Television has a long history of quirky news parodies, from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to “The Simpsons’” Kent Brockman. Added to this list in recent years is “The Daily Show,” with correspondent Steve Carell and his deadpan take on the reporter who takes his job too seriously.
Born in Boston, Carell moved to Chicago in 1985, where he was a cast member of the famous Second City improv theatre for nearly ten years. In the comedy troupe he met Steven Colbert and his future wife Nancy Walls, both of who currently work as correspondents on “The Daily Show.” After leaving Chicago, Carell worked as a writer for the short-lived “The Dana Carvey Show.”
In 1999, Carell began appearing as a correspondent on “The Daily Show.” His continuing feature segments include Slimming Down with Steve, where he is obsessed with the fact he is a corpulent fat man; Ad Nauseam, which pokes fun at current advertisements; and Even Stev/phen, where he and Colbert argue ostentatiously. Carell and Colbert also do the voices on the “Saturday Night Live” cartoon “The Ambiguously Gay Duo.”
Leader: Congratulations on winning the Peabody Award.
Steve Carell: Thanks. I did most of the work myself.
L: I thought that was actually given for journalism…
SC: What are you implying? The University of Georgia gives it out for broadcasting in general, so it’s not actually just journalism. It’s just what they think is meritorious of television in general. There was a lot of documentaries and that kind of thing. It was interesting because we were the last award given out. And leading up to us there were 20 awards that are documentaries about colon cancer and child abuse and then...us. It is really like (singing), “One of these things is not like the other.”
L: But the show is very political, and does tend to deal with current issues and journalism. When you were doing Indecision 2000, there was a ton of political humor. You were on the CNN Chats [an interactive forum on both CNN and CNN.com] and I was wondering how comfortable you are with political humor.
SC: I guess I got more and more comfortable as the campaign progressed because I became more and more familiar with what was going on. “The Daily Show” has such a good staff of writers and creative people that altogether it really helps—everybody was on the same page.
L: That’s true; you guys did the big crossover from the show when Craig Kilborn anchored. It’s a very different show. It’s hip and smart, which is hard to do. On a network where a lot of people are tuning in to see “South Park,” it’s great that you can open up to a market where people are looking for something a little more intelligent.
SC: I agree. It’s a show that I’m very proud to be a part of. It’s not, you know, a show that my parents always enjoy watching. I was trying to explain this to my dad the other night, he saw something on the show that was objectionable to him and I said, “You know, if we are not offending people at least occasionally, if we’re not occasionally doing something that raises an eyebrow, then I feel like we are not doing our job. Otherwise we are being too soft.”
L: With the political humor, you have made some fairly obscure references. Did you have any experience doing political humor prior to the election cycle?
SC: Second City in Chicago was probably as political as I got. We would base a lot of sketches on current events because we improvised nightly. But it was nothing of this magnitude.
L: How did you get involved in Second City, how did that start?
SC: I started a touring company when I was in college. I couldn’t imagine a more fun job—touring around the country improvising and doing sketches. So some buddies of mine, after we graduated, we moved there and started taking classes, did theatre, and tried to immerse ourselves.
L: That was right after college for you?
SC: Yeah. I graduated from Dennison College in ‘84 and went to Chicago in ‘85. I was in a touring company by ‘87 and on Mainstage by ‘89. So it’s a process. You really have to work your way up the ranks. But it was great experience, six nights a week. On Mainstage, I was there for about three and a half years and it was great, just invaluable.
L: Did you meet Nancy Walls at Second City?
SC: I did—actually I was her teacher. While she was taking classes there, and prior to her getting into the touring company, I was working on Mainstage and teaching classes there and she was in one of my classes and I just fell in love.
SC: That’s… I guess very naughty. I couldn’t help myself, she was too beautiful, funny, and smart and I couldn’t keep myself from her.
L: And how did that work that you and Steve Colbert have mirroring careers since Second City?
SC: Well we both just happened to audition for “The Dana Carvey Show.” That was just pure luck. For “The Daily Show,” I had moved from New York after “The Dana Carvey Show” was cancelled and Stephen had gone on to work for “The Daily Show.” They were looking for correspondents and he threw my name in the mix. He was really instrumental in me getting the job.
