Since Ive been writing for the internet Ive been luckily enough to talk to many of my heroes such as David Cronenberg, Bernardo Bertolucci, Martin Amis, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel, Neil Jordan, Alan Moore, Frank Miller and countless others. Now with my hour long conversation with Chris Elliott, my life has come full circle. I would put Chris Elliotts best work up against any of the people I mentioned above. While some may scoff at that simply because his unique brand of comedy isnt looked upon with as much respect as some of theirs. His works such as Get a Life, his first book Daddys Boy, his work on Late Night with David Letterman and even his all too brief sitcom appearances make me laugh using my entire stomach and that is one ample paunch.
His latest work is the novel The Shroud of the Thwacker. As usual hes created a unique and hysterical mix of real life and fantasy. Its narrated by the insane Chris Elliott, the character hes cultivated over the years, and its a satire of works by Patricia Cornwell and Caleb Carrs The Alienist. Jack the Jolly Thwacker is leaving dead bodies all over 1882 New York City. The mayor of the city is drunken Teddy Roosevelt and he teams up with police chief, Caleb Spencer, to catch the serial killer.
Buy The Shroud of the Thwacker
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its a pleasure to speak to you. Ive been a fan for a long time.
Chris Elliott: Thats really nice to hear. It means a lot to me.
DRE: Its funny, because when I was a TV producer, I remember you did a press day for Snow Day at the Chelsea Piers ice rink.
CE: Oh yeah [laughs] were you there?
DRE: I stopped by there just because I was producing some talent. Then when I handed you a copy of Daddys Boy you went Oh, one of those.
CE: [laughs] Well I think there were only like 20 of them printed. So I was probably talking about the actual book. Its funny because Ive written this new book and people ask me Is this your first book? and I say Yes.
DRE: [laughs] The Shroud of the Thwacker is really laugh out loud funny.
CE: Oh thanks. I think it looks cool too. Im actually just looking at it now. I love the end pages. My sister [Amy Elliott Andersen] did all the illustrations.
DRE: On the book jacket they mention Patricia Cornwell and Caleb Carr. Have you read their books?
CE: Yeah, I did and I actually liked them. Ive gotten over my hatred of reading. I guess you would probably imagine Im a big Jack the Ripper fan so I actually really like Patricia Cornwells books and I loved The Alienist. I dont think you can parody something without really liking the stuff youre parodying. Ive always secretly liked the stuff that I make fun of.
DRE:: Since you grew up in Manhattan I would say this book is kind of a love letter to the city.
CE: Ive lived in Connecticut for ten years and essentially it was because we couldnt really afford to live in the city anymore. But Ive always had one foot back in the city and every year around this time we look at apartments. In fact my wifes in there now looking for us right now. So it was in a way, it is a love letter because I would come into my office here in Connecticut and write, but I felt like I was in New York all day. So even though it was a screwed up New York and my own weird vision of New York in 1882, I loved being in that world.
DRE: The book really keeps in tune with the other stuff youve done over the years.
CE: Yeah, its pretty much an offshoot or a natural progression from what Ive done. I was hesitant to put me as a character in the book, because I thought that it looked egocentric. But at the same time, thats part of my persona. Its me getting my face out there and being in stuff. The challenge was that I wanted to write a book that would stand on its own without me being in it, but at the same time I wanted to put myself into it and satisfy that need.
DRE: Did you feel like you were creating a new aspect of the Chris Elliott character?
CE: I think hes pretty much in everything I do. It probably started in high school before I even went to Letterman. But Dave was the one who recognized this weird side of me and put it on TV. Ever since then, it doesnt matter what you call me in anything. I could be Fred or George or whatever, to me its still that Chris Elliott persona. Other people are better at sort of defining it but I know that I like playing guys that go from hot to cold really quickly and change attitudes but youre not sure if thats because hes mentally unstable or brilliant or whatever.
DRE: Did you do research for the Thwacker?
CE: I did do a bit of research because I wanted people that knew some history about New York City to be able pick out some things and go Oh yeah, thats actually true. Then Id turn something thats true sort of on its head or add something silly to it. I thought that for the people that enjoyed those books like The Alienist, half of it is feeling like youre back in New York City in the Age of Innocence. When Caleb Carr describes dinners at Delmonico's you really feel like he knows what hes talking about. I wanted people to have some feeling that there was some reality backbone to the whole thing. But in general its all completely made up or grossly inaccurate.
DRE: Did you ever laugh out loud when writing some of this stuff?
CE: To be honest, this was a different process for me and I didnt realize it was funny until people started reading it and laughing. I know that sounds strange but its true. My wife and I have completely different senses of humor but I would give her chapters and she would laugh. Honestly I dont think my wife would be a fan of mine if we werent married. I didnt ask her specifically what she was laughing at, but I knew, Ok theres something in that for her. Then I would give it to my friend Adam Resnick and he would laugh at stuff and he has a different sense of humor than my wife. So I knew there was stuff for different people in there so I must be hitting some things on the mark. Im actually pretty happy with it. It was the first time, since Letterman, that Ive been able to just write and let stuff come out without having a network sitting on my shoulder or having to make a character more heroic for a test audience. So Im pretty happy with it.
