For those that don’t know, I, for no reason at all, decided to contact several in the entertainment industry. People I admire, and who have been involved in things that I love. I just wanted to ask a few questions. Several agreed. Here we go—
Andrew Daly. I don’t even know how to preface this…
This is a really fascinating interview with Andy Daly that includes this gem:
I notice that a more than a few of your improv characters end up killing themselves. Do you have an obsession with suicide? Should I call 911?
Right. Here’s the deal with that. I actually don’t think I’ve bothered to try and explain this to anyone before, so this is one hell of a SCOOP! (not really. not even remotely. but here it is anyway).
The first time I did CDR radio, I did my Danny Mahoney character. Part of his backstory is that he had once contemplated suicide. It’s not a major piece of the Danny Mahoney story, just a little detail, but I think Scott and I talked about it for a bit on air. The next two times I was on, I played Ben Alterman and August Lindt and in both shows, the subject of suicide was stumbled upon very much by accident in the course of our improvising. It was not something I had planned to talk about. I don’t remember how it came into the Alterman show but I do remember that it was Scott (or maybe PFT) who asked August Lindt “is that a suicide note in your hand?” Then the next time I came in, Scott mentioned off air that suicide had been mentioned in all three of my appearances to date. The idea of that as a really horrible running gag seemed amusing for reasons I can’t explain and from that point forward, Scott made sure to pimp every one of my characters into disclosing that they were suicidal - and if he didn’t, I brought it up myself just for consistency’s sake. There’s no explaining it really. I guess the inappropriateness of that as a running joke is somehow alluring to sick fucks like me and Scott. But, you may notice that the last time I was on CBB radio, my character of Chip Gardner did not have any plans to kill himself. Yes he had allowed a jeep to run over his face for reasons that were less than clear, but he’s my first CBB character in a while who was not going straight from the studio into a suicide attempt. First of many? Who knows! But no, I’m not obsessed with suicide and I’d never take myself out, by jeep, heavy coat or otherwise.
