In the spirit of comedians like Bill Cosby, Jim Gaffigan is black. Well thats not true. Hes actually the opposite of Bill Cosby in that hes very white. I actually looked at a color wheel and they are directly opposite of one another. Thats why Gaffigan has named his new CD and DVD Beyond the Pale. Go into the mind and soul of an obviously hungry man as he gives the what for to cake, cookies and other foodstuffs.
Buy the Beyond the Pale CD and DVD
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Jim, what are you doing in Florida?
Jim Gaffigan: Im doing a corporate event.
DRE: Oh cool.
JG: Yeah, its a sweet gig.
DRE: Is that the kind of thing where they provide you with employees faults and then you make fun of them?
JG: I dont really do that kind of thing. Im not really the guy who makes fun of peoples shirts or whether someones boss is drunk at a Christmas party. I talk about more inane things like cake and food.
DRE: I listened to the album, watched the special and you do talk a lot about food.
JG: We all got to eat it, you know? You talk to different comics and its like you never know where youre going to go with topics and stuff like that but I feel that over the past two years I really ended up concentrating on it. Five minutes on cake is kind of surreal but it is fun too. On my other album I had this stuff all about Mexican food and then I had a joke all about bottled water. Food and sex are universal.
DRE: Have you done food corporation events?
JG: Yeah, Ive done some food corporations and they love it. I did an event for Viacom and the Food Network guys were there and they asked me Did you write that joke just for us? I didnt.
You also want to be fresh and Im not really a social satirist or at least not an obvious one. So you want to find topics that havent really been beaten to death. I felt that Hot Pockets havent really been talked about and I dont know many people who had jokes about cakes.
DRE: Do the food jokes just come to you when youre eating?
JG: If I could figure that out Id have eight more albums. I write a lot with my wife and well go on the topic. The Hot Pocket thing started from how ridiculous I thought those commercials were. Its obviously a calzone or a Jamaican meat product but theyre selling it like its their own food and I just thought that was hysterical. But I really didnt know that Hot Pockets were something that every single guy eats. The Hot Pockets thing writes itself because they keep coming out with new products like the Sub Pocket and the Breakfast Pocket. Theyre not any different from when youve had White Castle at three in the morning. You know its a bad idea but it tastes good for that two seconds.
DRE: Then it turns into a nightmare.
Your wife was also the producer on the album. You literally work with her on the writing?
JG: Yeah, totally. The gift of stand up is the immediacy. You write something, you get to go on stage and try it. Since it is also a verbal thing you can bounce ideas off of people. Ever since I started dating my wife weve always had this connection when discussing topics and it really works well together. Shes somebody that understands my point of view and where an idea can go.
DRE: Could she do stand up herself or it is not her thing?
JG: She did before I met. She is mostly a sketch performer but shes also an actor. She could probably do standup but its weird because now I feel like her comedic voice has been co-opted by mine. This lazy indulgent sloth of a character has influenced her point of view.
DRE: What made you pick The Old Vic Theatre in Chicago for the special?
JG: I really wanted to do the special there because I always found it odd that they always did specials on the east coast or the west coast. Like Comedy Central had this view of the mid-west of Do they have cameras there? We dont know if they have cameras. I grew up in Indiana and I remember thinking I got to get out of here, I dont fit in here. But now Ive lived in New York for 15 years and realized that I am a mid-westerner. Also The Old Vic has a lot of the charm of one of those old time theatres but the functionality of a big theatre.
DRE: How long were you on the road with the new material before you recorded the album?
JG: I would say its a culmination of two years. My last special was done in 2000 so when Comedy Central approached me to do another special I had a lot of material. Thats why the DVD has a half hour more of material than in the special that aired on TV.
DRE: The album cover is just scary.
JG: I think its perfect because SuicideGirls is like a Goth thing, right?
DRE: Yeah.
JG: Growing up really pale I looked at the Goth community like Hey, youre like me. Like I was born Goth. Weve done this thing on Conan OBrien called Pale Force which is animated by a friend of mine named Paul Nodes. We just did another one that introduced the Council of Pale. One of the people on Council of Pale is a Goth girl. When we were writing it I had to convince everyone that a Goth girl had to be on the Council of Pale.
Did I answer the question?
DRE: It wasnt even much of a question; it was more like me saying that the album cover is terrifying. How did it come about?