DRE: How long did it take you to write the book?
CE: The book actually took about six months to write but I thought I could do it in like three.
DRE: Six months is pretty short amount of time to write a 400 page book.
CE: I thought it was going to be goofier than it ended up being. It is still completely goofy but the story started to take on more of a life than I thought it would. As I was writing it I started realizing that the fun of those books is that the stories are always pretty complicated and take lots of twists and turns. I had never written a novel before except Daddys Boy. But with Daddys Boy, there wasnt really a story there, it was just chapters in my life.
DRE: [laughs] At least I think it was.
CE: Right, but people told me just sit down and start writing and dont worry about figuring out exactly where everything is going to go. I did that and it actually worked that way. I would sit down in the morning and start writing and I something would occur to me and it would take the plot in a totally different direction. Then I would realize Oh I can tie that up later and Ill go back and plant something that makes sense. So thats what took more time than I thought it would. But again it wasnt brutal. Writers always talk about how horrible the process is but for me it was just so much fun.
DRE: Do you see doing anything else with Thwacker?
CE: I want to see if the response is good and then Id like to write another one. Its set up for a sequel. But comedy books in general, from what Ive seen, are difficult to be big successes. But the one thing this has going for it, is that you dont have to have read the other books we spoke of to find it funny.
DRE: I havent read any Patricia Cornwell or The Alienist but my wife reads Patricia Cornwell like its going out of style.
CE: Right, but if you havent read them you got the jokes and you thought they were funny. You know what those books are even if you havent read them. Its like how my daughters love Young Frankenstein.
DRE: How old are your kids?
CE: 18 and 15. Theyre really smart but I dont think theyve ever seen a Boris Karloff Frankenstein movie. They still love Young Frankenstein because they just get the jokes and they get the storyline and they get the look of it. They dont get the specific references, but they get the humor.
DRE: As far as I could tell for the last couple of years youve only done Everybody Loves Raymond, is that because you were working on the book?
CE: It took six months to write and during that time I worked on Raymond. I actually had a television show in development from was an idea of mine but I wasnt writing the script. Two other guys were writing the script. Im fairly lucky because when people call me to do a sitcom or something, its really only a few days. I can fly out to LA and Ill take my laptop with me so I could work on the book. The schedule for doing sitcoms is really great for the actors, especially secondary actors who only have one or two scenes in an episode. So you really have a lot of time.
DRE: Are they planning on spinning Brad Garrett, Monica Horan and you into your own series?
CE: Theres some talk about that. I guess theyre getting close on negotiations. So well see.
DRE: Would you want to do that?
CE: I would do that in a second. I love Brad Garrett, Georgia Engel, Fred Willard is a hero and Monica Horan is great. But Ive never really been on a successful sitcom as a regular so Ive never really experienced what thats like. Therefore there is a part of me that would be excited if it was a success.
DRE: Did you develop that character at all?
CE: No, Im friends with Phil Rosenthal who created the show. Originally Paul Reubens had actually done the character. Then there was some ugliness happening in Pauls life that interfered with him doing it again so they called me.
DRE: I actually went to the taping of the cast of Everybody Loves Raymond and Phil Rosenthal on In The Actors Studio. Phil Rosenthal was the funniest one there.
CE: Yeah hes really funny. When you hear Phil talking you can hear that show just kind of spewing out of his mouth. Him and Ray would just bring in what happened over the weekend and put it through their mill and it would just come out on the show. But Phil is the top guy who can do this kind of stuff in this business.
DRE: You kind of touched on the persona youve created that character where youre not sure if hes insane. I think hes insane, I mean he keep raisins in his pockets so they get squishy. Over the years other people, including your father have touched on that kind of thing. It has now become almost standard in TV and movies. To the point where I think people dont even realize theyre doing what you did.
CE: [laughs] Yeah, I guess you could call me the Little Richard of comedy. But I dont think thats true. I think there was a trend that I was part of so I dont think that I developed it. Its nice to hear you say that but when Get a Life started it wasnt long after that Dumb and Dumber came out and there was a trend towards that kind of character.
DRE: Well they definitely did it on The Simpsons. When Get a Life ended, [co-creator] David Mirkin went over to The Simpsons and turned Homer into what you did on Get a Life.
CE: Yeah, well youll get nothing out of David Mirkin from me [laughs]. I wont comment on him [laughs].
Have you ever interviewed him?
DRE: Ive never interviewed him. But I do plan on asking those questions when I speak to him.
CE: Well hell spin it in some way but I wont even go towards him. That has nothing to do with the Simpsons, my experience with David has totally to do with just Get a Life.
DRE: I have interviewed Bob Odenkirk and when I get a chance to speak to anyone who had anything to do with Get a Life, Ill mention it. He said That wasnt such a fun time for me.
CE: Or any of the writers or anybody that had to be in the writing room [laughs].
DRE: Ive definitely read about how the network jerked Get a Life around with money and being all over the schedule.