L: There was a segment where you and Stephen Colbert go to the bar and get drunk; did you actually get drunk?
SC: Yeah, I did (laughs). That was one of my biggest regrets ever! That was my idea too. I thought it would be really funny to do one of these reports where the correspondent takes it upon himself to show the effects of alcohol, but takes it to the extreme. After the cameras stopped rolling I got so sick! I threw up out of Stephen’s car on the way home. It was probably one of the top two drunken moments in my life. It was horrendous. It was really one of the worst nights of my life. You could not pay me enough to do that again.
L: And it’s on television for everybody to see.
SC: And it didn’t matter because most people thought I was just acting anyways. So it didn’t even matter that I was really drunk. People ask me if I was really drunk all the time, so obviously it didn’t read either way so I could have just acted it out. That was a huge one, which was a huge mistake.
L: I saw you were drunk; it touched some people out there.
SC: Well, if I can get just one person to never drink again, that person is me.
L: For the field pieces, how many do you do in, say, a month?
SC: That really depends. I would guess maybe…two to four a month, each. It’s just busy. Sometimes we can go for weeks without doing a field piece and then do three in a row. It evens out to about one a week.
L: How does the writing process work?
SC: Well, we have a research department that pitches stories to the executive producers, who decide what stories should be done. A field producer is assigned the piece, and then one of us is brought on to discuss it and figure out what our angle is going to be—what we are going to take a shot on, or parody, then we go out and shoot it. That’s kind of a simplified version of what happens. Generally they are not written.
L: How much of that is guerilla documentary work? How much is coached?
SC: I would say 95% of it is not coached. Sometimes people are kind of in on it, and think they know what to say, but generally that doesn’t work because people being honest and just reacting is much funnier than people trying to be in on the joke. The other 5% of the time, for example, I keep on going back to one of our professional experts, an astrophysics professor at Columbia. We go to him for any sort of technical scientific advice. He will weigh in on any topic that we have—the propulsion of a scooter, he will break it down in terms of mass vs. weight—he’ll break down the physics of it. So he’s completely in on the joke but he’s trying to answer it seriously.
L: Do you run into situations where subjects already familiar with “The Daily Show” hinder the freshness?
SC: When I first started, it was certainly easier because people really weren’t aware of what the show was. It was easier to find people who were unwitting victims, if you will. Also, I think part of my problem is I don’t want to make fun of people at their expense, so I had to look for a way I could put the joke more on myself. That way I would be the stooge as opposed to them. That’s been kind of a transition that I’ve tried to make, away from going out and just mocking somebody that is unaware. I don’t really think that’s funny.
L: That separates you from somebody like say, Tom Green.
SC: I think it’s much funnier to make fun of the character. This sounds so…(laughing, with British accent) “I really seem like I’m making it into an acting experience.” It’s more fun to make fun of the windbag reporter or the reporter that doesn’t quite understand what he’s doing or takes himself or the topic too seriously. Vance DeGeneres did a piece about a guy who lost his coat and he treated it like Love Canal. It was intense, getting to the bottom of a coat disappearance. It was hysterical because he was making fun of the journalistic side of it. He wasn’t making fun of the people; he was making fun of the process. So I feel that’s more where the show has moved. I know that Jon [Stewart] is not a fan of just finding really wacky, crazy characters and poking fun at them. Having fun with them is a different thing, but going out to mock them, I don’t particularly think that’s funny. I want to be able to sleep at night.
L: Have you had any experiences where the people get really insulted and it starts to go in the wrong direction?
SC: Definitely. One of the first pieces I did was a Y2K convention, with survivalists. One guy was selling blowguns. I think it’s just kind of a novelty. I played it very straight. He thought I was a legitimate journalist and I asked him if he had ever killed anyone with a blow gun. He got SO mad, I thought he was going to attack me. And he said “What? Have I ever KILLED anyone?” He was so offended by the end of this time, he was screaming at me. So, yeah, you can push the wrong buttons. Stupidly, I didn’t break character. I didn’t stop to say, “I’m just kidding, this is really just a bit we’re doing.” Which I should have done, let it decompress, but I didn’t. (laughing) I wanted to see how far it would go. It drove the guy insane.