JG: Now Im going to sound like a dick, but I was working on a movie and I was talking to the still photographer and because I came up with the name of the album I wanted to do a picture where I was white on white. She said she knew exactly how to do it. In between takes she would come over and take these shots. I love the way people react to it. The cover for the CD was also going to be the cover of the DVD. But the DVD distributor said that some of their buyers didnt think me just staring out was funny. Im like What do you mean they dont think its funny? Am I supposed to be juggling? If people dont know who I am anyway theyre not going to buy it. Almost as a joke we submitted the one where Im eating a bowl of cereal and they thought that was funny.
DRE: You look very coy on the DVD cover.
JG: Im eating but Im sexy.
DRE: I think its cool that you do clean material.
JG: Thank you, the irony is that sometimes people might as well be saying Im a Republican. It is not that I aspire to be clean. Any comic would tell you that a joke is going to do better if you say the word fuck. If you say fuck those Hot Pockets fucking are weird its going to get a laugh. But if you just say Hot Pockets are weird, youre not going to get a laugh. I found this one review on the internet where it said its a great album but unfortunately theres not enough cursing. Like thats the reason people would be buying an album.
DRE: People say a lot of dumb shit.
JG: The whole cursing thing is pretty amazing because you throw and F-bomb and itll help the joke. It panders to the audience.
DRE: But when you started out, was it in your mind to be clean?
JG: Not really. When I started I didnt even realize that itd have any effect. I mean I wasnt conscious of it I dont think. Does that make sense?
DRE: Oh totally. To me funny is funny and sometimes people curse and its funny and sometimes people curse and its not funny.
JG: Some of my favorite comics arent cursing the entire time and some do curse a lot.
DRE: You said that you were working on an independent film when you shot the album cover. What film was that?
JG: Its called Stephanie Daley. It was at Sundance so I was out there for a couple days and everyone thought I was Philip [Seymour] Hoffman so it was fun. I did a film thats coming out in May called The Great New Wonderful.
DRE: Cool, thats Danny Leiner directing, right?
JG: Yeah. You interviewed Danny?
DRE: Yeah, for Harold and Kumar. What do you play in it?
JG: I play Sandy, the guy that Tony Shalhoub fucks with.
DRE: Are you writing a movie for yourself?
JG: Im like anyone else in the entertainment industry, I also have a screenplay. But a movie takes a lot of work.
DRE: Whats your screenplay about?
JG: Its a really simple idea so I dont want to bring it up, not that you would write it but I dont want some other pervert thats looking at SuicideGirls to steal it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy the Beyond the Pale CD and DVD
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey Jim, what are you doing in Florida?
Jim Gaffigan: Im doing a corporate event.
DRE: Oh cool.
JG: Yeah, its a sweet gig.
DRE: Is that the kind of thing where they provide you with employees faults and then you make fun of them?
JG: I dont really do that kind of thing. Im not really the guy who makes fun of peoples shirts or whether someones boss is drunk at a Christmas party. I talk about more inane things like cake and food.
DRE: I listened to the album, watched the special and you do talk a lot about food.
JG: We all got to eat it, you know? You talk to different comics and its like you never know where youre going to go with topics and stuff like that but I feel that over the past two years I really ended up concentrating on it. Five minutes on cake is kind of surreal but it is fun too. On my other album I had this stuff all about Mexican food and then I had a joke all about bottled water. Food and sex are universal.
DRE: Have you done food corporation events?
JG: Yeah, Ive done some food corporations and they love it. I did an event for Viacom and the Food Network guys were there and they asked me Did you write that joke just for us? I didnt.
You also want to be fresh and Im not really a social satirist or at least not an obvious one. So you want to find topics that havent really been beaten to death. I felt that Hot Pockets havent really been talked about and I dont know many people who had jokes about cakes.
DRE: Do the food jokes just come to you when youre eating?
JG: If I could figure that out Id have eight more albums. I write a lot with my wife and well go on the topic. The Hot Pocket thing started from how ridiculous I thought those commercials were. Its obviously a calzone or a Jamaican meat product but theyre selling it like its their own food and I just thought that was hysterical. But I really didnt know that Hot Pockets were something that every single guy eats. The Hot Pockets thing writes itself because they keep coming out with new products like the Sub Pocket and the Breakfast Pocket. Theyre not any different from when youve had White Castle at three in the morning. You know its a bad idea but it tastes good for that two seconds.
DRE: Then it turns into a nightmare.
Your wife was also the producer on the album. You literally work with her on the writing?