CE: There was definitely all of that there. There were three creators on the show. There was me, my best friend in the whole world Adam Resnick and then David Mirkin. I have no problem saying that there were personal differences that arose that certainly helped in imploding the show.
DRE: Were you happy with the second season of Get a Life?
CE: No I wasnt happy with the second half of the show or the second season. I mean partly it was because we knew we were canceled. A lot of times I would come to work and I would just go Well no, I dont want to be in a big vat of chili. Why the fuck would I want to do that? Were canceled. Im not going to sit and do that. So inevitably the episode would end and wed rip my head of and kick it down the street. Some people thought that was hilarious and I did too, occasionally, but we did it almost every show. Im very proud of the first season of that show which was a ballbuster of a season because we were doing event shows and that was how I pictured it. Most sitcoms do a bit set piece once every six shows or something. While we were doing one every single week.
It was hard as well. We didnt shoot in front of an audience so we didnt have that kind of schedule that most sitcoms do. It was the first job I ever had in the sitcom world and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. It really wasnt until I was shooting a guest shot on Murphy Brown and was done shooting at like 9 pm that I realized Oh thats how its supposed to be.
DRE: What is Adam Resnick up to?
CE: Adam lives in New York City and writes screenplays.
DRE: I always hear that his screenplays are brilliant and then they are screwed up by people who didnt envision them properly.
CE: Its interesting that you say that because I wish he would direct them. His screenplays are unbelievably brilliant, but then theres always this strange match to them like Nora Ephron [Lucky Numbers]. Why would the studio put this voice with her? She can do a great job but not necessarily with the words that Adam works with. His point of view is somewhat like mine, which is at 45 were just working stiffs in the business.
DRE: I also read about another sitcom you might be in.
CE: Yes so if the Brad Garrett thing happened then there would have to be some shuffling to take place to free me up to do that. But Im told that kind of thing happens in the business.
DRE: Whats the sitcom youre developing?
CE: It is sort of what we were talking about. Its me being myself playing that guy. One of the themes would be this notion that a lot of people think Im actually so I am actually that guy on TV. Im always having to explain that Im not really that guy. So I was thinking of doing a show where the guy is always having to explain that hes not really that guy but he really is.
DRE: [laughs] So youll be the co-creator, writer and actor.
CE: Yeah.
DRE: Does doing something like that excite you?
CE: It excites me a lot. The problem is Ive been in development either with my own project or somebody elses project just about every single year since Get a Life. Its very hard to get anything on the air. I have actually been in other peoples pilots that have gotten in the air and lasted half a season or whatever. So as much as Im excited about this, its a laborious process and one that has no guarantee in the end. So Im perhaps not as excited as I was when I was 23.
DRE: You had some momentum after Get a Life led to the Cabin Boy movie.
CE: Right.
DRE: Was a studio like Lets give him something.?
CE: Tim Burton had actually called me during Get a Life because he had seen an episode of it. I think he had seen the episode when I got stuck in a submarine in the shower. He liked it, he called me to set up a meeting and I brought Adam [Resnick] in. Tim wanted to do kind of a Pee-Wee Herman movie for the 90s. So we came up with Cabin Boy, he liked the idea, we wrote the script, he was going to direct it. Adam wrote the script really. At the last minute Tim decided to do Ed Wood and said Adam should direct it. It was going to be this huge budgeted comedy with Tim directing all these special effects but the budget was slashed to next to nothing. But we never changed the script.
DRE: I still think all the money got spent on the flying cupcake.
CE: [laughs] I think youre right. That probably is the most flawless special effect of the whole movie. We werent really sure what the hell we were doing. But you know what, Adam and I went to a screening of it down in Greenwich Village last month. We didnt want to sit through it, but we went to the Q & A afterwards and there was 200 people that wanted to talk and ask about it. So Im confident that its going to be our generations Wizard of Oz at some point.
DRE: Have you had momentum like that again maybe after Theres Something About Mary?
CE: Yeah, I have a career very similar in tone to my fathers career, which is that Ive always worked. Ive always been lucky enough to make my nut every year. Im always lucky enough to have somebody call and ask me to do this or that. There are times when some of that stuff is pretty high profile like a Tostitos commercial or it could be Theres Something About Mary. Then you get whats called heat on you and suddenly other things come your way. Its hard after so many years in this business to accept that and feel like its real because its not real, its just what you said, momentum off something. These people that call are not really friends. It is just that youre in something that was popular and they want to cash in on it.
DRE: That funny because I just watched like ten minutes of this new Neil Patrick Harris sitcom called How I Met Your Mother last night. He obviously got that right after this movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. In that movie he played himself but as kind of a drugged up female crazed version. Now this sitcom hes playing a ladies man whereas before that movie he would have played a nerd like he always has. Hollywood immediately grabs you and say come do what you did before! Its so funny that you can just watch these shows and see how the business works.
CE: The sitcom business is a dangerous world to go into. Especially for someone like me who has a core following. I dont want anyone to think that Im selling out in any way and compromising what it is that I do. Thats why I like Raymond because it is a fairly straightforward sitcom but Im playing a very bizarre character and it seems to work in their world. There are times when I think where it doesnt and I stand out like a sore thumb. But I think that might be the fun of it, that it does stand out like a sore thumb.
