Jim Gaffigan

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Gaffigan entertains crowd with classic favorites
By Tim O'Connor
09/10/07

Those at comedian Jim Gaffigan's Friday night show at the Elliott Hall of Music may have gotten hungry during his performance. The theater was packed with enthusiastic fans, some of whom brought Hot Pocket boxes. The crowd gave the food-loving comedian three separate standing ovations during the night.

Before Gaffigan took the stage, he was preceded by Rich Brooks, a comedian from Tennessee with bad sideburns and an ex-girlfriend he loved talking about. Although Brooks received a warm reception from crowd members, they didn't rise to their feet until Gaffigan took the stage.

Gaffigan, a former Boilermaker who had the facial expression of a man rudely awaken from a good nap, began his act talking about "The Region," the area in northwest Indiana where he grew up. But aside from a later reference to walking across Purdue's campus to 5 a.m. classes, he chose not to focus too much on his Indiana roots and stuck with many of his classic jokes. It wasn't long before he started talking about food.

Gaffigan did a bacon monologue that seemed to go on for 10 minutes, but kept the audience laughing the entire way. He talked about his love of bacon and said the food instantly made everything better. He even suggested that actor Kevin Bacon's success was tied to his surname. He also spoke of how lazy he was. "Ever read an article and it said, 'continued on page 6?'" he asked the audience. "Not for me."

Gaffigan, who has two children under the age of three, talked about parenting and how exhausting it is to watch his wife do all the work. He also said she doesn't consider him to be a real Catholic, although he'll occasionally cheer for Notre Dame this comment received loud boos and a few cheers from the crowd.

But he quickly got back to his favorite subject. "I haven't talked about food in two minutes," he said. "I have to get back to bacon." Gaffigan ended the show doing the audience's favorite bit, his Hot Pockets monologue. "I was watching the 'Price is Right' and someone won a life's supply of Hot Pockets," he said. "That's like a death sentence. Murder pockets."

After leaving the stage, Gaffigan waited a few moments and listened to the applause before returning for an encore about cuddling with his wife. After the show, hundreds of people filled the Hall of Music's lower lobby to meet Gaffigan. Mark Lewis, a senior in the College of Technology, said the show was excellent. "He has a real understanding for what people go through," Lewis said.

Although she had never heard of Gaffigan before, Julie Stark, a student at the University of Indianapolis, said she really enjoyed his act. "I can sympathize with loving all types of food," she said. "I could hear myself thinking the things he was saying."

www.jimgaffigan.com
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Not exactly a sparkling review, but I've liked Gaffigan's stuff for a few years now and his dryness is great.

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Jim Gaffigan and “King Baby”, Comedy That Refreshes.
www.dead-frog.com

I’ve defined comedy on occasion as the art of surprise. There’s a lot of stand-ups who can’t help but surprise because they are working with thoughts rarely expressed or said. There’s extreme power there. They can’t help but surprise with things they say. So it’s perhaps an easier shortcut to funny, right?

It’s probably a far too simple a way of looking at it. But I think it points out what’s so impressive about a comic like Jim Gaffigan. The danger in working with the everyday is not that you don’t get laughs. You can and will. But it’s the nature of the laughs that you will get. It’s harder to surprise when you’re working something people know because it’s in the fabric of their daily lives.

We laugh for a lot of reasons. Often when a comic talks the everyday that elicits the laugh of recognition. Of the “I’ve done that.” Or “That’s true.” They’re good. But they’re not the hard surprise laughs, that open up and show things anew.

Those recognition laughs are certainly a part of Gaffigan’s act.But what makes Gaffigan a great comic is that he doesn’t stop there. He’ll break it to find what’s on the other side of recognition, where the everyday becomes strange again.

The simpler comparison of how fast food goes through you is taken to the non-parallel of spinach and dysentery, an anti-comparison which makes it sharper. But even richer, he finds that little bit of our relationship in time with fast food restaurant and matches it with our dating lives. To me it created a comparison I won’t forget the next time I surrender to a late night urge to eat at a McDonalds or Wendys.

It’s really, the most desirable results of a surprise: a new recognition. A connection that can’t be escaped. Even if it’s about something as simple as what we eat, it makes the common life refreshed. Something I think many could use in these times.

It seems ridiculous to talk about King Baby, without giving you some of it. So here’s Gaffigan on his love of bologna.

Click HERE to watch the whole show

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Jim Gaffigan on Fatherhood, the Economy and Cheddar Cheese
By Rebecca Dana
blogs.wsj.com

Jim Gaffigan is the kooky dad of American comedians, telling profanity-free jokes about Hot Pockets and Cinnabons to audiences of “Morman parents, Lesbian couples and college kids.” Now he’s appearing as “Lowell,” an examplar of poor parenting, in “Away We Go,” a sweet film co-written by Dave Eggers and starring “The Office”s John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, formerly of “SNL.” It opens in theaters Friday. We spoke with Gaffigan about his new daughter, barbeque etiquette and the recession.

Wall Street Journal: First of all, your wife gave birth recently. Congratulations! How is little Katie Louise Gaffigan?
Jim Gaffigan: She’s great. This morning we did the first bath. It’s funny. She’s this really calm, sweet, mellow baby, and then last night she was just like “Baaaaaaaaaaah!” “What happened?” As long as she’s healthy.

How is the third child different from the first two so far?
My wife would hate me for saying this, but being a white blond, or a towhead or whatever, I think that katie is going to be like a white blonde, and my two other children have dirty blond hair. I was one of those kids with the white blond hair. Don’t use any of that. It’s insane. I remember being 12 and having some 60 year old lady saying “Ugh, if I could have the champagne blonde you have!” And I’m like if I could just have any pigmentation at all, that would be great!

