The joy in staying indoors... with Joel McHale

BEVERLY HILLS, California — All the stars of the nine CBS Studios shows “grilled” during a two-day presscon by international journalists were engaging. But the funniest of them all was, by far, Joel McHale who stars in The Great Indoors, a comedy about a renowned adventure reporter for an outdoor magazine who must adapt to the times when he becomes the desk-bound boss to a group of millennials in the digital department of the publication. Jack has led a thrilling “outdoorsy” life exploring the edges of the Earth while chronicling his adventures for Outdoor Limits. But his globe-trotting days end when the magazine’s charismatic founder assigns Jack to supervise their online team of journalists.

A comedian who most recently appeared in the revival of the cult sci-fi TV series The X-Files, playing a conservative news anchor, McHale is well known to television audiences for his starring role in the comedy series Community and as the popular host of the series The Soup which satirized pop culture and current events for 12 seasons. His feature film credits include A Merry Friggin’ Christmas opposite Robin Williams, the supernatural thriller Deliver Us from Evil, the romantic comedy Blended alongside Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, Ted, What’s Your Number?, The Big Year, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D and The Informant.

A successful stand-up comedian, McHale continues to perform his act around the country to sold-out audiences as well as lend his comedic voice to a number of events. In 2014, McHale hosted the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. and he hosted the 2015 ESPY Awards.

McHale, 45 (Nov. 20, 1971), was born in Rome and raised in Seattle, Wash. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.

True to form, during the Q&A, McHale regaled the journalists by saying something about the countries they were from before they could ask questions — Singapore? “No chewing gum and no spitting on the streets, and there’s canning, too!” New Zealand? “So how many Lord of the Rings were shot there?” Holland? “Heroine and prostitutes all legal.” Australia? “Chasing after Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe.” And the Philippines? “How is President Duterte?” Take note, all comments were made in the spirit of fun.

He walked into the function room of Beverly Hilton with a wide smile, greeting everybody with a loud “How are you, guys?”

What did you find attractive about your role in The Great Indoors role and what part of the character did you identify with?

“Well, we’re shooting in Manila as you know, so that was one of the reasons why I wanted to do it. I’m excited about your new leader.” (Laughs)

Do you read about him?

“Oh yeah, I read about him every day. I like how he says, ‘Hey, just go out and find criminals and shoot them if you like’.” (Seriously now) ”Anyway, why did I like it (the series)? Well, I’m in a very wonderful spot where I get to read scripts and then I choose one. I’d never imagined in my life I would be able to do that and so thank God. There’s a lot of scripts that are all kind of the same. They have the same sort of character and the Great Indoors script jumped out to me as somewhat different. It was one of the only workplace comedies that I read. And I’ve always loved workplace comedies going back to Barney Miller and, obviously, The Office, the British and the American (series).

“I pray to God it’s a hit in the Philippines. Yeah, it’s totally different. It’s shot with four cameras. And I’ve always loved four-camera sitcoms; I like performing in front of an audience. You hear cynics say, ‘Oh, it’s a dead medium.’ That is just absolutely false. And so my goal is to hopefully make the funniest one I can. I’m going to try.”

You mentioned already all this technology in front of you — the recorders and stuff. How much does your show reflect on how obsessed we are with technology and how little we actually go outdoors anymore? Do you think the show will make the outdoors more attractive again?

“My character is a famous journalist I become like a Martha Stewart tied to the website. And hopefully, I know they already are writing episodes where we go outside. Like I think I take them all camping.

Your Funfarer in a selfie with McHale after the press conference

“And, yes, I think technology is moving so much, it’s just getting faster and faster each day and so they are trying to figure out how to get the information out the fastest and the most profitable and that is so different than what it used to be which was you write it, it shows up in the newspaper, everybody reads it. It’s crazy. There are 500 different shows competing for your time and attention. Hopefully, from this press conference, The Great Indoors will be the show that everybody will watch.”

Is it nice to be in a situation now where you know if you do good work on this show that everybody is going to see it? This is a big CBS comedy. Is that important to you, you know, the opportunity to take your comedy to a much bigger audience?

“Yes, CBS is the network that can launch comedies in a huge, wonderful fat way. So why not get the best shot you can if you have that opportunity? The culture at CBS is that they want to win. I’m very excited to be on a network that knows how to launch them. Does that sounded like an insult to the other networks? No, it’s not.”

As a comedian, especially in The Great Indoors, do you come up within some improvising or do you stick to the script?

“I would say, ‘Yeah, it’s an improvised show.’ With any script, it’s there on paper and it’s not real until it’s being spoken out loud and then you start finding the rhythm of the scene and then stuff comes out. So we read it out loud and it takes on a life of its own and that’s where you really find it. And what’s great about a four-camera sitcom is that you can rehearse it a few times and you start finding stuff.”

Do you think that sometimes comedy doesn’t get the same attention as does drama, for instance?

“I think it goes in waves. I think for movies and for Oscar nominations, comedies definitely do not get what they deserve. It really should be like the Golden Globes where it’s separate just like how Shakespeare separated them in comedy and tragedy. So those should be separated and that’s why the Emmys are good because they separate those things. I think worldwide dramas translate better because jokes can be very local. I mean I think that’s why British comedies do very well here for the most part and obviously in Australia and New Zealand, you know, they don’t.”

CBS is really on the cusp of multi-camera sitcoms. As someone who does stand-up, you are doing a really good job.

“I’ve always enjoyed performing in front of live audiences and when I hear people say that four-camera is an old medium, I am like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’ I think it comes down to the jokes and hopefully they’ll be funny. I mean, that’s really our job and we can sweeten it with — so I love performing in front of live audiences because I was bitten by that horrible bug that actors and performers get, which is I constantly need to be told how great I am by an audience all the time and it’s an affliction and I don’t know what I’m going to do if it ever stops. So I am really, really excited.”

By the way, what do you think is the best trait and the worst trait of “millennial” generation?

“I think the best thing about the millennials is that they are the most inclusive generation of all time, probably, at least in America. No matter what people seek as far as race or sexual identity is concerned, they are the most inclusive and that’s great. And what I don’t like about them? I think them wearing those winter hats like on the backs of their heads so that the front of their heads are still kind of showing and it can be 90 degrees out and they are still wearing a fucking winter hat is ridiculous and I really hate them for that. So, yeah, yeah, I think I nailed that one. I grew a beard not because of them, and now I feel like they’ve finally caught up to me.” (Laughs)

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