DRE: Heres a dorky Chris Elliott question. On Get a Life Sharon [played by Robin Riker] was the female on that show and she was short with reddish hair. Then you had Melora Walters in Cabin Boy and she was short with red hair. I always wondered if that was a coincidence or not.
CE: I dont think it was on my part. Possibly on the hair persons part, but I dont think I had anything to do with it.
DRE: [laughs] Theres all these movies coming out right now and everyone is saying that its the return of the R-rated comedy. Do you want to do your own movies again?
CE: I have never felt that Im right for the big screen. Cabin Boy was this different thing where it was going to be Adam and me doing our own thing. But in just about every other case with me its been people who think of me and ask me if I want to do something. I really dont pursue features at all. I think Im much better suited for the smaller screen. If I could, I would just love to write funny novels at this point. I have no burning desire to be in front of the camera anymore.
DRE: Oh really?
CE: I luckily fell into Everybody Loves Raymond and I was really happy to do it. But if that spin-off happened or if my sitcom happens, those arent, in my mind, stepping stones to the feature world for me. They would be places I would be happy to go to work at each morning and thats that.
DRE: Do you want to write another novel, not connected to Thwacker, or are you just ready to write the sequel?
CE: Actually Im working on another novel for Miramax Books. Its a survivor story of my climb up Mount Everest.
DRE: Did you read Al Frankens book [Why Not Me?] where he plays himself, sort of, and is elected president?
CE: No, how is that?
DRE: Its really good. It reminded me quite a bit of the stuff that you do. Its basically an insane idiot became president. Hes a Jewish president on top of that.
CE: [laughs] Well I try to be as much as I can.
DRE: [laughs] Well youre in comedy.
CE: Yeah, right. I have to be.
DRE: What TV do you watch?
CE: I know that everybody says this, but I do watch a lot of the stuff thats on cable in terms of The History Channel, A&E and Discovery. Also my wife constantly has HGTV on so I watch a lot of the design on a dime kind of stuff. I cant watch sitcoms because I just know the process too well. I can hear a rewritten line, I can hear a network note and generally I can usually hear the executive producer off to the side laughing. It just feels like work to me. I probably should watch them because Im sure it would make my work better.
DRE: What about the HBO shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm?
CE: Oh thats a great show. I watch HBO and those shows for sure. But Im not huge into the sitcom world or even the drama world on television. I can still get involved in a movie and believe it but its hard for me to get involved in a TV show.
But its impossible to turn on the TV and not see any comedy because theres just so much of it on. My youngest daughter is 15 and is so into comedy. She actually keeps me up to date on whos hot and whats happening and whats really funny. She knows more about it than I do. But she turned me onto Stella which I really like a lot. I think those guys are really, really funny.
DRE: What about more Get a Life on DVD?
CE: Interesting that you bring that up. I wasnt going to. But I think Sonys going to release the first season. A few years ago some DVDs were put out by one of the creators, not Adam and not me. I had absolutely no say over it and wasnt even consulted in the process. So I didnt even do any commentary. For the first season DVD, we did commentary and a little featurette. But its being held up in the legal world by someone.
DRE: Thats too bad.
CE: [laughs] Yeah, isnt that amazing? Wouldnt fans of the show want to hear me talk about the show?
DRE: I didnt realize that so much bad stuff went down around the aspects of Get a Life. Id love to know the whole story, but at the same time, I dont really want to know the whole story.
CE: In this business you always hear that kind of shit and I go How is that possible? How can people become like that in this business? But until you experience it you dont think its real. You dont think people will be that idiotic and then you experience it and you go, Well I guess this business brings that out in people.
DRE: Are you planning on going on Letterman to promote the book?
CE: I go on Dave I think on October 5th. Also Im going to do Conan and a couple of the morning shows. I think as the book opens up and if it does well or gets good reviews or whatever then maybe youll see my face more. I dont want to book a bunch of things, get a lot of bad reviews and have to go out to sell the book.
DRE: Whats it like when you meet hardcore fans like me?
CE: I sounds corny, but it really makes me feel thats why Im in this business. We were doing Get a Life in such a vacuum. I had no idea that people liked that show. In fact one time I remember walking down Santa Monica Boulevard with my wife and daughter and somebody passed us and said, Oh theres that guy from that show I hate. We honestly had no idea that it had an audience until years afterwards so its really nice to hear that I have hardcore fans. I dont shy away from it at all. This is a business where you want as many fans as you possibly can and when I started at Letterman there was this whole sort of anti-performance kind of thing going on there with me and show business was where we got a lot of material to make fun of. So when I left Dave and I went into show business I had to start taking it seriously to a degree.
DRE: I still laugh when I think about that one episode of Get a Life where you were shoving tuna balls into your Cousin Donalds car radio.
CE: [laughs] Oh yeah, Adam Resnick wrote that one. It was the family reunion episode. That was really funny. Jackie Earle Haley was Cousin Donald in that.
DRE: I got all this bootleg material of you from this guy in Florida. He has like 14 hours of you on Letterman.
