TJ Miller

TJ Miller is one of the hottest young comics in LA. He has a starring role on the ABC sitcom “Carpoolers” and he was selected to appear at the 2007 US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. He recently shot a feature film with JJ Abrams (“Lost”) and his stand up career is thriving. All of this at the tender age of 26 and only a matter of months since he was touring the country as a member of The Second City Touring Company.

Your originally from Denver, how did you end up in Chicago?

I took a plane. You’re going to use that right? That’s my opening joke.

I’m using it.

I was in an improv group in college – big surprise. I knew I wanted to study in Chicago so I applied for a summer internship at Loyola – which was, essentially, an excuse to take classes at all the best improv schools. So I had a class at Second City and IO. I did stand-up comedy – I really liked the stand up scene in Chicago. So after I went back to Denver I decided to make the move to Chicago.

Did you like your improv classes?

Honestly? I thought Second City was too ‘actory’ – I was a comedian and I wasn’t focused on the theatre end of things. I was attracted to the scene at IO at first because it was about going for the joke. I was also real cocky. I had assumed that I would go to Chicago for like 3 months – I’d learn everything I needed to know about improvisation and then I’d apply it to my stand up career. I really didn’t realize that people spent years and years studying and honing their craft. I also assumed – you’ll love this – that everyone would remember me from the classes I took during my internship years at Loyola. Shockingly they didn’t. So I took more classes at all the schools. I actually auditioned for Second City’s Conservatory program and was rejected. I keep that rejection letter up next to my door in LA – so I see it every single day – I’m not kidding.

But Second City ended up hiring you for the Touring Company?

I hadn’t really seen Second City shows – I just heard about them from bitter improv guys that hadn’t been hired by the theatre. So I had no idea how nuanced and wonderfully inventive the work was. I had a bunch of friends auditioning for the touring company and they convinced me to tag along. I suspect that part of the reason I did so well is that I felt completely at ease – I had no expectation that I would be hired and I didn’t really know what was at stake. When I got asked to the callback my friends had to tell me what a big deal that was. By that point, I had spent two years working in Chicago. It was soon after the callback that Beth Kligerman – the casting director at Second City – offered me a job as an understudy for the Touring Company and I jumped at the opportunity.

You moved up the ladder pretty quickly, didn’t you?

Thank god that Jonathon Keaton is as virile as he is. I was understudying his roles when his wife became pregnant and he decided to stop touring. I got the job. My friend Brad Morris – who was also a member of that company – said to me, “Buddy, this is good for you and it’s good for the company. But it’s mostly good for you.” I’ve never forgotten that.

I suppose he was referring to the fact that you were a somewhat untraditional Second City performer.

Absolutely. I was a stand up comedian in a world that had a lot of negative opinions about stand up comedy. I faced less of that bias at Second City than I experienced in other improv theatres in Chicago – in part, I think, because Second City has a talent base that is far more progressive in its attitude towards comedy and the industry in general. Other improv theatres had a real us and them approach to the work.

Did you enjoy touring with Second City?

I would say it was the best job I’ve ever had – it’s at least equal in enjoyment to working on a prime time television show – if not even more fun. I remember my favorite gig of all time was the college in Winona Minnesota. It was an absolutely explosive show. It’s always a treat to go to smaller towns where they ask for your autographs after the show. At this gig, they not only asked for autographs, they demanded that we all party together. It was great. The college actually brought me back as a solo performer to do my stand up.

You must have a worst experience.

Oh yeah. It was at Florida State University. This is an important fact for later in the story. First of all, the technical set up for the show was horrible – bad sound, a pipe and drape background, audience members were walking in and out of the show so no one was really paying attention. Every time I came offstage my cast mates were cursing about the crowd. At the end of the show, a bunch of audience members just started yelling stuff at us on stage – they were trying to be funny. I thought that I would try to get them on our side – so as I’m leaving the stage for the final time before our curtain call, I yell “Go F.U.!” The rest of the cast looks at me in amazement: ‘what did you just do? Why did you yell that?” I forgot that it was Florida “State” University – I had just yelled out the initials of their chief rivals that also happened to be the initials for an expletive. It was, hands down, the worst bow and curtain call of my career. They hated us.

