Michael Ian Black interview

Considering it was an early-’90s sketch-comedy show that ran for two seasons on pay cable, The State has spawned several successful careers. Thanks to VH1’s I Love the… series, Klondike commercials and more than 600,000 Twitter followers, Michael Ian Black might be the most recognizable. “I’m the biggest whore the show produced,” the 37-year-old deadpans. Fortunately, regardless of the venue—140 characters of text, a junk-food ad or his new sketch sitcom costarring Michael Showalter, Michael & Michael Have Issues—the dude is funny. And has a dirtier mind than Prince.

Time Out Chicago: You’re on lunch break right from filming?
Michael Ian Black: Yep.

TOC: I believe my colleague Jonathan is interviewing Michael Showalter.
Michael Ian Black: That’s happening as we speak.

TOC: Funny, considering I just watched the pilot of your new show, Michael and Michael Have Issues, which centers on dueling interviews between you two.
Michael Ian Black: Oh yeah, that’s right, only with a slightly more prestigious news information.

TOC: A high-school newspaper. Touche. Your new series is every kind of comedy show smashed into one—Larry Sanders’ one-camera style meets Mr Show and The State.
Michael Ian Black: Every episode is a smorgasbord of comedy, but hopefully in a way that you get right away. We’re definitely not trying to be confusing.

TOC: And how many episodes are you doing?
Michael Ian Black: Seven.

TOC: Is that all they bought?
Michael Ian Black: I think that’s all they can afford.

TOC: So this isn’t some Ricky Gervais-esque principle of, “We’re only gonna do six episodes and we’re out.”
Michael Ian Black: No, we would have done as many as they wanted but, umm, you know, it’s Comedy Central. So it has to be on the cheap.

TOC: Speaking of TV on the cheap, I noticed a slight dig at VH1 on your Twitter. Is there bad blood?
Michael Ian Black: I said something?

TOC: Something along the lines of, “I was on VH1 this weekend and received zero dollars.”
Michael Ian Black: Well of course, of course. I’m bitter about everything. The amount they run that shit versus the amount that I get paid—which is zero—is astounding. I’m on “I Love The…” shows. I don’t watch those ever, but I know they air them a lot.

TOC: I thought that I hated Twitter. But after reading yours, I realized I just hate most people who use Twitter.
Michael Ian Black: Your misanthropic, not anti-technology

TOC: Your Twitter is a stand-up routine.
Michael Ian Black: I had to figure out what it was good for and what it’s good for, in my case, is trying to make people laugh. A few times a day you’re doing a commercial for yourself, so if you write a funny Twitter, people remember you.

TOC: Do you see writers and comedians pouring over their old Tweets and recycling material for gigs and scripts?
Michael Ian Black: I’m definitely keeping track of my Tweets, thinking I may develop certain ideas into more expanded bits. Certainly more expanded than 140 characters. I never considered myself a joke writer. I don’t really know how to write jokes in the traditional way. Twitter forces you to do that, so that’s been good for my craft.

TOC: You have 600,000 followers. That’s like twice the population of Iceland.
Michael Ian Black: The sad thing is that everybody in Iceland is following me twice.

TOC: Other popular comedians linked on your page have far fewer followers.
Michael Ian Black: I’m not sure how that really happened. I’m not well known enough to justify the number of Twitter followers I have. I suspect fraud.

TOC: I’d like to contest one of your Tweets. You claim Butterfinger is the dirtiest candy bar name. I believe it’s a Canadian bar, Big Turk.
Michael Ian Black: That doesn’t sound dirty. That just sounds racist.

TOC: Consider that the allergy warning on back says something like, “Big Turk may have come in contact with nuts.”
Michael Ian Black: Well a lot of things say that. Butterfinger is the only candy bar that puts me in the mind of fisting. So if I’m thinking of fisting when I’m eating a candy bar. That’s automatically dirtier. People say Mounds is dirtier. Mounds isn’t dirtier, that’s just tits. Butterfinger calls to mind lube.