CE: Oh my God youre kidding!
DRE: He even cut together all your appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Naked Truth
CE: Jesus Christ! Well now that is a little scary.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
His latest work is the novel The Shroud of the Thwacker. As usual hes created a unique and hysterical mix of real life and fantasy. Its narrated by the insane Chris Elliott, the character hes cultivated over the years, and its a satire of works by Patricia Cornwell and Caleb Carrs The Alienist. Jack the Jolly Thwacker is leaving dead bodies all over 1882 New York City. The mayor of the city is drunken Teddy Roosevelt and he teams up with police chief, Caleb Spencer, to catch the serial killer.
Buy The Shroud of the Thwacker
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its a pleasure to speak to you. Ive been a fan for a long time.
Chris Elliott: Thats really nice to hear. It means a lot to me.
DRE: Its funny, because when I was a TV producer, I remember you did a press day for Snow Day at the Chelsea Piers ice rink.
CE: Oh yeah [laughs] were you there?
DRE: I stopped by there just because I was producing some talent. Then when I handed you a copy of Daddys Boy you went Oh, one of those.
CE: [laughs] Well I think there were only like 20 of them printed. So I was probably talking about the actual book. Its funny because Ive written this new book and people ask me Is this your first book? and I say Yes.
DRE: [laughs] The Shroud of the Thwacker is really laugh out loud funny.
CE: Oh thanks. I think it looks cool too. Im actually just looking at it now. I love the end pages. My sister [Amy Elliott Andersen] did all the illustrations.
DRE: On the book jacket they mention Patricia Cornwell and Caleb Carr. Have you read their books?
CE: Yeah, I did and I actually liked them. Ive gotten over my hatred of reading. I guess you would probably imagine Im a big Jack the Ripper fan so I actually really like Patricia Cornwells books and I loved The Alienist. I dont think you can parody something without really liking the stuff youre parodying. Ive always secretly liked the stuff that I make fun of.
DRE:: Since you grew up in Manhattan I would say this book is kind of a love letter to the city.
CE: Ive lived in Connecticut for ten years and essentially it was because we couldnt really afford to live in the city anymore. But Ive always had one foot back in the city and every year around this time we look at apartments. In fact my wifes in there now looking for us right now. So it was in a way, it is a love letter because I would come into my office here in Connecticut and write, but I felt like I was in New York all day. So even though it was a screwed up New York and my own weird vision of New York in 1882, I loved being in that world.
DRE: The book really keeps in tune with the other stuff youve done over the years.
CE: Yeah, its pretty much an offshoot or a natural progression from what Ive done. I was hesitant to put me as a character in the book, because I thought that it looked egocentric. But at the same time, thats part of my persona. Its me getting my face out there and being in stuff. The challenge was that I wanted to write a book that would stand on its own without me being in it, but at the same time I wanted to put myself into it and satisfy that need.
DRE: Did you feel like you were creating a new aspect of the Chris Elliott character?
CE: I think hes pretty much in everything I do. It probably started in high school before I even went to Letterman. But Dave was the one who recognized this weird side of me and put it on TV. Ever since then, it doesnt matter what you call me in anything. I could be Fred or George or whatever, to me its still that Chris Elliott persona. Other people are better at sort of defining it but I know that I like playing guys that go from hot to cold really quickly and change attitudes but youre not sure if thats because hes mentally unstable or brilliant or whatever.
DRE: Did you do research for the Thwacker?
CE: I did do a bit of research because I wanted people that knew some history about New York City to be able pick out some things and go Oh yeah, thats actually true. Then Id turn something thats true sort of on its head or add something silly to it. I thought that for the people that enjoyed those books like The Alienist, half of it is feeling like youre back in New York City in the Age of Innocence. When Caleb Carr describes dinners at Delmonico's you really feel like he knows what hes talking about. I wanted people to have some feeling that there was some reality backbone to the whole thing. But in general its all completely made up or grossly inaccurate.
DRE: Did you ever laugh out loud when writing some of this stuff?
CE: To be honest, this was a different process for me and I didnt realize it was funny until people started reading it and laughing. I know that sounds strange but its true. My wife and I have completely different senses of humor but I would give her chapters and she would laugh. Honestly I dont think my wife would be a fan of mine if we werent married. I didnt ask her specifically what she was laughing at, but I knew, Ok theres something in that for her. Then I would give it to my friend Adam Resnick and he would laugh at stuff and he has a different sense of humor than my wife. So I knew there was stuff for different people in there so I must be hitting some things on the mark. Im actually pretty happy with it. It was the first time, since Letterman, that Ive been able to just write and let stuff come out without having a network sitting on my shoulder or having to make a character more heroic for a test audience. So Im pretty happy with it.
DRE: How long did it take you to write the book?
CE: The book actually took about six months to write but I thought I could do it in like three.
DRE: Six months is pretty short amount of time to write a 400 page book.
CE: I thought it was going to be goofier than it ended up being. It is still completely goofy but the story started to take on more of a life than I thought it would. As I was writing it I started realizing that the fun of those books is that the stories are always pretty complicated and take lots of twists and turns. I had never written a novel before except Daddys Boy. But with Daddys Boy, there wasnt really a story there, it was just chapters in my life.