You’re a great student of comedy, what kind of discoveries did you make at Second City?

As I said before, I really didn’t have a knowledge base about Second City prior to getting hired. I had heard from friends who didn’t work there that it was very mainstream. The great irony is that it was just the opposite. The actors at Second City were taking more risks. The Capitol Steps do hack political comedy, in my opinion. Second City does some really sophisticated work. I’m not a political satirist. I tend to do more absurdist comedy that turns normal situations upside down. But some of my favorite pieces at Second City were political scenes that had a deep emotional depth to them. Brian Gallivan had a scene where he was a basketball coach who was dealing with his wife’s cancer with all these sports clichés. It was really funny, but at a certain point Brian’s character just breaks down on stage. You could hear a pin drop in the room. I loved that scene. There was also a scene at an Army recruitment center where a grandmother was trying to get drafted into the Army. It’s not until late in the scene that you realize she has a grandson in Iraq an she just wants to take his place because he has so much life left to live. That’s the kind of comedy I want to make.

Are you enjoying working on “Carpoolers?”

It’s a great environment and that comes directly from Bruce McCulloch – our director – who is also a member of Kids in the Hall. The show is also run by the folks that did “Arrested Development.” It’s interesting, we’re on ABC which is really not a comedy network. NBC has Tina Fey and Steve Carell and a bunch of terrific comedy shows. ABC has “Lost” and “Dancing with the Stars.” So our show really sticks out. But everyone who works on it is absolutely dedicated to making a great comedy sitcom. We’re not trying to be too hip for the room and we’re not trying to change the face of modern comedy. It’s a great cast – Jerry O’Connell is hilarious and Jerry Minor, a fellow Second City alum, is simply amazing.

I have to bring up the show you did with your sketch company Heavy Weight.

We did a show at Sketch Fest in Chicago a year back. We spent $1,000.00 on one scene. We knew we wanted to blow away the house and we also were self aware enough to know that we didn’t have the polish or discipline down to do a traditional great sketch show. So we ended up breaking 37 bottles; we used over 100 bananas; and we used 10 gallons of various fluids within the body of this show.

And people still talk about it to this day…

And we didn’t tape it. Which actually kind of makes me glad. It just exists in the memories of the 200 people or so who saw it that night.

What’s on tap for you now?

We’re waiting to see if they order more episodes of “Carpoolers.” I recently filmed a JJ Abrams helmed feature film. I’m auditioning all the time and I’m pitching my own series ideas. I’m also still doing stand up. But I sincerely look at my time at Second City as being primarily responsible for the success I’ve had. It was a real honor to work there.

TJ Miller is available for stand up dates. Please contact Dave Becky at 310.888.3200.

Todd Stashwick

Todd Stashwick is one of Hollywood’s hottest actors right now. His featured role as the evil Dale Malloy in FX’s “The Riches,” with Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard, has catapulted this alumni of The Second City to a new level of fame. We spoke to Todd as he was finishing up a session with the Wardrobe Department in preparation for filming a new season of “The Riches.”

When were you hired by Second City?

I was hired by the former producer of The Second City, Joyce Sloane on New Year’s Eve of 1991. Actually, I was visiting her in the re-sale shop that she volunteered for about three months earlier and she had said “you know what I’m giving you for Christmas this year?” I said no and she said “A job with The Second City Touring Company.” I was on air, but three months pass by and I’m still seating people at Second City and no one has said a word to me. It was New Year’s Eve – one of Second City’s busiest nights – and we went to the bar across the street after our shift ended and Joyce comes up and officially hires me. I’ll never forget that moment.

Did you enjoy touring?

Most of the time. My first touring company had a lot of couples and people that didn’t like each other. That wasn’t fun. But I really lucked out later and performed with a company that had some of the best improvisers I’ve ever worked with. That group included Adam McKay, the director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights, Brian Stack who now writes for Conan O’Brien, his wife Miriam Tolan who’s brilliant, Nancy Walls who was on SNL and The Daily Show – she’s also married to Steve Carell, and Theresa Mulligan who’s a writer/performer here in Hollywood. My favorite gig was a month long engagement we had in Dallas, Texas. We got to do 80% original material; we experimented improvisationally every night; and we really gelled as an ensemble.