L: Your recent segment Meet the Heat, Greet the Heat was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
SC: That was the most hellish shoot. It really was like 100 degrees outside when we were shooting. Shooting in New York City is a huge pain in the ass. You’d think that local shooting is easier but it turns out tougher than going out on the road. It’s so hard to get from one point of the city to the other, with all the traffic and stuff. You know what? I can sign those shorts and send them to you. The shoot was actually over two days and I washed them in the interim and you can see what was shot after they shrunk up, creeping up my ass. Ahh, I have absolutely no shame.
L: Now, you work for one of the most massive corporations of the world, AOL-Time Warner...
SC: ...we have very little contact with them; we are so left to our own devices that it’s incredible.
L: So you don’t feel any restrictions coming from them?
SC: There is so little editing that goes into this show in terms of standards. Actually, the only kind of repercussion has been through advertisers. I do a segment called Ad Nauseam and sometimes we take a shot at advertisers who advertise on the show, and they object. Comedy Central will say, “You can’t do that, we don’t want to lose that ad revenue.”
L: That hearkens back to the “Dana Carvey Show,” where you really pushed the envelope on that one.
SC: Yeah, (laughing) Pepsi dropped out right away. I was talking to Jon the other day about how we can say anything about the President of the United States. We can say that he is having sex with little boys on our show, and yet we cannot go after McDonald’s. There is something strange about that.
L: Do you feel that this is the new American censorship?
SC: In terms of our show it’s just about the only censorship I’ve encountered. Because in terms of content they are—and I hate to use the term, because it’s so overused—pushing the envelope, but Comedy Central really allows us a lot of free range. They don’t want to limit us creatively. Really the advertiser is the only roadblock.
L: Are you happy with television as a medium?
SC: Am I happy with television as a medium? Hey, it takes up some time when I’m sitting there feeding my new baby.
L: I mean, are you happy working in it?
SC: My god, I’m just happy to be working. I’m really happy with what I’m doing. I’m proud of it. I don’t think I can really ask for much more right now. As far as being on TV, it’s a really good gig.
L: When did you know you wanted to become a comedian?
SC: Well, I wanted to be lawyer. I was in the process of applying to law school; it just dawned on me that I didn’t want to. It was just after college when I decided to give it a shot.
L: You hosted the show a few months ago and seemed very comfortable at it.
SC: Well, the ratings really spiked when I was on there. People heard that I was going to be hosting and there was a lot of excitement across the country. It was fun. Colbert and I talk about it being the difference between flying a Piper Cub and a 747. We’re more out in the field, doing our own little thing. Actually being behind the desk of the show is such a different experience. There are so many things that you have to do. I was out of my mind—it’s really very, very scary. Especially the interviewing; I’ve never done anything like that before.
L: What are your future plans?
SC: I don’t know. I shot the Julia Louis-Dreyfuss pilot for NBC; I play her ex-boyfriend. I would like to continue with “The Daily Show” as long and frequently as I can. But beyond that, no idea. Keep busy, keep working, try to keep doing things that I am proud of doing. You know what though—I haven’t been funny at all, I’m just so serious about the job. But it’s just the opposite. It’s such a silly way to make a living. I don’t think there is really a rhyme or reason to it. There’s no art to what we do, it’s just the result of being around a lot of funny, smart people. I hope I haven’t been too dull.
L: No, not at all. Can you say something funny?
SC: Aw, dammit. (Pause) (In a funny voice) well, “Steve Carell thinks that the art behind the finding of a joke…” God, that pretentious piece of shit! I’m so bad at these, I don’t know, I try to make it sound cooler than it is. It’s fun…I don’t know, I’ll shut up. The problem is, I took care of the baby all day and she wiped my brain out. I don’t even know if I am coherent right now.
L: Let the baby conduct the interview.
SC: My wife left for the day so this is one of my first all-day adventures with babysitting. It is really hard. She is adorable, but I’m exhausted. I chalk that up to my incoherency. You know, this is such a dry interview. God, I was just thinking about it, this is going to be really boring in print.
L: Hey, thanks.
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