TOC: True, but you mentally jumped from “finger” to “fist.” That’s a 500% increase in fingers.
Michael Ian Black: Still, any candy bar that puts me in the mind of finger fucking I’m gonna consider the dirtiest candy bar in the world. Butter by itself, not that dirty. Finger by itself, not that dirty. Butterfinger together, filthy.

TOC: So what are your ambitions with this show?
Michael Ian Black: I’d like to have a successful television program on the air. That would be a welcome change in my life.

TOC: This seems similar to Stella in some regards.
Michael Ian Black: In some regards it is, only in the sense that it’s the two of us

TOC: It’s not quite as high concept though.
Michael Ian Black: No, it’s very much not. We learned a lot of lessons on Stella and we’re trying to apply them to this. Stella was like a math problem for a lot of people. We don’t want this show to be algebra. If anything we want this to be colors and shapes. Most people can identify their colors and shapes. Not a lot of people can do algebra.

TOC: Does it shock you how successful The State cast are and have been?
Michael Ian Black: Well…(long pause) I guess so. It shocks me in the macro sense that these eleven random people, who met at college, none of whom had a background in this business, have all been able to carve out a pretty good livelihood for themselves in show business and in some cases be quite successful. I’m not talking about myself. It’s a very talented group of people. Yeah, I am shocked. Especially because I know them personally.

TOC: Growing up I was huge into Kids in the Hall. And I don’t want to rip on the guys, but they’re doing junk like Saturday morning cartoon voices or directing rom-coms about dogs. And it’s disappointing. You guys have seemed to have stuck to the credo.
Michael Ian Black: Well, look, if there’s a sellout in State, it’s me. I’m about the biggest whore The State has produced. As evidenced by the Klondike commercials that I shot this last weekend.

TOC: How many free Klondikes did you get?
Michael Ian Black: They gave me a case of them.

TOC: Just a case? I would expect a year’s supply.
Michael Ian Black: They are going to send me more because I asked for them. They’re actually delicious.

TOC: They really are. I hope they read this and send me some.
Michael Ian Black: I was sort of surprised how delicious they are.

TOC: The plain ones?
Michael Ian Black: The plain ones are the only ones I’ve tried. They’re going to send me a bunch of different flavors. When you do commercials they’re like, “Here’s a spit bucket if you wanna spit it out when you’re eating it.” But I was like, “No, I’m fine.” [laughs]

TOC: A Klondike spit bucket. Well now they sound gross.
Michael Ian Black: It does sort of make the product sound gross. But if you had seen the way I do a spit take, I mean, you’d be turned on. I just let it dribble out of my mouth. In a very slow controlled way.

TOC: Speaking of The State, I guess as a writer it’s my duty to ask, what is up with that ever coming out on DVD?
Michael Ian Black: July 14

TOC: Well, shit, I don’t pay attention
Michael Ian Black: You need to do your research.

TOC: Ha, I totally do.
What the fuck is the matter with you?

TOC: Well, I’m a music editor. That’s my excuse. You’re the first person I’ve talked to in six months that isn’t promoting a record.
Michael Ian Black: I’ve found musicians give the worst interviews. I understand it. How do you talk about music? You can’t.

TOC: The better the musicians often give the worst interviews. For example, Katy Perry was a delight. Sharp, witty.
Michael Ian Black: Maybe there’s an inverse law.

TOC: Has the economy made it more of a hardscrabble life for a comedian?
Michael Ian Black: It’s not so much hardscrabble for me. I’m definitely not living in luxury, nor am I getting in a car to do 15 minutes at a comedy club. It’s a little bit better than that.

TOC: It’s weird to me that there would be any notion of selling out in comedy, making people laugh.
Michael Ian Black: My feeling to anyone who has a opinion about that is, fuck you. Get a mortgage and then talk to me about selling out. I mean comedians want be funny and they want a venue. If your work is good, the rest takes care of itself. Hopefully my work is good. If I make a funny Klondike commercial, then who cares if it’s a Klondike commercial.

TOC: Exactly, Jim Gaffigan does…what is it? Sierra Mist or whatever.
Michael Ian Black: Yeah, I did that with him.

