CHRIS HARDWICK ON STANDUP AND COMEDY: YA JUST HAVE TO GET UP AND DO IT

BY CLARA SEELY-KATZ

CHRIS HARDWICK is a stand-up comic, writer, television and podcast host, and producer. He currently hosts "The Talking Dead" for AMC, an aftershow for "The Walking Dead" where he dissects the plotlines and interviews the people who work on it. He also hosts "The Wall," a trivia and wall-based game show on NBC, which is in its 4th season (what is "wall-based," you might ask? Well, I guess you'll have to watch it to find out). He also has a wildly successful podcast called ID10T. It has a mantra of "we're doing what we do now because we like it and it's fun" and focuses on interviewing incredibly talented and influential creatives like Karl Urban, Matthew McConaughey, Kathryn Hahn, and so many more.

Beyond his accomplishments (which, at times, seem endless), what makes Hardwick incredibly compelling as a creative is his down-to-earth nature and compassionate worldview. He believes you are worth more than your work, perfection is boring, and if you want to do comedy, then get up there and do it! His passion for comedy, coupled with his evident wisdom gained from (at his own admittance) countless trial and error, makes him not only a well-rounded and sharp comedian but also a quick-witted writer and creative producer.

Read on to hear about how Hardwick got into comedy, his valid obsession with the comedic genius Steve Martin, and all about the various creative avenues he has been down.

I read that you went to three different high schools, so you must have moved around a lot as a kid. What is your childhood, if anything specific, influenced you to become a comedian?

Yes! My father was a professional bowler, so we moved around a lot because that required quite a bit of travel. He opened a bowling center in Memphis, TN, in 1981 (which still exists), and we settled there. My folks split up a couple of years later, and my mom remarried in ‘85, which took us to Denver my freshman year of high school. In 1988, my stepdad got a job opportunity in LA, so we came out here for my senior year, and I ended up going to UCLA. Been here ever since!

My parents were really cool. When SNL first started, I was very young, but they noticed that I was enamored by it whenever it was on. They saw that I loved comedy, so they began stoking that fire immediately. When Steve Martin started making appearances, they bought me his comedy albums which I automatically memorized. When they had friends over, I would perform his bits for them (I think I was like 8), which was fun because it was the only time I was allowed to swear. Steve’s albums were a gateway to a ton of others: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, Gilda Radner, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy. From the late 70s until ‘92, there was a massive stand-up comedy boom which coincided with my formative teenage years. EVERY channel had stand-up comedy shows on, and I absorbed all of it. So, this is a long way of saying that I’ve known I wanted to do comedy since I was four.

Can you tell me how growing up Roman Catholic has affected your outlook on the world/your career and whether you are still a religious person?

 I’m not a particularly religious person, but I went to a Catholic high school, and I enjoyed it. I was someone who really liked school and appreciated the academic curriculum, which allowed me to take credits into college through AP classes. Honestly, though, my favorite takeaway from Catholic school was that I got to study Latin for four years. It might sound silly, but Latin gives you an amazing foundation that makes learning other languages (in my case, Italian) quite a bit easier!

As a young creative in LA, what were the biggest challenges you faced as you started out? If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?

People often talk about how hard the business is—and it is—but I think one of the most challenging things performers face is what's going on in between their ears. That nagging voice that tells you you're not good enough, you suck, everyone else is at some party that you are not invited to, etc. I guess I would try to impart to my younger self that your career is something you do, not who you are. In other words, your success or lack thereof should not determine your value as a person. You don’t have to crush yourself to make other people like you just so you feel some phantom approval which never lasts anyway. Work because you love it, and it's fun, not because you need external validation to exist. You don't. YOU ARE ENOUGH!!

Do you think studying philosophy at UCLA has given you a better perspective on life and the “unanswerable” questions?