DRE: [laughs] At least I think it was.
CE: Right, but people told me just sit down and start writing and dont worry about figuring out exactly where everything is going to go. I did that and it actually worked that way. I would sit down in the morning and start writing and I something would occur to me and it would take the plot in a totally different direction. Then I would realize Oh I can tie that up later and Ill go back and plant something that makes sense. So thats what took more time than I thought it would. But again it wasnt brutal. Writers always talk about how horrible the process is but for me it was just so much fun.
DRE: Do you see doing anything else with Thwacker?
CE: I want to see if the response is good and then Id like to write another one. Its set up for a sequel. But comedy books in general, from what Ive seen, are difficult to be big successes. But the one thing this has going for it, is that you dont have to have read the other books we spoke of to find it funny.
DRE: I havent read any Patricia Cornwell or The Alienist but my wife reads Patricia Cornwell like its going out of style.
CE: Right, but if you havent read them you got the jokes and you thought they were funny. You know what those books are even if you havent read them. Its like how my daughters love Young Frankenstein.
DRE: How old are your kids?
CE: 18 and 15. Theyre really smart but I dont think theyve ever seen a Boris Karloff Frankenstein movie. They still love Young Frankenstein because they just get the jokes and they get the storyline and they get the look of it. They dont get the specific references, but they get the humor.
DRE: As far as I could tell for the last couple of years youve only done Everybody Loves Raymond, is that because you were working on the book?
CE: It took six months to write and during that time I worked on Raymond. I actually had a television show in development from was an idea of mine but I wasnt writing the script. Two other guys were writing the script. Im fairly lucky because when people call me to do a sitcom or something, its really only a few days. I can fly out to LA and Ill take my laptop with me so I could work on the book. The schedule for doing sitcoms is really great for the actors, especially secondary actors who only have one or two scenes in an episode. So you really have a lot of time.
DRE: Are they planning on spinning Brad Garrett, Monica Horan and you into your own series?
CE: Theres some talk about that. I guess theyre getting close on negotiations. So well see.
DRE: Would you want to do that?
CE: I would do that in a second. I love Brad Garrett, Georgia Engel, Fred Willard is a hero and Monica Horan is great. But Ive never really been on a successful sitcom as a regular so Ive never really experienced what thats like. Therefore there is a part of me that would be excited if it was a success.
DRE: Did you develop that character at all?
CE: No, Im friends with Phil Rosenthal who created the show. Originally Paul Reubens had actually done the character. Then there was some ugliness happening in Pauls life that interfered with him doing it again so they called me.
DRE: I actually went to the taping of the cast of Everybody Loves Raymond and Phil Rosenthal on In The Actors Studio. Phil Rosenthal was the funniest one there.
CE: Yeah hes really funny. When you hear Phil talking you can hear that show just kind of spewing out of his mouth. Him and Ray would just bring in what happened over the weekend and put it through their mill and it would just come out on the show. But Phil is the top guy who can do this kind of stuff in this business.
DRE: You kind of touched on the persona youve created that character where youre not sure if hes insane. I think hes insane, I mean he keep raisins in his pockets so they get squishy. Over the years other people, including your father have touched on that kind of thing. It has now become almost standard in TV and movies. To the point where I think people dont even realize theyre doing what you did.
CE: [laughs] Yeah, I guess you could call me the Little Richard of comedy. But I dont think thats true. I think there was a trend that I was part of so I dont think that I developed it. Its nice to hear you say that but when Get a Life started it wasnt long after that Dumb and Dumber came out and there was a trend towards that kind of character.
DRE: Well they definitely did it on The Simpsons. When Get a Life ended, [co-creator] David Mirkin went over to The Simpsons and turned Homer into what you did on Get a Life.
CE: Yeah, well youll get nothing out of David Mirkin from me [laughs]. I wont comment on him [laughs].
Have you ever interviewed him?
DRE: Ive never interviewed him. But I do plan on asking those questions when I speak to him.
CE: Well hell spin it in some way but I wont even go towards him. That has nothing to do with the Simpsons, my experience with David has totally to do with just Get a Life.
DRE: I have interviewed Bob Odenkirk and when I get a chance to speak to anyone who had anything to do with Get a Life, Ill mention it. He said That wasnt such a fun time for me.
CE: Or any of the writers or anybody that had to be in the writing room [laughs].
DRE: Ive definitely read about how the network jerked Get a Life around with money and being all over the schedule.
CE: There was definitely all of that there. There were three creators on the show. There was me, my best friend in the whole world Adam Resnick and then David Mirkin. I have no problem saying that there were personal differences that arose that certainly helped in imploding the show.
DRE: Were you happy with the second season of Get a Life?
