Greg Behrendt
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

Comedian Greg Behrendt has had a banner year. His book with Liz Tuccillo, He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys has sold almost 2 million copies, his standup act is popular enough to sell out large venues and the sitcom he worked on, Committed is doing well on NBC.

Greg Behrendt kickstarted his career working with Un-Cabaret honing his unique voice through standup.

Check out the official site for Un-Cabaret

Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Greg, what are you up to?

Greg Behrendt: I just got back from England last night so I’m looking through all my emails.

DRE: Were you doing standup over there?

GB: I was actually doing promotion for the book.

DRE: How’s it doing overseas?

GB: It just got released in England last week but it’s doing well. It’s doing well in Australia and I understand that we’ve even sold 3,000 in Delhi. It’s really wild and surreal.

DRE: How did you first get involved with Un-Cabaret?

GB: I basically got my start with those guys. I’ve been doing it since its inception which was cool because most everyone who did it immediately went on to fame and fortune like Janeane Garofalo and my roommate David Cross. I labored a bit longer in the field but Un-Cab would always put me on.

Everything good that’s happened to me can be traced back to Un-Cabaret. What [Un-Cabaret founder] Beth Lapides did was create this really cool venue that allowed people to come up and be a bit more candid. I found that it really suited the kind of standup I did. I did an HBO special called Man-tastic then Michael Patrick King asked me to join the writing staff of Sex in the City where I met Liz [Tuccillo] and then we wrote the book together.

DRE: I read you are doing a CD with Un-Cabaret for Drug Policy Alliance called "The Good, the Bad, and the Drugly."

GB: They are putting together a CD and I believe they are using some of my material.

DRE: What’s your drug policy?

GB: Although I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict I still feel that drugs should be legalized. I think it creates a problem when something like that becomes illegal. It didn’t work for me but everyone is on their own journey. I have one daughter and one in the oven so I will tell them that it didn’t work for me but they will have to make their own informed choices.

DRE: Besides alcohol, what else did you kick?

GB: All of it but I was mostly a drinker and I did some severe damage to my liver. But it’s all good nine years later. It all went down when I was doing Un-Cabaret, I just had a horrible breakup and I got sober. There were many nights doing Un-Cabaret where I would advocate drinking yourself into a stupor and then talk about not being able to handle it, being a pussy.

DRE: 2004 was a really big year for you. I think I first heard about the book when Colin Quinn kept going on about it during Tough Crowd.

GB: It’s funny because I’ve known Colin for years but he did all that on his own. I didn’t even see any of it because I was in Chicago going back on Oprah for a second time. A friend called me and said Colin was going on about it then he told me Patrice ONeal had the book then that Patrice kicked it across the set.

DRE: What was it like getting to go on Oprah?

GB: I never understood the power of Oprah because I never watched it until after I was asked to go on. Every girl friend and even some dudes were telling me that it was going to be major.

DRE: How many books did you sell after you were on Oprah?

GB: I’ve been told that the day before that Oprah aired the book was at #436 on Amazon then the evening it aired it was at #1. Now we’re in print at 1.9 million books.

DRE: As you know comedians started putting out books like crazy in the mid-90’s that were basically transcripts of their acts. How many guys like you are now putting out relationship books?

GB: I have no idea but I would say that this is an anomaly. We backed into it. I made the comment, “He’s just not that into you,” to one of the girls on the Sex in the City staff. Then a discussion ensued then it ended up in the show and Liz said that it had to become a book. I said that it didn’t seem like a book, maybe a pamphlet. But then we just did it and I never thought it would be so big. We just did it for fun. I don’t know if other comics are doing it but I know that other books are being written. It’s just like anything that’s popular.

DRE: I read about the movie deal for the book. What would the movie be about?

GB: We’re sort of setting it in the dying world of independent radio. It would be a romantic comedy but hopefully just a bit more thoughtful. We used to joke around before the book was done, we thought wouldn’t it be great if the book was really popular and they wanted to make a movie, what would the movie be about? We’re going to get to write a couple of drafts of the screenplay then we’ll see what happens. We’re spreading our net pretty wide because we want people who like the book to enjoy the movie and people who don’t to like it as well. We want the movie to be argued in the way that the book is being argued.

DRE: What do you think drew Michael Patrick King to you?

GB: Man-tastic was about gender stereotyping a little bit. It was about me and a bit pre-metrosexual. I said that I would much rather go to Williams-Sonoma than watch a football game. Even though I am a huge rock and roll fan I also know a lot about clothing and color design. Michael told me that he needed a pretty smart straight guy because at the time the staff was seven women and two gay men. Basically Michael asked me to join the staff by saying “You should come over and tell us what pussy tastes like because none of us seem to know.” They wanted to know what’s it like to be a guy and have a sex with a woman so they could do it from that point of view. It was because they were getting more male viewers than they anticipated.

DRE: What was some of the stuff you did on Sex in the City?

GB: I never got a writing credit but I did as a consultant. I was there a lot when Aidan [John Corbett] was on. I had a lot of input on Berger [Ron Livingston].

DRE: Berger was such a loser.

GB: Yeah those are the kind of characters that are fun to do. We wanted to have him in a relationship with Carrie where they both do the same thing but she was better at it than him.

DRE: I happened to see that you were consulting on the NBC sitcom Committed. Will that show last?

GB: I don’t know but it all depends on how much people want to see it. I love working with that writing staff and the people that run the show. They were subject to a lot of network notes at the beginning that they later changed their minds about.

DRE: Do you still do Bring the Rock in LA?

GB: We’re going to be doing five shows this year. Bring the Rock is sort of a rock and roll version of Un-Cabaret. Comedians, musicians and TV writers come up to the stage and tell stories only about rock. Then when they finish their story I have the band Electric Snowflake which includes Nina Gordon from Veruca Salt and Jefferson Russo from Tonic. They will come up and play their own take on a song from the band you were talking about.

DRE: How’d you come up with Bring the Rock?

GB: Yeah a while ago I was hanging out with a good buddy, Tom Morello [Audioslave]. He is just a killer storyteller and I told him that I would pay $15 a head to hear him tell stories.

DRE: You’re 40 years old and you still go to concerts, ever feel like an old man?

GB: All the time. Now I just stand in the back and it’s so sad. I do love going but I also remember seeing old people at shows when I was a kid and thinking they were creepy.

DRE: What kind of thing are you doing at Town Hall on February 24th?

GB: I’m doing standup and taking questions about the book. The majority of my fanbase comes from the book and Oprah now.

DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?

GB: I think tattoos are hot. My wife has a couple of tattoos but I think a woman with sleeves is outstanding.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Greg+Behrendt/