Dave Attell

Often comics are identified only by the character they play, or an oft-repeated punch line they deliver. New York-born comedian Dave Attell’s cult fan base knows him as “The Insomniac Guy.” For four seasons Attell wrote and starred in the Comedy Central series that followed the comedian from city to city in search of late night bars, clubs, job, and any thing out of the ordinary. Ironically, it was often the most ordinary jobs that were the funniest, with employees at cow insemination facilities easily topping drunken college kids for screen time. Attell recently took 30 minutes to talk with Recoil, revealing that like most comedians, what you see on screen or on stage is only a snapshot of the true personality. He’s polite, quick to praise other comedians, as well as the cast and crew surrounding his television show and the “Comedy Central Live Presents Dave Attell: The Insomniac Tour,” which comes to Kalamazoo’s State Theatre on May 5. He also openly talked about the death of friend and fellow comedian Mitch Hedberg.

Recoil: In doing some research for this interview, I read a few of your old interviews. It seems all anyone wants to talk about is Insomniac. Do you get sick of that?
Dave Attell: To be honest, it was such an easy show, there really was not that much to talk about. But I do talk about it over and over and over again, it’s kind of my Abu Ghraib prison.

R: Is it to the point now where fans think less of comics without television shows?
Attell: Yeah, there’s definitely some of that. There are a lot of guys I know who are super-underrated but are well known on the comedy scene. And that’s only because of television, where they haven’t hit the thing that’ll get people in the audience. It’s sad because if people do go to their local comedy club they can see some guys who are on their way up.

R: Do you feel any pressure now to come up with another show, or are you able to concentrate on the stand up and be satisfied with that?
Attell: Well, stand up’s what I do and it’s what I set out to start doing. I love doing stand up, especially when I have new material; sometimes when I don’t have it I feel like I’m a parrot just repeating stuff, but I’m very satisfied with what I’ve done. The Insomniac show was a great thing – I might do some more of those, I don’t know, but I just did a pilot for Fox, and I try and do as much TV as possible. I really do like television, I think TV is great and I hope it doesn’t get so regulated, especially on cable, that it all starts looking so bland and like, the same.

R: Can you talk about the pilot you did for Fox?
Attell: I play a father, who’s a nanny who… [pauses and restarts, indicating he would never take such a role]. It’s like a work sitcom, and I just have a small part on it. And that was just to do something that was inside on television because usually the Insomniac thing was all outside in the cold and rain. So I was like, ‘Wow, you guys are complaining? I mean there’s no bums pissing on you and there’s no, you know chance of a thunderstorm.’ It’s just to try it because I’m not an actor so we’ll see what happens.

R: What percent of an average crowd knows you from your stand up versus television?
Attell: I’d say probably more know me as the Insomniac guy now because most of my fans are people who have seen that show and like that show and they expect that kind of thing. In person I’m a lot dirtier – umm, I’m more hard-edged. I’m a comic so I have control of the room so sometimes it gets a little heated. That’s part of being a comic and they don’t teach you that on TV, or at the Comedy Central cable television school – you’ve got to learn that from doing comedy. But I understand how when people come see you on TV and then they come see you, and it’s a little different. I understand that, but I also think ‘Deal with it!” If you met the fucking kid from Smallville he wouldn’t have magic powers.

R: Is it to the point now where if you went to like Applebee’s people would think you were doing Insomniac: Applebee’s?
Attell: Yeah, I love when I get it during the day. When people see me at like nine in the morning they go, ‘Where are the cameras?’ I’m like, ‘It’s daytime!’

R: How long did it take after you started stand up for you to find your niche?
Attell: They say it takes like seven years but I think for me… [pauses] – some guys pick it up right away, some people take a long time, I’m definitely one of the long time people. It definitely took me at least three years to feel comfortable on stage and another seven years to feel like ‘I know what I’m doing.’

R: Did you have any failed ideas or gags?
Attell: No, what usually happens is you have a comic that you really like, and then you start doing a version of his act.

R: Who was yours?
Attell: Colin Quinn was definitely a big influence on me, and I kind of came up in this age when there were these great New York comics, and I’d watch them and I’d always say, ‘Oh man, how do they do it?’ And then after a while just from doing comedy you pick up your own voice.

R: On Insomniac you always had a connection with third shifters – was that ever you?
Attell: I did the most unmanly manly jobs. Like I cleaned houses, you know. I temped. But I was always a late night guy, even as a kid. I came from a big working family – everybody worked, and I expected to work, too. I just like to stay up all night, so I’m thinking, ‘What kind of job am I ever going to get? I could be a spy.’ But that was the funniest parts of the show, the third shifters. Especially if they were doing stuff I had never done like steel mill guys, the guys working in the sewage treatment, the guy who cleans up the crime scene stuff. [Those are] always cool jobs that are under the radar. Even though it’s not the most exciting thing, like it’s not the most exciting television, there’s no explosions and tits, it’s like these people are cool and they’re perfect for my show because at four in the morning you’re not going to expect to run into like… a racecar driver.

R: Recoil talked to Mitch Hedberg a few months before he passed away (Attell, Hedberg and Lewis Black toured together in 2003) and he had some really good things to say about you and the tour. Were you guys friends?
Attell: I don’t mind at all talking about Mitch because he’s definitely a guy who needs to be talked about. I’m really glad you had a good experience with him because he was a sweet guy, and he was a great comic and I’m not just saying that because he’s gone. He really was a great comic. When you talk about voice, and how long did it take, Mitch knew almost immediately who he was and what he wanted to do on stage, and he opened for me in Sacramento at the Punch Line about ten years ago, and I said to the owner ‘You know, this guy is not an opening act, he’s a headliner.’ And he was squeaky clean, he was not making any sense in terms that his material was so eclectic and out there. And he kept his eyes closed, he wasn’t jumping around. Yet everyone in the room was into his stuff, and you were like, ‘Wow! I’m like watching a movement here.’ And at this point I was jaded in comedy, I’m like, ‘There’s nothing new out there. Everyone’s doing basically a variation of the midget/dick joke.’ And this guy has his own thing. The beauty of that tour was getting to watch him every night do his thing. And sometimes it was hellacious, sometimes it was great, but always interesting and that’s the way I depict Mitch. I mean the drugs were really a side thing, and I know they got the center story, because that’s what brought him down, but if you think of his whole body of work, the drugs were such a small part of that scene.

R: You could tell he was a little different and more passionate than most comedians.
Attell: Well, he was different from, like, me. I kind of think what I do is not really an art form; it’s more like being a locksmith. It’s a skill, but it’s not like I sit around thinking ‘I’m a painting, I’m a talking painting.’ Mitch really was more of an artist than I think a lot of these guys are. He was not only good at comedy, he had his own music, he made films. He was kind of like an Andy Warhol in a way. I don’t think he ever really mastered the other part of comedy, which is a lot of radio and a lot of interviews [laughs].

May 2005