Northwestern alum Kristen Schaal, Communication ’00, came to campus Thursday to perform stand up along with parody rock duo Flight of the Conchords and NU sketch comedy group Mee-Ow. Schaal, who plays Mel on the HBO show Flight of the Conchords, phoned in to the Daily to give her take on coming back to NU, the nation’s funniest unknown comedians and her favorite post-show traditions.
Matt Spector: First off, are you excited to come back to Northwestern?
Kristen Schaal: Yeah, I’m totally thrilled. I’m so excited to come back to Northwestern. The last time I came back was the year after I graduated. I came back to see Mee-Ow and Griffin’s Tale. So this would be my second time back.
MS: Are you nervous to perform in front of everyone?
KS: Did the expectations just get really high since I left?
MS: Yeah, I guess.
KS: I guess I’m not nervous. Are you guys hecklers?
MS: I don’t think so.
KS: Okay, then I think it’ll be fine. I don’t think I’m gonna let them down.
MS: How did you originally get hooked up with the Flight of the Conchords guys?
KS ;It was sort of a timing thing where I was doing an HBO Comedy Festival at the same time they were developing the show. So we just connected through that. But I had never met them before. And I also didn’t really audition either.
MS: You also didn’t really audition?
KS: No, they liked the stand-up that I did so I got it.
MS: What’s it been like working on the show?
KS: It’s really fun. Everybody’s really nice and funny and cool. It’s just a fun job to have.
MS: What made you want to transfer to Northwestern?
KS: In high school I was doing like a Improv troupe and my teacher that recommended NU – I had never even heard of it -so yeah that’s how I heard of it. And I just heard that there’s sixteen productions that the students put up each year and it seemed like a great place to go so I just focused on that school. And eventually transferred into it. I had a great time at Northwestern, those were definitely some of the best years of my life.
MS: How do you think your experiences in Mee-Ow and Griffin’s Tale shaped your view on comedy?
KS: They were both really great for learning how to work as a team and as an ensemble. As far as Mee-Ow goes that was sort of telling about competition in the workforce, trying to get a sketch in, you know, selling a sketch, trying. It was kind of tricky even though they’re all your friends, everyone’s really strongly assertive about what they think is funny. And also too I thought that being in Mee-OW and get that when you walk out on stage and everybody’s a fan of the show before the show’s even delivered. So it’s the easiest show you’ll ever get to do because you don’t have to win the audience over which is something that I missed as soon as I got out of college.
MS: I think you’re going to encounter that at this show too, to be honest.
KS: Oh that would be nice, yeah I hope so. (Laughs) It would be nice to come back to that, but we’ll see….now I’m nervous.
MS: Don’t be nervous, you have a good opening act.
KS :Yeah I can’t wait to see them.
MS: What originally turned you on to stand-up?
KS: I first was interested in stand-up and basically after I graduated Northwestern all of my friends from Mee-Ow moved to LA and I moved to New York. And so all the sudden I was all by myself, so I started writing things just for me, and that’s how it happened – It happened out of loneliness. It turned out to be great -because you don’t have to rely on anyone else, you’re in total control of whether it gets done and you go up places which led to everything else as far as acting goes.
MS: How is the comedy scene in New York different than the scene in LA?
KS: Well the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre) in LA that’s been going on for a few years now is definitely changing the landscape of comedy in LA. They have a great audience that comes back. Before that there wasn’t places to perform in LA, it’s really about getting there still isn’t thank god they have that I’ve talked to so many comedians who just can’t go up enough in front of an audience in LA because shows don’t exist – as many as there are in New York. And the New York scene is flourishing and has been for last 8 years because there’s tons of places in New York to host a show so lots of people do it. You could go up – I’ll go up like two to three times a night and that’s not even me working that hard. You could do a ton of shows here so you can consistently get better and better at what you do. And there’s a great audience here to support it.
MS: Do you feel that Chicago is a good town for comedy?