CE: No I wasnt happy with the second half of the show or the second season. I mean partly it was because we knew we were canceled. A lot of times I would come to work and I would just go Well no, I dont want to be in a big vat of chili. Why the fuck would I want to do that? Were canceled. Im not going to sit and do that. So inevitably the episode would end and wed rip my head of and kick it down the street. Some people thought that was hilarious and I did too, occasionally, but we did it almost every show. Im very proud of the first season of that show which was a ballbuster of a season because we were doing event shows and that was how I pictured it. Most sitcoms do a bit set piece once every six shows or something. While we were doing one every single week.
It was hard as well. We didnt shoot in front of an audience so we didnt have that kind of schedule that most sitcoms do. It was the first job I ever had in the sitcom world and I thought that was the way it was supposed to be. It really wasnt until I was shooting a guest shot on Murphy Brown and was done shooting at like 9 pm that I realized Oh thats how its supposed to be.
DRE: What is Adam Resnick up to?
CE: Adam lives in New York City and writes screenplays.
DRE: I always hear that his screenplays are brilliant and then they are screwed up by people who didnt envision them properly.
CE: Its interesting that you say that because I wish he would direct them. His screenplays are unbelievably brilliant, but then theres always this strange match to them like Nora Ephron [Lucky Numbers]. Why would the studio put this voice with her? She can do a great job but not necessarily with the words that Adam works with. His point of view is somewhat like mine, which is at 45 were just working stiffs in the business.
DRE: I also read about another sitcom you might be in.
CE: Yes so if the Brad Garrett thing happened then there would have to be some shuffling to take place to free me up to do that. But Im told that kind of thing happens in the business.
DRE: Whats the sitcom youre developing?
CE: It is sort of what we were talking about. Its me being myself playing that guy. One of the themes would be this notion that a lot of people think Im actually so I am actually that guy on TV. Im always having to explain that Im not really that guy. So I was thinking of doing a show where the guy is always having to explain that hes not really that guy but he really is.
DRE: [laughs] So youll be the co-creator, writer and actor.
CE: Yeah.
DRE: Does doing something like that excite you?
CE: It excites me a lot. The problem is Ive been in development either with my own project or somebody elses project just about every single year since Get a Life. Its very hard to get anything on the air. I have actually been in other peoples pilots that have gotten in the air and lasted half a season or whatever. So as much as Im excited about this, its a laborious process and one that has no guarantee in the end. So Im perhaps not as excited as I was when I was 23.
DRE: You had some momentum after Get a Life led to the Cabin Boy movie.
CE: Right.
DRE: Was a studio like Lets give him something.?
CE: Tim Burton had actually called me during Get a Life because he had seen an episode of it. I think he had seen the episode when I got stuck in a submarine in the shower. He liked it, he called me to set up a meeting and I brought Adam [Resnick] in. Tim wanted to do kind of a Pee-Wee Herman movie for the 90s. So we came up with Cabin Boy, he liked the idea, we wrote the script, he was going to direct it. Adam wrote the script really. At the last minute Tim decided to do Ed Wood and said Adam should direct it. It was going to be this huge budgeted comedy with Tim directing all these special effects but the budget was slashed to next to nothing. But we never changed the script.
DRE: I still think all the money got spent on the flying cupcake.
CE: [laughs] I think youre right. That probably is the most flawless special effect of the whole movie. We werent really sure what the hell we were doing. But you know what, Adam and I went to a screening of it down in Greenwich Village last month. We didnt want to sit through it, but we went to the Q & A afterwards and there was 200 people that wanted to talk and ask about it. So Im confident that its going to be our generations Wizard of Oz at some point.
DRE: Have you had momentum like that again maybe after Theres Something About Mary?
CE: Yeah, I have a career very similar in tone to my fathers career, which is that Ive always worked. Ive always been lucky enough to make my nut every year. Im always lucky enough to have somebody call and ask me to do this or that. There are times when some of that stuff is pretty high profile like a Tostitos commercial or it could be Theres Something About Mary. Then you get whats called heat on you and suddenly other things come your way. Its hard after so many years in this business to accept that and feel like its real because its not real, its just what you said, momentum off something. These people that call are not really friends. It is just that youre in something that was popular and they want to cash in on it.
DRE: That funny because I just watched like ten minutes of this new Neil Patrick Harris sitcom called How I Met Your Mother last night. He obviously got that right after this movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. In that movie he played himself but as kind of a drugged up female crazed version. Now this sitcom hes playing a ladies man whereas before that movie he would have played a nerd like he always has. Hollywood immediately grabs you and say come do what you did before! Its so funny that you can just watch these shows and see how the business works.
CE: The sitcom business is a dangerous world to go into. Especially for someone like me who has a core following. I dont want anyone to think that Im selling out in any way and compromising what it is that I do. Thats why I like Raymond because it is a fairly straightforward sitcom but Im playing a very bizarre character and it seems to work in their world. There are times when I think where it doesnt and I stand out like a sore thumb. But I think that might be the fun of it, that it does stand out like a sore thumb.
DRE: Heres a dorky Chris Elliott question. On Get a Life Sharon [played by Robin Riker] was the female on that show and she was short with reddish hair. Then you had Melora Walters in Cabin Boy and she was short with red hair. I always wondered if that was a coincidence or not.
CE: I dont think it was on my part. Possibly on the hair persons part, but I dont think I had anything to do with it.