I remember that was the time that Steve Carell got pulled from the audience…

Yes. No one knew Steve at the time – this was pre-Daily Show and mega-stardom. He was just dating Nancy from the cast. He came to a show and as a guy we pretended he was a regular audience member who was asked to the stage to perform with us. He got up there and acted all nervous and then we were mean to him and made him cry. Steve sold it beautifully. In fact, his acting was so good that the audience just turned on us and started booing and walking out.

Do you remember your worst gig?

It was on some college campus in Arizona, I think. It was a lecture hall and had no real sound or stage lighting. Our Stage Manager stood at the back wall and turned off the room’s lights to indicate the end of scenes. They also didn’t advertise so only 25 people showed up. We were literally walking on campus asking people to come to the comedy show. It was pathetic.

But most of the time it was fun…

Yeah – we got to go to Scotland – which was kind of a seminal trip and moment for me. I had been a full time resident cast member at The Second City Northwest theatre and we lost the lease on the space. I had also been up for “Saturday Night Live” at the time. They flew me out for auditions. I didn’t get the part – but two of my cast did – Dave Koechner and Nancy Walls – but it seemed like this was my cue to move on. So we go to Scotland to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which was a really amazing adventure. We hung out with Rich Hall and a bunch of other really talented comedians. I hooked up with a troupe called Reject’s Revenge that really inspired my next moves.

What was your next move?

I made the leap to New York. I had representation right away, which was great. But I had the itch to continue improvising. So I hooked up with a friend named Kevin Scott and we formed an improv troupe. It was kind of cool because in New York we had the luxury of absolutely no reputation – unlike Chicago where the community is so well known. At the time, improv in New York was almost all short form games. UCB was just starting, so our group made a kind of impact on the scene. I had called my friend Adam McKay from Second City – he was now the head writer at “Saturday Night Live” – but he was too busy to direct us. He recommended his girlfriend (now wife) Shira Piven. I knew Shira from reputation – her Mom and Dad ran an improv school in Chicago and were important figures in Second City history. Her brother was Jeremy Piven who was pretty well known by that time. The group was called “Burn Manhatten.”


You had another famous member of that troupe, right?

Yea – Kate Walsh was a cast member for a year and a half. Then she faded into obscurity – I really should call her. She was replaced later by Spencer Kayden who people might know from the Broadway musical “Urinetown.”

And then…?

The band broke up. We all moved on. I booked a job in LA playing Jeremy Piven’s best friend in a pilot that also featured Ayre Gross and Jamie Gertz. That didn’t get picked up but I was lucky and kept finding work. I was a recurring character on “Still Standing” and I played a plethora of Demons and evil people on shows like “Angel” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.” One of my favorite roles was one in which I gave my worst performance. It was “Diagnoses Murder” and I was just so enthralled to be performing with Dick Van Dyke that I never focused on my role. I just inundated him with questions about “Mary Poppins” and working with Carl Reiner. I couldn’t have cared less about the show we were shooting.

Other favorites?

I did about two years of bit parts on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” which was a lot of fun. Basically, friends of mine on the writing staff would write bits for me and call me up to do them. The whole scene there reminded me of Sid Ceasers’s “Your Show of Shows.”

“The Riches” is really a great show and the role of Dale is so compelling.

It’s the best role that I’ve been fortunate to play. And it couldn’t be farther from who I am personally. I’ve played a plethora of unsavory characters on “CSI,” “Law and Order” and other shows, but Dale is deeper.

Is that hard?

Yeah – sometimes. I have an acting coach named Lesley Kahn that I still work with. Even though I bring comedy to the role, it’s a dramatic piece. Doing a half hour comedy sitcom you can focus on the math of the jokes and you know your role from the beats of a particular scene. For Dale, I have to draw on different things. It really makes me lean on my Shakespearian training more than anything else. But it’s great and Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard are great to work with.

What’s next?

