Sean Masterson Interview

Lauren: Hello Sean, how are you?

Sean: I'm good and how are you guys doing?

Kelsey: We're good

Lauren: We're done school, so that's good.

S: Fantastic. So where is the 302 area code?

L: Delaware, ever heard of it? Haha.

S: Yeah, actually I played there, I toured with Second City years ago, I was on the road for about two and a half years, and we toured mostly the northeast.

L: Interesting, so when did you join Second City?

S: Oh years ago, let's not put a date on it, haha. Let's just say it was the 80's and I was wearing balloon pants.

L: What was the audition process like for Second City?

S: I auditioned and out of 200 people and they were looking for 4, it was really intense. It went from about 8am to 6pm. When I was there I was there with like Steven Colbert, Steve Carrell, Bonnie Hunt and Joel Murray. I couldn't sleep the day before and I was like out of my mind. Everyone else was from different improve groups and they didn't pair you up, you just went up with someone else and they could all look at one and other, they all had the fix in. I didn't have that, I went up with a guy who was just so bad that I looked like a genius. I was incredibly lucky, he kept making all these bad choices and I kept doing a dead pan to the audience.

L: So who else made it beside you?

S: Um, I'm not sure. You have to realize is that the people you're in Second City with, you're in Hollywood with. You see each other at social things and it becomes like a college. There's at least 2 or 3 bbq's or hangouts a year that you'll all see each other and keep in touch. In a weird way it's like getting a second family, or a cult.

L: A very cool experience I'm sure.

K: So most recently you co-wrote a show that's airing on VH1's broadband channel called the Home Purchasing Club (HPC)

S: Yes I did

K: Whose idea was it to write the show?

S: That was my idea, I created the show. I do improv's with Jonathan Mangum a lot, we do the Drew Carey improve all stars shows together, and we used to throw in a home shopping thing as a bit and it always got a huge reaction because it's the one format that everyone's in on the joke. So one night we literally were getting such a huge reaction every time we went back to it and I murmured to him, because it's such a simple, obvious idea, am I missing something here, is there something really endlessly evergreen about this venue. He said no, it really is and we worked on it. And it became really apparent as we were watching this home shopping that the products are only one part of it, it's the fact that everything's always positive and they make these terrible corny asides to one and other that's supposed to humanize them. It's fascinating.

K: Yes, we watch the show and it is just hilarious.

L: We were crying our eyes out.

S: Thankyou. What I love is when the old woman fell from the stage. I remember the director going "Oh no, we can't use that" and I said oh no of course we can. The stage hand goes "Man I was watching here I knew she wasn't gonna make it".

L & K: (Laughter)

K: So after you did the first episode of HPC did you get the response you were looking for?

S: Yeah. It took us about a year to really place the show, because we did the pilot we paid for it ourselves, we called in every favor in the world. I was really lucky because the director owns a post facility so he could do the editing which is hellishly expensive. We did it from like midnight to 5 o'clock in the morning. It really was kind of like the Andy Hardy version of let's put on a show. Everybody threw in, people are only now getting paid for it and stuff. We did a big premiere night and you do this dance in Hollywood where they love you, and come in for meeting and this is how we want to change it. The big thing is everybody wants to do a behind the scenes and I kept saying I gotta be honest with you, nobody gives a sh*t. I mean we could do it and you could have like the you know Mary Tyler Moore, who's the normal person, and everyone else is like the Ted Knights character but really what's funny about this is that it continuously goes. If you watch the actual home shopping, you start laughing at these people and after a while you have so much f*cking respect for these people because you try talking about a bullsh*t piece of plastic for 45 minutes.

K & L: (Laughter)

S: It's crazy. You know I'm an improviser I'm supposed to be able to make this stuff up, and I'm gonna tell you, after a while you just start nodding your head and going this is unbelievable. It just takes so much effort.

L: How do you do that when writing the show, how do you get your inspiration for all of these skits?

S: you know it's whatever makes us laugh. But what's really funny is there's a real difference between what the idea of something and the execution of it. So a lot of ideas we had to throw away because it's a one joke thing. We have one coming up called hot dog juicer, which is just hilarious, and then we added a second thing called the carp dead cooking pans that take water out of food because you know you could drown. It's almost like if you could come up with a piece of logic and argue it, you know which is the best of all improve, then you know you've got a winner. If its just the one joke that theres nothing else to, you're kind of screwed.

K: So moving back in time. The Drew Carey Show was obviously a very well received show, really popular. What was it like being a part of that?

S: Well I only wrote on it for half a season. But I do the live shows with Drew and I did a guest star on it. It's amazing to watch what happened with Drew, because Drew is clearly the nicest guy in show business. I can't even go into enough Drew Carey stories about truly what a good guy he is and it's because he's not from Hollywood and he's got a whole different take on what success is. It's really interesting to watch a show go from a really small show to a huge, huge, show to the final year when ABC was done with it and burned off his episodes during the summer. It's bizarre because that's probably the most expensive year of the show and you kind of scratch your head and go "in what other world would that happen in business?"

K: So I saw that you co-wrote a screenplay with Ryan Stiles, who was also on Drew Carey.

S: Yeah we're written a few.

K: This one "Live Bait" is being produced by Universal and Imagine Entertainment, so when can we expect to see that?