DRE: [laughs] Theres all these movies coming out right now and everyone is saying that its the return of the R-rated comedy. Do you want to do your own movies again?
CE: I have never felt that Im right for the big screen. Cabin Boy was this different thing where it was going to be Adam and me doing our own thing. But in just about every other case with me its been people who think of me and ask me if I want to do something. I really dont pursue features at all. I think Im much better suited for the smaller screen. If I could, I would just love to write funny novels at this point. I have no burning desire to be in front of the camera anymore.
DRE: Oh really?
CE: I luckily fell into Everybody Loves Raymond and I was really happy to do it. But if that spin-off happened or if my sitcom happens, those arent, in my mind, stepping stones to the feature world for me. They would be places I would be happy to go to work at each morning and thats that.
DRE: Do you want to write another novel, not connected to Thwacker, or are you just ready to write the sequel?
CE: Actually Im working on another novel for Miramax Books. Its a survivor story of my climb up Mount Everest.
DRE: Did you read Al Frankens book [Why Not Me?] where he plays himself, sort of, and is elected president?
CE: No, how is that?
DRE: Its really good. It reminded me quite a bit of the stuff that you do. Its basically an insane idiot became president. Hes a Jewish president on top of that.
CE: [laughs] Well I try to be as much as I can.
DRE: [laughs] Well youre in comedy.
CE: Yeah, right. I have to be.
DRE: What TV do you watch?
CE: I know that everybody says this, but I do watch a lot of the stuff thats on cable in terms of The History Channel, A&E and Discovery. Also my wife constantly has HGTV on so I watch a lot of the design on a dime kind of stuff. I cant watch sitcoms because I just know the process too well. I can hear a rewritten line, I can hear a network note and generally I can usually hear the executive producer off to the side laughing. It just feels like work to me. I probably should watch them because Im sure it would make my work better.
DRE: What about the HBO shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm?
CE: Oh thats a great show. I watch HBO and those shows for sure. But Im not huge into the sitcom world or even the drama world on television. I can still get involved in a movie and believe it but its hard for me to get involved in a TV show.
But its impossible to turn on the TV and not see any comedy because theres just so much of it on. My youngest daughter is 15 and is so into comedy. She actually keeps me up to date on whos hot and whats happening and whats really funny. She knows more about it than I do. But she turned me onto Stella which I really like a lot. I think those guys are really, really funny.
DRE: What about more Get a Life on DVD?
CE: Interesting that you bring that up. I wasnt going to. But I think Sonys going to release the first season. A few years ago some DVDs were put out by one of the creators, not Adam and not me. I had absolutely no say over it and wasnt even consulted in the process. So I didnt even do any commentary. For the first season DVD, we did commentary and a little featurette. But its being held up in the legal world by someone.
DRE: Thats too bad.
CE: [laughs] Yeah, isnt that amazing? Wouldnt fans of the show want to hear me talk about the show?
DRE: I didnt realize that so much bad stuff went down around the aspects of Get a Life. Id love to know the whole story, but at the same time, I dont really want to know the whole story.
CE: In this business you always hear that kind of shit and I go How is that possible? How can people become like that in this business? But until you experience it you dont think its real. You dont think people will be that idiotic and then you experience it and you go, Well I guess this business brings that out in people.
DRE: Are you planning on going on Letterman to promote the book?
CE: I go on Dave I think on October 5th. Also Im going to do Conan and a couple of the morning shows. I think as the book opens up and if it does well or gets good reviews or whatever then maybe youll see my face more. I dont want to book a bunch of things, get a lot of bad reviews and have to go out to sell the book.
DRE: Whats it like when you meet hardcore fans like me?
CE: I sounds corny, but it really makes me feel thats why Im in this business. We were doing Get a Life in such a vacuum. I had no idea that people liked that show. In fact one time I remember walking down Santa Monica Boulevard with my wife and daughter and somebody passed us and said, Oh theres that guy from that show I hate. We honestly had no idea that it had an audience until years afterwards so its really nice to hear that I have hardcore fans. I dont shy away from it at all. This is a business where you want as many fans as you possibly can and when I started at Letterman there was this whole sort of anti-performance kind of thing going on there with me and show business was where we got a lot of material to make fun of. So when I left Dave and I went into show business I had to start taking it seriously to a degree.
DRE: I still laugh when I think about that one episode of Get a Life where you were shoving tuna balls into your Cousin Donalds car radio.
CE: [laughs] Oh yeah, Adam Resnick wrote that one. It was the family reunion episode. That was really funny. Jackie Earle Haley was Cousin Donald in that.
DRE: I got all this bootleg material of you from this guy in Florida. He has like 14 hours of you on Letterman.
CE: Oh my God youre kidding!
DRE: He even cut together all your appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Naked Truth
CE: Jesus Christ! Well now that is a little scary.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 18 of 18 COMMENTS
Thanks for the interview.
Great to know Chris loves Stella too!
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yep"
"If alien was that great hot, imagine what it's like cold!"
God, I loved Get A Life....but that show sure did drive my mom nuts. She HATES Chris Elliot.