I play a gearhead stoner friend of Matthew McConaughey in a film called “Surfer, Dude” which was produced by Tom Hanks’ company Playtone. I also show “Live” with Eva Mendez and a film called “The Air I Breathe” with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Andy Garcia, Kevin Bacon and others. Not a bad life, huh?

Nicole Parker

Nicole Parker is entering her 5th season on FOX TV’s “MAD TV.” A deft mimic, Nicole has become widely known for her incredible imitations of such celebrities as Ellen DeGeneres, Joy Behar, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Nicole is also a superb singer and has appeared on Broadway in Martin Short’s “Fame Becomes Me.” Her musical chops were recognized by Second City some years earlier when she starred along side her “MAD TV” cohort Keegan Michael Key in “Second City’s Romeo and Juliet Musical” which played at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. She is an alumnae of Amsterdam’s “Boom Chicago.” We spoke over the phone from her home in California.

I looked up your bio on IMDB.COM and saw that you went to Indiana University. I didn’t know that?

First of all, don’t believe everything you read on IMDB.COM because it says I’m 5’10” and I’m not. But they are right about Indiana University. And now you’re asking yourself…?

Why would someone from California go to college in Indiana if they wanted to work in the industry?

Well, first it was a matter of who would give me the money to go to college. And they did. Secondly, I wanted to get out of California and experience something different. Also, Indiana University has a great school of music – which a lot of people don’t know.

And you liked school?

I loved it. It’s actually what drew me to improvisational comedy and Second City. I worked in a college improv troupe called “Full Frontal Comedy.” One of the founders was Jill Benjamin who would eventually do work with Second City. It had started at the college before I got there and it was incredibly popular by the time I joined the group. We played regularly at the student union – it’s still going today. We would take our earnings from the frat and sorority gigs we did and use the money to go to Chicago and see improv comedy. I remember my first Second City show was called “Promise Keepers, Losers Weepers.”

So what did you do after graduation?

I had the worst summer job of all time. It was a summer stock production of “The Sound of Music” in Grand Lake, Colorado. Although I got to play Maria, the whole scene was just awful. They had these fold out chairs and we played outdoors…it was really bad. So I was going back to Indiana and I had heard that there was going to be auditions for this improv troupe based in Amsterdam called “Boom Chicago.” I knew about them because Jill Benjamin from Full Frontal had worked there – and, basically, at that time, I was basing my career on the choices she made because I really admired her. I thought the auditions would be in a few weeks but the day I got back to Indiana I found out that the auditions were the next day in Chicago. So a friend from the troupe and I threw caution to the wind and went to Chicago – hoping we’d find friends that would let us sleep on their couches because we had no money for hotel rooms. It was the most surreal experience – we got to Chicago and immediately went to the audition. After the audition – which seemed to go well – I wandered around Chicago hoping that I would get the phone call for the call back. Finally, I got the call back for the next day and then I was hired and I had to be in Amsterdam by October. I had no passport, no money – but this tremendous opportunity.

What was it like to work with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam?

Incredible, terrifying, fantastic. I knew no one and the day I arrived I had to go to rehearsal. Three days later I was performing on stage in my very first show. I was a little intimidated at the first rehearsal until it came time to do some musical improvisation. Since I have musical theatre training that kind of broke the ice with everyone.

The thing that’s great about Boom Chicago is how you just get thrown into it over there. You have no time to dwell too much on how scary the whole thing is because you have to get on stage and do the shows. They give you hours of notes after every show. Half the cast is thinking there going to be fired every night – but that’s just the way they do things over there. I think the whole first year I was just getting used to being in a foreign country, learning to work on stage in this new format and adapting to a completely different lifestyle. It wasn’t until a year later that I started settling down and having fun. I started there in 2000 and I consider it like my graduate school.

Which is the way a lot of people have described Second City.

Exactly. By just doing the work you get stronger. You begin to build onto your existing talents and become a more skilled performer. We experimented with writing in a Second City style with folks that had studied in Chicago; we got to perform in Edinburgh at the International Fringe Festival; and by the end of my second year, I was completely comfortable. It would have been very easy to stay there – but I knew that once I had achieved that level of comfort, it was time to go.