S: Well it's pretty dead right now. We were writing for Eddie Murphy at one point, we wrote it, it was original, it got bought. The story there is hilarious, we gave the screenplay to a guy who does breakdowns to find out how much it would cost to get it made independently. He passed it to Mel Brooks, who loved it, and said I don't do other people's screenplays. It eventually got passed to Steve Otakurk who is Jim Carrey's writer, loved it. Once he loved it we were golden, and the thing sold like the next day and then we did these drafts and they were great and then we lost our executive and it was replaced and that person was a middle aged woman who didn't like college humor. She kept going "Well you know it's a funny scene but I just imagine my children going to see this" That's just what I want to hear, I can't write for your 9 year old, I'm sorry. So eventually they tried to do it as a Jack Black feature and whatever. Actually a few of the elements were kind of lifted by Dude They Stole My Car or whatever that was. But you never know, it's a really funny script.

L: What would you pinpoint as your own unique comedic style?

S: Um well it's funny we say in the Improv All-Stars that everyone has their own superhero talent. Mine is to say the most inappropriate thing at the absolute worst moment.

L: Sounds like me.

S: What I learned with this project, with Home Purchasing, was I loved doing characters and wild stuff and people really love me to just do straight stuff. The straighter the better so if anything that's what I've kind of learned, my t.v. persona is supposed to be as straight as possible. Deadpan.

K: So what were you like as a child growing up? Did you always know that you wanted to be a comedian?

S: Yeah, it's like a weird niche you find yourself in, where you're not just a writer because you have personality and you can actually sell your jokes, you're not just an actor because sometimes you can improve things and smart writers like that because they ultimately get all the credit and defensive writers hate you for that. The greatest luck I've had was a friend in Second City, he saw me struggling and said you shouldn't be worrying about getting a small part in this movie or trying to get into that show, you should be in Chicago honing your craft. And I always appreciated that they saw that and I got that guidance because it changed my life.

L: You write, you act, you're a comic. Which one do you enjoy the most, or are they all the same to you?

S: Ego wise nothing beats doing a live show. We're going to be doing shows at the MGM Grand with Drew over Superbowl weekend, it's like our eighth year of doing it. Ryan comes out for those, Greg Proubst, everyone that was on "Whose Line" and it's really an amazing thing, it's great to get up and say whatever you want. It's just an incredible thrill. It's also really satisfying to write something. When I saw "One Size Fits All", it was really weird to write something for two women and have it kill like that.

L: You like doing live stuff?

S: I like doing live stuff because there's something about pulling a laugh out of an audience when there was just silence and you do something and it pulls a gigantic laugh. It's great.

L: Do you ever get nervous?

S: No, Yeah, Yeah I do. I'll tell you when I get nervous is when I haven't had any protein for some reason. I run on protein, it sounds so weird but it's true. I've had like pancakes and I go out, I have shows where I'm like an audience member. I'm like wow that's funny or I wish I said that. You don't really get nervous, it's a good kind of nervous. More of a what's going to happen tonight as opposed to an oh can you do it.

L: Any rituals you do, eat a candy bar?

S: I always kiss Kathy Kinney's cheek.

K: Aww

S: For goodluck

K: So what do you do on your days off when you're not writing or doing live shows?

S: Try to do everything my wife puts on a list for me. There's really no days off, with mobile phones and PDA's everyone has a 24/7 world and as an actor that's what you get paid for. You don't get paid for the days you actually work you get paid for the days you're not working and you might get working. I've been doing spots on Jimmy Kimmel and they call me at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I'm down there at 5:30 shooting something and it's on the show that night. You never know when somethings going to pop up. There's really no days off, Sunday is the day off and you can't reach anyone. That's the official you really can't call anyone on this day.

L: Who were or are your inspirations now or when you were growing up?

S: Doug Kenney, who created the National Lampoons. Harold Ramus, Steve Martin, Abbot and Costello, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, basic stuff. There was a guy at Second City named Jim Fay who passed away and he could blow Robin Williams off the stage. He had a photographic memory. Guys like that, who have unique special abilities, that you don't have and you go gosh that's amazing.

K: This is our million dollar question: Maryanne or Ginger?

S: Well they really serve two different functions. Probably Maryanne

K: That's the resounding answer for most men. Ok but Maryanne, or Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie?

S: Well that's not really fair, the girl next door against the girl who calls her guy master, what do you think? Come one it's like, those kind of shows really f*cked my generation up. It's like on tv you live in a bottle and do whatever I want.

L: I've got one last serious question. Out of all the shows and movies that you've been a part of, what's your favorite?

S: I did some stuff with Christopher Guest, anything where it's a true collaboration and its about having fun. I can't pinpoint one, it's more what's in an environment that makes it fun.

L: And the people you work with I'm sure.

S: Absoutley, everybody's done gigs that are a drag, the ones you want to do again and again, like the live ones we do with Drew, are the ones that are so much fun, you can't wait. Two weeks before the gig you start getting excited about it. It's when you're working in an environment where it's really positive and the people are top notch, they all have the same goal which is to have fun and do good work.

L: Well thank you so much for taking the time with us today.

S: Absoutley, I'm glad you guys like the show. We just got our pick up from VH1 so there's more coming.

K: Awesome, we look forward to it.

S: Have a great vacation.