Michael Showalter
Michael Showalter
Michael Showalteris an American comedian, actor, producer, writer, and director. He is a member of the sketch comedy trio Stella. Showalter first came to recognition as a cast member on MTV's The State, which aired from 1993 to 1995. He co-wroteand starred in Wet Hot American Summerand he wrote, directed, and starred in The Baxter, with Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux and Elizabeth Banks. Both of these movies featured many of his co-stars from The State, and so do several of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth17 June 1970
CityPrinceton, NJ
CountryUnited States of America
I like the comedians that go into detail and tell longer stories.
Love is such a confusing word. You think I'm joking but I'm not.
One of the things that is always difficult about a collaboration is that you don't necessarily find the same thing funny. And so the challenge becomes, how do you tell the other person that you don't think something's funny? The best collaborations tend to be when you are willing to be told that. But there's also ego involved, and so there's a lot of frustration in knowing that you're writing something, and the other person, on some level, needs to think that it's funny.
I calculated that if I wrote five pages a day, which seemed very doable, I would have an 1,800-page first draft when the deadline rolled around. Though completely unwritten, I was very impressed with how long my first draft would be.
I'm not sure why I like cats so much. I mean, they're really cute obviously. They are both wild and domestic at the same time.
A lot of my humor centers on the act of telling jokes and I think this can prevent certain audiences from suspending their feeling of disbelief. It might piss a few people off, but I can't help it.
I went to college thinking of maybe pursuing a career in film criticism.
Their unifying characteristic is they're not romantic. They have this inability to recognize the simple romantic needs of their counterpart. They just never know the right thing!
I mean, do you really think Paul Krugman is checking his Twitter account every day to read what I write? Of course not. Every other day maybe, but not every day.
I'm not big on fat jokes. That's a little beneath me. I'm not a huge fan of making a joke - and as I say this, I'm sure I do it - completely at someone else's expense.
Michael, David and I get along very well, ... That is why we have been able to stay collaborating for so long. The State was a much more tumultuous collaboration, that was a lot of fighting, and a lot of people needing their way. We had 10 very strong opinions in there, very strong comedic voices in one room is too many cooks.
Baxters overdo it. The Baxter is the guy who's going to take a girl to the best restaurant in town, having no clue if it's appropriate for her. All that matters is, it's the best. Anything recommended as the most romantic place, that's where you'll find the Baxter.
She's sweet and she's nice, she's just not Andie MacDowell. God forbid, you're not Andie MacDowell. You're just a person, ... I'm playing with that whole idea that the characters have these quirks about their personalities that we've been conditioned to believe equal wrongness.
I think comedians see themselves as people among people.