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If you watch "The Soup" on the cable network E!, you know the quick-witted genius of writer, producer and host Joel McHale. The show, dedicated to poking fun at reality TV, celebrities and the talk show circuit, has had a long line of successful hosts, going back to Greg Kinnear, when it was called "Talk Soup." Mr. McHale is a natural comic who honed his skills with a master's degree in acting from the University of Washington. He's put his talent for timing and humor to good use on NBC's new comedy series "Community" with Chevy Chase. Mr. McHale, 38, lives in California with his wife, Sarah Williams, and two sons.
How old were you when you recognized you were funny?
Oh, I'm still not sure I'm funny to this day. I'll let you know when that happens because a lot of the things I do are terribly unfunny and pretty uncomfortable.
So why go into that field?
See the Desperate, lonely [laughs.] Um, boy, both my parents were very entertaining. Especially the Norwegian side of the family. Oh, yeah, they're a barrel of laughs. Then I have some Finn in me, too, also known for their comedy. No, my father is kind of the king of smart asses, and I learned the fine art of smart asserie from him. He's a very funny guy, and I always looked up to him. The first [acting] I did was "A Small World" in Haddonfield, N.J. I literally got the part of a gorilla because I was the one who could pantomime peeling a banana. I always thought, well, this is a fun thing and at some point I'll have to get a real job and do something real. Thank God that just never happened.
So, has your master's in acting helped at all?
The master's? Well, I went to a program that just announced last week that it was shutting down. So you know, I like to close places. It did help in two ways. The instructors were terrific, and at that point I had only done sketch and a lot of improvising and a bunch of plays. I really felt like I needed to become a good actor. The best thing about it was you were acting 24 hours a day for three years. Well, not 24 hours a day, but for at least 15 hours a day. It really was kind of like an acting boot camp, so that was terrific. It was a great time to experiment and work those things out.
Do you feel more comfortable acting or doing stand-up?
Boy, I enjoy both of them a lot. Stand-up -- it's just really using different muscles and you know you are alone on stage for 60 to 80 minutes. You have no sort of safety net. You are just out there, and your goal is to make people laugh and entertain them. Whereas with acting, you are telling a story and you are playing this role and trying to be this character. So I would say acting is, depending upon the role, a greater challenge. It is what I love to do. But, you know what? I would say stand-up is an equal challenge.
I would think you are a little more vulnerable doing stand-up.
Definitely, definitely -- In stand-up? Oh, I thought you were going to say acting. I would say you should be vulnerable in both, equally, to really be effective.
What was it like the first time you did stand-up?
I came into stand-up in a really different way. I didn't start doing it until two years ago. My booking agent, a guy by the name of Doug Edley, said, "You're going to make a lot of money if you go out and do some sort of version of 'The Soup' on the road. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to book you into clubs and have you host." So they started booking me at Improvs for like a weekend, and I would bring my friends, who were comics, and I would host and do material in between to work my act out. "The Soup" is kind of like stand-up in that I just stand in front of a camera and tell jokes for 22 minutes. So that sort of lessened the blow, but of course standing in front of an audience is completely different than standing in front of a camera. That's how I worked it out, and I basically did it every weekend for two years.
I read that you were an athlete in college and recruited for rowing. Did you row in high school?
I did row in high school. I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't enjoy it in college because the coach was bad, and the players were into hazing more than they were into rowing. There were too many rules to follow, and as freshman, at the end of the season, they expected you to shave your head and eyebrows and put your hair into a pillow. And I was like, "Are we playing a sport? Or are we into some sort of weird ritual voodoo tribe here? What are we doing?"
What are your ambitions as far as your career? Would you want to host "The Tonight Show"?
[Laughins.] My goal is to be a part of a great show and hopefully make "Community" a great show. And to do good movies in between doing "Community." That's my goal. I work with Pittsburgh's own Gillian Jacobs, who is just an absolute gem of a human being. She is an amazing actor, and it's not hard to play opposite her. On "The Soup" side, I love doing the soup, and it's so much fun and all my friends work there. It's just a blast to do it. So yeah, that's not going anywhere. I love it. Well, you know, unless they cancel me.
And you haven't made any real enemies on "The Soup" -- have you?
Not yet, not that I know of. Every single reality star or contestant that I've ever run into, and the ones I have said horrible things about, they want to come on the show. They are like, "Please have me on," and I'm like, "I called you a dirty scank." And they are like, "I am!" So it's that sort of thing.
Are you the kind of parent who doesn't want his children going into show business?
It doesn't matter. If it is something they want to do, I'm not going to stop them, and if it is something they don't want to do, I am not going to push them. I can't imagine they do because they see me on TV and they walk away.
Mackenzie Carpenter's video program, "Omnivore," is available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
