Papa is a happy, well-adjusted, family guy who’s fine with being labeled “clean.” So how the hell did he ever become a comedian? He had no idea if he could make it in standup, and no roadmap to get there. What he did have was the certainty that nothing else felt right. It took a lot of observation, a lot of hard work and a certain comedy chiropractor, but mostly it took learning to be himself. He’s now a successful standup, show host and actor. What keeps him going? The possibility of more success, yeah, but that’s not what’ll keep him jumping planes for Eugene, Oregon when he’s 60. “People leave a show and their stomachs hurt from laughing. Their faces hurt. You get to go to work and share that with them every day.” For a guy who started without a map, he wound up in the right place.
Tom Papa is a happy, well-adjusted, family guy who’s fine with being labeled “clean.” So how the hell did he ever become a comedian? He had no idea if he could make it in standup, and no roadmap to get there. What he did have was the certainty that nothing else felt right. It took a lot of observation, a lot of hard work and a certain comedy chiropractor, but mostly it took learning to be himself. He’s now a successful standup, show host and actor. What keeps him going? The possibility of more success, yeah, but that’s not what’ll keep him jumping planes for Eugene, Oregon when he’s 60. “People leave a show and their stomachs hurt from laughing. Their faces hurt. You get to go to work and share that with them every day.” For a guy who started without a map, he wound up in the right place.
Tom Papa is a happy, well-adjusted, family guy who’s fine with being labeled “clean.” So how the hell did he ever become a comedian? He had no idea if he could make it in standup, and no roadmap to get there. What he did have was the certainty that nothing else felt right. It took a lot of observation, a lot of hard work and a certain comedy chiropractor, but mostly it took learning to be himself. He’s now a successful standup, show host and actor. What keeps him going? The possibility of more success, yeah, but that’s not what’ll keep him jumping planes for Eugene, Oregon when he’s 60. “People leave a show and their stomachs hurt from laughing. Their faces hurt. You get to go to work and share that with them every day.” For a guy who started without a map, he wound up in the right place.
When you think about how many brilliantly wacky characters have sprung from Alan Tudyk’s imagination to the screen for the past two decades, and then factor in his history of prank calls and high school improv competitions, it’s a bit hard to fathom that his early career plan was to be a hotel manager. Sure, if Basil Fawlty is your idea of a hotel manager, but he was actually serious. Sometimes, the path not taken is a good thing. Alan’s path has led him to Broadway, too many film and TV roles to count, and every Disney Animation Studios movie to date. The only place it hadn’t led was the one place he really wanted to be: The Middle of Everything. It took a Con Man to change that. Read on for a tale of bloody knees and sharp-eyed teachers, Broadway dreams crushed and revisited, and a game we call Fun With Pictures.
When you think about how many brilliantly wacky characters have sprung from Alan Tudyk’s imagination to the screen for the past two decades, and then factor in his history of prank calls and high school improv competitions, it’s a bit hard to fathom that his early career plan was to be a hotel manager. Sure, if Basil Fawlty is your idea of a hotel manager, but he was actually serious. Sometimes, the path not taken is a good thing. Alan’s path has led him to Broadway, too many film and TV roles to count, and every Disney Animation Studios movie to date. The only place it hadn’t led was the one place he really wanted to be: The Middle of Everything. It took a Con Man to change that. Read on for a tale of bloody knees and sharp-eyed teachers, Broadway dreams crushed and revisited, and a game we call Fun With Pictures.
When you think about how many brilliantly wacky characters have sprung from Alan Tudyk’s imagination to the screen for the past two decades, and then factor in his history of prank calls and high school improv competitions, it’s a bit hard to fathom that his early career plan was to be a hotel manager. Sure, if Basil Fawlty is your idea of a hotel manager, but he was actually serious. Sometimes, the path not taken is a good thing. Alan’s path has led him to Broadway, too many film and TV roles to count, and every Disney Animation Studios movie to date. The only place it hadn’t led was the one place he really wanted to be: The Middle of Everything. It took a Con Man to change that. Read on for a tale of bloody knees and sharp-eyed teachers, Broadway dreams crushed and revisited, and a game we call Fun With Pictures.
Here’s a question: How many years do you have to spend watching actors through a camera before you realize maybe that’s what you were meant to be doing all along? If you’re Jay Duplass, you might also wonder why your brother Mark didn’t let you in on how fun and freeing it can be a little sooner. But no matter. At a time in life when most actors are rushing the director’s chair, the elder Duplass brother is running in the opposite direction on Transparent, and killing it. It’s the second time he missed the obvious. Fourteen years ago, surveying the wreckage of 27 failed projects and desperate of ever becoming a filmmaker, he was ready to chuck it for grad school. That’s when he finally discovered the crucial ingredient to building one of the most successful creative careers in the business. Someone should really tell him these things up front.
