A conversation with some of the Just For Laughs 42 comedians
Paul Scheer, 43, is an Upright Citizens Brigade alum known for his improv group Human Giant, his TV series The League, and his role in the film The Disaster Artist, as well as his “bad movie” podcast How did this get made? which will be performed live at JFL42 on September 28.
The Strand: What was it like seeing Paul Giamatti in a garbage can [on The Chris Gethard Show ]?
Paul Scheer: Look, going on that show was so fun because we didn’t know what was gonna go on and the last thing I thought was that there was going to be an actual person in the dumpster. So, I don’t know, it was more…it was multiple shocks, multiple shocks. Like first I was like, “Okay, there’s a person in it” I was not thinking that was a human being. Then I was like, “Oh my God, this guy looks like Paul Giamatti”. Then I was like, “Oh no, it is Paul Giamatti” and Paul Giamatti was like reading a book in there too. So, it wasn’t even like I’m looking at a human being who looks like Paul Giamatti, it actually is Paul Giamatti. He’s like lounging and reading a book inside of this dumpster. And then knowing that immediately I had mentioned Paul Giamatti’s suit from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in a sentence before.
Do you ever feel like you have to put a “bad-movie lens” on for movies that you actually enjoy?
So, for me, I think the one thing we do with the show and in a very honest way is, we’re not trying to skew it. We’re not going, “Oh, we gotta talk shit about this.” And I think the point goes back on The Odd Life of Timothy Green that Jason Mantzoukas and Tim Heidecker really love. You know, we do try to be honest. I think the selling point [of the show] is for us that we are just being honest, like we are friends talking about movies. Like the movie that’s coming up next on the actual podcast we really all enjoy – its the movie Unforgettable with Katherine Heigl. You know, it’s a good movie and we can find stuff to talk about, we can dissect it in different ways. We’re always pretty honest about what our reaction to the film is. We’re not trying to be like, alright, let’s find the worst elements. To me it is the exact conversation if it wasn’t on tape or if it wasn’t on the podcast How Did This Get Made? . We sometimes don’t celebrate the simpler film, or the films that people are excited about and, not empower, but fuel out cultural zeitgeist. So, Groundhog Day and Borat, I think both of those movies should be on the American Film Institute Top 100 Films of All Time List . I think they are cultural touchstones. I wouldn’t even call it trash cinema. I would be like, yes, I like going to Shake Shack, but I also like going to a very nice steakhouse. One is not better than the other, they’re just different flavours. Whenever people get into the argument of who’s funny and who’s not funny, I’m like, you can’t make an argument that someone who is selling out stadiums is not funny. They are arguably funny and successful.
You’ve been a writer, director, improviser, actor, producer – maybe you make artisanal cheese in your spare time – but I wanted to know if there was anything in the industry, or outside the industry, that you would like to pursue a role in?
Oh wow. Well, artisanal cheese we’re opening up a small–it’s a small thing that we’re doing… No. You know, for me, I always try to find the things that I’m passionate about. Right now, I just directed a documentary and I had a great time doing that. I never would’ve thought that would’ve been something that would’ve been in my wheelhouse as something that I wanted to do. But I was kind of given this opportunity and that was really fun. It’s the same way I kind of fell into loving comic books. I think one of the benefits, and I use this term incredibly loosely, [of being an] artists or being in the creative field, is that the more you open yourself up, the more opportunities that you get. The more that you don’t say, “I am just a blank,” the more chances you’ll get to do stuff. And you know what you’re saying about being in your sketch group in Toronto it’s like, yeah, when I first started out we were writing, acting, and directing because we had to, and I feel like that makes you better. All these things you do start to have a conversation with each other.
What would be your piece of advice for an up-and-coming comedian that you wish you had when you started?
You know, I’ll give you two pieces of it because I feel like there’s one piece that someone did say to me that I hold on to all the time, so it’s not my piece of advice, but it’s a great piece of advice that was given to me when I was first starting out, and it was said by Harold Ramis, [he] said this thing, you know, “Fame and success aren’t finite. And just because someone else is getting fame or success doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get it. You’re not in competition with someone else for your career.” And I feel like we can all get caught in that thing of, ugh, why didn’t that thing hit, and I worked so hard, and then that person did this and then that. It’s always good to understand that that’s not going anywhere. Just because someone else has it doesn’t mean it’s all dried up, I think the thing that I would say is don’t be afraid to be critiqued; and that’s like a tough pill to swallow. We are all creating stuff and we all have a belief in ourselves, but you have to take critique and then understand where it’s coming from, why it’s coming that way – you don’t have to necessarily take the critique. [For example] if someone says change A to B, you may not have to change A to B, but you may say, “Why are they saying A to B? Huh. But maybe what I should be doing is making A more like D.” We all want our things to be accepted and when we find out that someone doesn’t see eye-to-eye with us we get defensive, like, “They don’t know what they’re talking about. Fuck them.” But it is good to think: “Why are they responding like that?”.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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