JG: Yeah, totally. The gift of stand up is the immediacy. You write something, you get to go on stage and try it. Since it is also a verbal thing you can bounce ideas off of people. Ever since I started dating my wife weve always had this connection when discussing topics and it really works well together. Shes somebody that understands my point of view and where an idea can go.
DRE: Could she do stand up herself or it is not her thing?
JG: She did before I met. She is mostly a sketch performer but shes also an actor. She could probably do standup but its weird because now I feel like her comedic voice has been co-opted by mine. This lazy indulgent sloth of a character has influenced her point of view.
DRE: What made you pick The Old Vic Theatre in Chicago for the special?
JG: I really wanted to do the special there because I always found it odd that they always did specials on the east coast or the west coast. Like Comedy Central had this view of the mid-west of Do they have cameras there? We dont know if they have cameras. I grew up in Indiana and I remember thinking I got to get out of here, I dont fit in here. But now Ive lived in New York for 15 years and realized that I am a mid-westerner. Also The Old Vic has a lot of the charm of one of those old time theatres but the functionality of a big theatre.
DRE: How long were you on the road with the new material before you recorded the album?
JG: I would say its a culmination of two years. My last special was done in 2000 so when Comedy Central approached me to do another special I had a lot of material. Thats why the DVD has a half hour more of material than in the special that aired on TV.
DRE: The album cover is just scary.
JG: I think its perfect because SuicideGirls is like a Goth thing, right?
DRE: Yeah.
JG: Growing up really pale I looked at the Goth community like Hey, youre like me. Like I was born Goth. Weve done this thing on Conan OBrien called Pale Force which is animated by a friend of mine named Paul Nodes. We just did another one that introduced the Council of Pale. One of the people on Council of Pale is a Goth girl. When we were writing it I had to convince everyone that a Goth girl had to be on the Council of Pale.
Did I answer the question?
DRE: It wasnt even much of a question; it was more like me saying that the album cover is terrifying. How did it come about?
JG: Now Im going to sound like a dick, but I was working on a movie and I was talking to the still photographer and because I came up with the name of the album I wanted to do a picture where I was white on white. She said she knew exactly how to do it. In between takes she would come over and take these shots. I love the way people react to it. The cover for the CD was also going to be the cover of the DVD. But the DVD distributor said that some of their buyers didnt think me just staring out was funny. Im like What do you mean they dont think its funny? Am I supposed to be juggling? If people dont know who I am anyway theyre not going to buy it. Almost as a joke we submitted the one where Im eating a bowl of cereal and they thought that was funny.
DRE: You look very coy on the DVD cover.
JG: Im eating but Im sexy.
DRE: I think its cool that you do clean material.
JG: Thank you, the irony is that sometimes people might as well be saying Im a Republican. It is not that I aspire to be clean. Any comic would tell you that a joke is going to do better if you say the word fuck. If you say fuck those Hot Pockets fucking are weird its going to get a laugh. But if you just say Hot Pockets are weird, youre not going to get a laugh. I found this one review on the internet where it said its a great album but unfortunately theres not enough cursing. Like thats the reason people would be buying an album.
DRE: People say a lot of dumb shit.
JG: The whole cursing thing is pretty amazing because you throw and F-bomb and itll help the joke. It panders to the audience.
DRE: But when you started out, was it in your mind to be clean?
JG: Not really. When I started I didnt even realize that itd have any effect. I mean I wasnt conscious of it I dont think. Does that make sense?
DRE: Oh totally. To me funny is funny and sometimes people curse and its funny and sometimes people curse and its not funny.
JG: Some of my favorite comics arent cursing the entire time and some do curse a lot.
DRE: You said that you were working on an independent film when you shot the album cover. What film was that?
JG: Its called Stephanie Daley. It was at Sundance so I was out there for a couple days and everyone thought I was Philip [Seymour] Hoffman so it was fun. I did a film thats coming out in May called The Great New Wonderful.
DRE: Cool, thats Danny Leiner directing, right?
JG: Yeah. You interviewed Danny?
DRE: Yeah, for Harold and Kumar. What do you play in it?
JG: I play Sandy, the guy that Tony Shalhoub fucks with.
DRE: Are you writing a movie for yourself?
JG: Im like anyone else in the entertainment industry, I also have a screenplay. But a movie takes a lot of work.
DRE: Whats your screenplay about?
JG: Its a really simple idea so I dont want to bring it up, not that you would write it but I dont want some other pervert thats looking at SuicideGirls to steal it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
melx:
Great interview, I love his comedy. So funny.
theatombomb:
Just watched Mr. Universe. Dude is hilarious!