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?
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