Ha! Not really, no. I think it just highlights how infinitely unanswerable everything is. I majored in Philosophy because Steve Martin did. He talks about it on one of his albums. His idea is that philosophy screws up your thinking just enough for comedy, and he's right. It teaches you to deconstruct things and look at them from multiple angles. I always felt like the studying of Philosophy cannibalizes itself, though. I think I (half-jokingly) said to a professor once, "If nothing has any tangible value, then how can you give me a "C" on this paper? Wouldn't the very notion of assigning a value to a value-less essay create a logical paradox?" His feeling was that such a paradigm was reflected in how little effort I put into the paper, the fact it was a day late, and if I really believed that, then the "C" shouldn't matter. Q.E.D.

From stand-up to hosting, you really have done it all. What is your favorite kind of project to work on?

Stand-up is always my favorite thing. There’s just nothing like being in the moment with a live audience and making people laugh. I’m beyond fortunate and grateful because every job I’ve had satisfies a different thing that I enjoy doing. I’d have to say, though, that a show I did for Comedy Central called @midnight was as close to my soul as a show could be: a pretend game show making dumb jokes and puns about ridiculous internet things with my hilarious comedian friends. We were fortunate enough to do 600 episodes of that show, and it will always be my favorite.

During your career, you have voiced a myriad of different eclectic characters. What are the hardest aspects of trying to bring a character to life just with your voice?

In general, that last part of the question nails it! The “just your voice” part. You aren’t really aware of how much you rely on facial expressions or body language to convey meaning until you can’t use any of that. More specifically, my challenge was that in eighteen years of voiceover acting, I have only voiced ONE character who wasn't loud. Every other character has been VERY enthusiastic or bombastically grandiose, and shouting lines for four hours at a time in recording sessions does a real number on your vocal cords, it turns out. But I love every second of it! Voiceover is a gift.

What is your favorite character that you’ve voiced?

They’ve honestly all been fun, so it's tough to pick a favorite character! If it’s ok, I’ll talk about my favorite cartoon experience instead. I did a show called Back at the Barnyard for Nickelodeon from 2006-2010, and it was about a farm full of talking animals. The show was super fun and funny, but the best part was that the cast recorded together every week as a group (like a radio play), which is not that common of a thing to do usually due to the actor's schedules. Everyone in the cast was so wonderful and nice, but they were also legitimately some of the funniest and most talented voice actors in the business. I mean, like, legends. For a cartoon nerd (which I have always been), it was an incredible experience, both as a fan and a perpetual student of voice acting. We would record a pass or two of each scene as written and then do a completely improvised pass. Even if most of it didn't get used, it didn't matter. It created really solid chemistry in the group, which was great for the show, and more often than not, we were doubled over wiping tears of laughter off our faces. I don't think I left even one Back at the Barnyard recording session in all that time in anything less than the happiest, most appreciative mood.

You host the game show "The Wall" on NBC. Can you tell me about hosting and why it is an avenue you have decided to go down?

Ya know, I’m not entirely sure why I chose to host! In a way, it chose me. When I first started out, I auditioned for everything! Scripted shows, commercials, hosting gigs. The latter of those were the ones I got cast in the most, but maybe that’s because I’ve always felt the most comfortable with them? I honestly really love hosting and have always naturally gravitated toward it, I suppose. I like that I get to be myself. I like making things that make people happy. And I like that there’s a structure, but also room to breathe some life into it and make it your own. It can be fun, riffy with jokes, serious, dramatic, etc., but the specific purpose of whatever the show is about automatically gives it this momentum that’s always driving it forward. As a host, I think you’re kind of like a boat captain, hopefully taking people on a fun, friendly ride.

What should the audience expect from the return of The Wall’s 4th Season and the Talking Dead?

For The Wall, they added a new element called "Freefall+." Basically, you can hit a gold button in the first round that doubles the dollar amount if you get the question right (if you don't, you also lose double). It's created a really interesting dynamic because now, sometimes people are finishing the first round with QUITE a bit of money, which goes toward their guarantee and makes it much more challenging to decide whether or not to rip up their contract at the end of the show. If you've never seen The Wall, then my apologies!! None of the preceding words in this paragraph will make ANY sense to you.