Where did you go?

New York. The opposite of comfort. I had decided that I would give improvisation a break and focus on being a New York musical theatre actress. However, my first audition was for this corporate sketch comedy gig in Florida. Which I got. So I ended up in Orlando, Florida doing comedy bits almost the minute I got back to the United States.

Did you always think of yourself as a comedienne?

I think I did. My idols were Madeline Kahn and Gilda Radner. I was always doing impressions of my family and friends. It’s sometimes strange to think that I’m making my living off of the goofing around that I’d been doing since I was a little kid.

But you were also interested in serious theatre as well?

Absolutely, I ended up forming a theatre company in New York with some friends from Indiana University. We all had improv training and we decided to use that to adapt this sixteenth century Spanish play about a peasant uprising. These were very meager times. I was doing some nanny work and I also worked for this crazy wife of a Wall Street tycoon – so I was flat broke while seeing how the other half lives on a daily basis. We were rehearsing on roof tops because we couldn’t afford to rent rehearsal space. And the only place we could find to produce the show in was this Gay cabaret theatre. The show was either going to bomb totally or be a hit – no in between. It ended up working. I realized that my time at Boom Chicago game the permission to believe I could do anything. It really helped me conquer any fear about going out there on stage and giving it my all.

And then…?

Well that’s when Second City came in the picture. Ron West – a Second City director – called me to ask if I’d come to Los Angeles to appear in workshops of a new musical he was directing. I had loved working with Ron at Boom Chicago and I said yes immediately. I flew to LA – no money, no car – and it was the greatest choice I could have made. The show was a musical parody of Romeo & Juliet – it was brilliant and funny and I got to both sing and play comedy. It was a great experience. And then I got the call from Second City to join the cast of Second City Cleveland.

I completely forgot about that.

Because I never actually got to join the cast.

That’s because you got cast in MAD TV.

I was so excited to get the call to work on The Second City stage and I remember saying that I’d love to take the job but that I had also just auditioned for MAD TV. And I remember you saying “right, I’ll see you in Cleveland.” Which was actually how I was thinking – what chance did I have to get on MAD TV? So I was sent the script and tape of The Second City show in Cleveland and I was learning it the night before I went in for my MAD TV call back. I finished the audition and hopped on a plane for Cleveland. I was on my way from airport to the hotel in Cleveland when I got the call that I was hired for MAD TV. So I’m in Cleveland and I knew no one. I had no one to celebrate with. I went to this crappy Chinese restaurant and then back to my hotel room and just called friends on the phone. I remember going to the theatre the next day to meet Ron and the cast and having to say I couldn’t stay. Everyone was completely gracious and supportive. But it was somewhat bittersweet.

So everyone is familiar with your work on MAD TV – which also led to your starring in Martin Short’s show for Broadway.

Yeah – it’s amazing how all this stuff is connected. Marty was looking for people with a very specific Second City sensibility – because that’s how he worked. Our producer at MAD TV was a Second City alum and I had been working with Second City folks for some time. So it was amazing to have Martin Short pull you aside at the workshops and say “I want you to be greedy, steal the spotlight, this is an ensemble show.” All this – even though the conceit of the show is that it’s all about Marty. He was amazing to work with and though I had to commute twice a week between LA and New York to do the Broadway run and still perform my commitment to MAD TV, it was absolutely worth it.

You’re entering your 5th season at MAD TV which will be…

…my last one. It’s like the gig at Boom Chicago or doing theatre in New York – once you get really comfortable you have to assess how you are growing as an artist and performer. You can’t be afraid to take chances. MAD TV has taught me a ton – performing impersonations, working in front of the camera – but it’s time to take all those learned skills and apply them to the next thing. Who knows what that will be?

The SECOND CITY has joined Campus Activities Magazine as a partner to further help address the needs of student buyers in dealing with issues they face on their campuses. We are proud of this alliance with an organization which has given nearly 50 years to the American public, turning out some of the country’s most recognizable comedy artists. To learn more about The Second City, contact Lee Moore at (800) 277-6874 or go to www.secondcity.com