TOC: Ha. You really are a whore.
Michael Ian Black: I told you, I’ll whore out. But they were good for us.

TOC: Your kid’s lunch box is full of Klondike bars and cans of Sierra Mist.
Michael Ian Black: The fact that my kids eat at all is due to Sierra Mist and Klondike. It’s not like I’m rolling in bucks from Comedy Central.

TOC: What is off limits to you in comedy?
Michael Ian Black: Nothing. I don’t say that cavalierly, but I really mean that nothings off limits. Because it can’t be. Which isn’t to say you automatically go for shock. But if something comes into my mind I’m gonna say it. There’s certain things that I don’t know how to have a funny angle on. That doesn’t mean if I did I wouldn’t make a joke about them. To me, I don’t think I’ve ever made an AIDS joke because I just don’t have an angle on it. I don’t find that funny. I don’t know what’s funny about AIDS. But its not to say that if I thought of something funny about AIDS I wouldn’t say it, I would.

TOC: Feline AIDS included?
Michael Ian Black: Just because I have that boundary for myself doesn’t mean I wouldn’t cross it if I had a way to do it. I will happily drop ‘date rape’ as a punch line. And a lot of people get offended whenever you say that. I will say the word nigger for comedic affect. Again, you’re not going to endear yourself to a lot of people for that.

TOC: Have you had any confrontations?
Michael Ian Black: Maybe not, surprisingly. The punch line to one of my jokes was “Jesus is my nigger.” Whenever I’ve used it in my act, which by the way is not very often, but when I have, well the black people usually found it hilarious. The people who were upset were the white people. We have a very low threshold for political correctness. We’re easily embarrassed as a race. We’re just so afraid of offending people and I think part of the comedians’ job, at least part of this comedians job, is not literally to offend, but to push buttons. And if that offends some people. so be it. I’m not worried about it.

TOC: You are open to including your children in your jokes.
Michael Ian Black: I’ve never called my child a nigger and I never would.

TOC: But you mock them.
Michael Ian Black: I mock them constantly. They can barely read, so what do I care.

TOC: How old are they?
Michael Ian Black: They’re 18 and 16.

TOC: In your book, My Custom Van, and in the first scene your new show, you mentioned a therapist. Do you have a shrink?
Michael Ian Black: I actually do have a therapist, although I don’t go that much, because I’m not that crazy. I’m just a little bit crazy. Basically I go enough where they say, “You should be on Lexipro.” And then I go, “I know.”

TOC: I don’t even know what that is.
Michael Ian Black: It’s an anti depressant. They give me the Lexipro and I stop going to the therapist. I have tremendous faith in the nation’s pharmaceutical corporations and not very much in my own capacity to do work on myself.

TOC: Your tone is so dry and satirical, I considered that you might be a Scientologist mocking the industry.
Michael Ian Black: It’s not reverse mocking, its just pure mocking. Nothing reverse about it. I’m just mocking myself.

TOC: That’s a common theme among comedians.
Michael Ian Black: Therapy, neurosis or self-mocking? The answer is C, all of the above. I don’t think comedians are more self-loathing than anyone else. I think we just make a lot of money talking about it. In a sense I think we are less self-loathing because we have an outlet for it. We do nothing about how much we hate ourselves, and in a way I think that makes us feel better about ourselves

TOC: Something else you talk a lot about—
Michael Ian Black: Fudge cabinets??

TOC: There’s that, but no. Unicorns.
Michael Ian Black: Well I have a dual personality where I’m sort of split between being…

TOC: Whimsical and dirty?
Michael Ian Black: Well, yes, a dirty heterosexual guy and a totally innocent thirteen year girl. And the unicorns are my totally innocent thirteen year old girl part. My dirty part, given the chance, would probably molest my innocent part. And that’s why I take Ambien.

TOC: A sort of a self-induced roofie?
Michael Ian Black: I was wondering if I could date rape myself.

Michael & Michael Have Issues premieres Wednesday 15 at 9:30pm on Comedy Central. Click here to read our interview with Michael Showalter.

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