KS: I don’t know. I mean obviously it’s a good town for comedy. ImprovOlympic, Second City and the Annoyance Theatre – but, I don’t know. I’ve never really dipped into the comedy scene so I can’t really tell you. I feel like the reason that I wanted to leave Chicago after I graduated because there’s Second City there that everybody wants to do so they could maybe get scouted and go off to do something else like SNL but that’s the only gig in town that high profile and I just didn’t want to compete for that. In New York you can definitely kind of make your own way and there’s a lot more options to how to build your career in New York, I feel, than there is in Chicago. There’s a lot more opportunities.
MS: Are there any comedians out there that college students should check out – people who are off the radar?
KS: I would hope that they’ve heard of a comedian named Jon Mulaney. He’s good and every time I see him he kills, he’s good. A bunch of people I know around New York-t here’s Chelsea Peretti is really funny, Jon Glaser and Jon Benjamin are both geniuses.
MS: What’s the most unique stand-up experience you’ve had?
KS: I did a set around Christmas in Denver and I’m from Colorado so that was really sweet ’cause my family was there and everything. It was a nice moment.
I’ve done a lot of comedy now in London and that was a unique experience because, and this is why I think Conchords is so good, it’s that people are focused on universal humor, but you can’t really focus on any cultural things. I think comedy is stronger when everybody can get the joke.
Me and my comedy partner Kurt did a sketch called “Kristen Schaal is a Whore” where basically he sings “Kristen Schaal is a whore” and I dance for three minutes and we sold that to the BBC. In November, he and I went to London to record that particular sketch on the BBC for three minutes, that was a fun experience. I’ve really been fortunate.
MS: Do you have any suggestions for NU students who are trying to break into the business?
KS: Something that I learned – it’s so true – is that you really gotta do your own thing when you get out of college. The only reason I got the job on FOTC is because I was doing my own comedy thing and then it got noticed. I mean, you can work your way and you’ll get breaks here and there but you don’t really have a lot of control over showbiz because its so nebulous and so stupid. Like, it doesn’t really matter how talented you are. You know, its like where you are at the moment – you have no control. It’s important to create something that you really do have control over so you don’t get your mind bending over. That would be something that I would tell them right away. Whatever it is – if they’re into drama, definitely get out there and start your own theatre company and just get involved in your own thing and let showbiz come to you. And there’s much more opportunities to do that now especially with the Internet stuff. There’s comedy on the internet- People make some videos and put them on the internet and suddenly people want you to be in their thing. And – when I was there we were just doing monologues in acting classes – ‘Let’s hone down our monologues’ – which is totally bogus in the real world. I’ve never done a monologue for anyone. It’s all reading the sides, the pages of the movie or th
e TV show you’re auditioning more. I would hope they ask their teachers if they could do something like that.
MS: Do you have a favorite one liner?
KS: The bird poo is coming so say your goodbyes – I don’t think that would be funny on paper. I don’t know if I can, and I’m always quoting other people’s jokes. There’s the Rodney Dangerfield joke that’s so good…Oh! Here’s one – oh my God, I got so addicted to alcohol last night.
MS: I think that applies to a lot of Northwestern students too.
KS: Yeah (laughs).
MS: What’s your favorite thing to do post-show?
KS: Definitely drink. (Laughs) Just drink. I like to drink red wine and chat with people and, you know, maybe eat dumplings or green tea ice cream.
MS: Green tea ice cream? Good choice.
KS: Yeah, it’s delicious.
MS: Do you think you’ll make it out to the bars?
KS: Oh, I hope so. I would love to do that. I heard it’s really changed now from when I was there. I think I will, I’m gonna do my best. One of my best friends who was in Mee-Ow at Northwestern is going to try to fly out. So we’re going to try to relive it a little bit. I didn’t go to bars at Northwestern though because I was so poor. I only – I basically drank at people’s houses.