For Talking Dead, this is a big season! It’s the beginning of a year-long, 24-episode final season of The Walking Dead. Being a part of this journey over the last eleven years has been beyond incredible. Truly, one of the most impactful and wonderful experiences of my life and career. Not many shows get this kind of a run, and television has changed so much in the time TWD has been on the air, so it really is kind of the end of an era. Since the finale is still over a year away, I’ve been deferring my sadness about it, but I can promise you that when that time comes, there will be many tears. And not just regular ones… like snotty, puffy-faced, ugly crying.

What is your favorite memory from a stand-up comedy show?

It’s easy to visualize “ideal” scenarios where a big room is full of people laughing at every perfectly executed joke. But “perfect” is boring! There is no perfectionism in art! Perfectionism can actually be the enemy of art. Because all the most interesting stuff happens when things AREN’T perfect. When there are cracks. When things don’t go as planned. Because that’s human, and those imperfections tend to be the most memorable experiences if you embrace them. Many years ago, I was performing at a club in Atlanta, and not being any kind of recognizable comedian at the time, ten people showed up. TEN. Now, sure this might be considered "a failure." But I saw it as this weirdly fun, intimate experience we were all going to get. Instead of doing my act, I got everyone to group together in the front of the room and then brought each person up, one by one, to interview them chat show style about who they were, what they did, and how on Earth they heard about the show in the first place. It was an absolute blast; we all got to know each other a bit in that moment and came away with a uniquely special experience that I will never forget. It was also a terrific lesson in perspective. Why be cranky at the 190 people who didn’t show up? Why not focus on and celebrate the 10 wonderful people who did?? I don't know what inspired me to go in that direction, but I'm glad I did, and I consider it one of my greater successes as a performer. Though I’m sure the club, who lost money that night, may not have entirely agreed with that assessment.

If a fan asked you advice on how to get into the world of comedy, what would you tell them? If you could work with one comedian, who would it be and why?

My advice has always been the same for stand-up: ya just have to get up and do it. There's no magic starting line; you have to decide to do it, and then do it. When I was first starting out, the best advice I got went like this: "Get on stage 100 times and then see where you're at." In other words, the only way to get better at stand-up is to do it as much as you can and as often as you can. You learn so much every time you get up and say words in front of people. Also, think of it this way—if you go up once a month and you have a crappy show in your head, you're going to feel like you blew it that whole month. But if you get up every night, in thirty shows that month some will be great, some will be fine, and some will be awful. But the shows will average out in your head favorably, and you won't believe how much you'll end up writing and learning along the way. Stand-ups are compelled to get on stage no matter what. The best way to tell if it's your calling is how you respond after a terrible show. OF COURSE you're going to feel bad and sit in your car afterward cursing yourself and questioning the Universe… that's all pretty standard, I think. But if you feel those things and any part of you is still drawn to go up and do it again the next night, you’ve probably chosen the right path for yourself. And btw, it’s ok to have bad shows! Honestly, you learn more from the bad ones than the good ones. Embrace the process as much as—if not more than—the result.

And the “which comedian would I want to work with” question is an easy one: Steve Martin. Like I hinted at earlier, he’s pretty much the whole reason I ever wanted to do stand-up in the first place! Also, I love Bluegrass, and he's an INCREDIBLE banjo player.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why? This can be a real book or a made-up title that encapsulates your life.

“6pm Pajama Club." Without a doubt. My wife and I genuinely love making an early dinner, then…PJs AT 6! Immediately followed by hopping into bed and watching Investigation Discovery or HGTV by 6:15. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy going out too! We’re not 100 yet! But 6pm Pajama Club days are the BEST. Ok, maybe we are 100.