In “Away We Go,” you play Lowell, a dog-racing enthusiast and by all appearances a really, really horrible father. How did you prepare for the role?
Everyone has known a dad like that in their neighborhood growing up where it’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on with that guy, he’s insane.’ The insane quiet guy is usually married to the really loud chatty one, know what I mean? There’s different aspects of dads I knew growing up that were just kind of off on some crazy tangent. I meet a lot of people after shows that will tell me some crazy joke that just doesn’t make sense.

As an actor, at least in my opinion, it’s always funner to play the more flawed, complex guy, the more off-kilter he is and just delusional, it’s fun to kind of dive in there. And the humor is in their unawareness, you know? We see it in friends. I have a friend that, you know, he’s a great guy, occasionally he’ll start telling you things. As a comedian, you kind of develop this thing called like “laugh ears,” you can hear whether a joke is working, whether you need to edit it, based on the feedback of laughter, we learn that. Oh, I’m boring someone, I should stop.

(At this point, Gaffigan interrupts the interview to answer a knock at his hotel room door. It’s room service — a burger. The phone is on speaker, and he begins addressing the delivery man.) One burger, seventy-one dollars. I’m gonna give you an extra tip because you’re good looking. How does one thousand dollars sound? Eighty-one. Once you go down there, I’m gonna say, ‘Hey I didn’t trust that guy who came here, I think he added a tip.’ I don’t know who’s room this is by the way, I broke in.

(He returns) What kind of father are you?
I’m motivated by not wanting to be a crappy one. I—I find a lot of it is just showing up to stuff.

Do your kids know you’re famous?
They know I’m a comedian. I think they do find me funny. I think they’re pretty funny too. Obviously I don’t come from an entertainment family. One time when I was walking my kids back from the park in a stroller, someone like Madonna was in some clothing store near our building. There were all these photographers, and since people sometimes think I’m Phil Hoffman, I thought they were trying to take my picture, and I was like, “Why are you guys here?” My daughter said, “Cause you’re a great comedian!” And she’s like five.

You’re from Indiana, and you’ve spoken in the past about how politicians, the entertainment industry and the media condescend to the Midwest. That was the theme of your short-lived but wonderful television show “Welcome to New York,” done through fellow Indiana-native David Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants. Given all that, did you have any qualms playing Lowell, who is basically a caricature of Middle Americans, as seen by coastal elites?
The thing about Lowell is that, you know, there are Lowells on Staten Island. There are Lowells in Battery Park City. Lowell is truly an American kind of guy. He exists. He’s the guy at the barbeque that’s your friend’s dad.

I was just at a barbeque when I was back in LA. This dad was at the grill and I was like “Hey, what kind of cheese do you have?” “American.” “Oh, I thought someone said something about cheddar.” He’s like, “Cheddar?” This is a guy who’s from LA. But he had the kind of approach of “American cheese! Be American!” The guy ribbed me later on, “Sorry we didn’t have any of your fancy cheese.”

Has the recession affected you? Your comedy?
I come from a family that was all about security. They were in finance. I studied finance in college. That’s the great irony is that I have the most secure job of all my siblings. Who would have thought, the comedian? Telling my family that I was gonna be a comedian and an actor way back then, they thought it was a little crazy: “Yes, you’re gonna live on the moon and you’re gonna drive around on a motorboat with wheels on it.”

What did you think of Wanda Sykes performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner?
Having known wanda for 15 years, it was like, “She’s holding back a little bit.” It’s really interesting to see how that Correspondents’ Dinner has changed since the Colbert thing. Now it’s a Hollywood night. And now it seems kind of like a rite of passage for social satirists. Being an observational guy it’s kind of like “Huh, maybe I’ll never do one of those then.” I’m also not gonna be an action hero star or perform in the Olympics, but I can get over it. There is something about–I don’t really feel like she did anything that was earth-shattering.

What do you aspire to?
I aspire to creative fulfillment. Being a guy who kind of did stand-up and acting for a long time without an incredible amount of success I had to come to the conclusion that I was doing it for the creative fulfillment of doing it. Getting the opportunity to actually do something you love really in the end should be enough, and the fact that you make enough money. I had to come to that realization when I saw my peers doing late night shows and getting development deals. I had to go beyond being jealous or angry that the insane entertainment industry wasn’t fair. I had to get to a point where I enjoyed the process.

I also, you know, I wouldn’t mind having Gene Hackman’s career. He’s somebody who was very successful but you never, people weren’t like, “What’s Gene Hackman wearing? Did you hear Gene Hackman got a divorce?” There’s something about remaining a journeyman.

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Jim Gaffigan at the Pabst Theater
Brian Jacobson
December 31st, 2011
thirdcoastdigest.com

Actor-Comedian Jim Gaffigan has been in Milwaukee since before Christmas, staying with his wife and four kids at a nearby hotel and visiting her relatives. We know this because he tweets and does Facebook updates about it. We know this because Gaffigan returns to town every New Year’s Eve weekend for a couple of special shows at the Pabst Theater. We know this because the show on Friday was adorably begun with an announcement: “Ladies and Gentleman, for your pre-show entertainment, the Irish dance stylings of Marre Gaffigan.”

A 6-year-old girl in a sparkly pink dress dances a jig to house-pumped music. She is joined on stage by 2-year-old sister Katie, and they reel around the empty stage while the audience gets to their feet clapping. After a few minutes, they depart and a woman (likely Jim’s wife, Jeannie) places a microphone stand at its lowest setting. Out comes 4-year-old son Jack, who makes the standard announcement about cell phones and video recordings to the audience in the cutest fashion possible. At the end of the show, Gaffigan again lets them loose on the stage to dance, joined this time by newborn son, Michael, whom he puppeteers into a jig. So it was a family show, in a way.

Gaffigan is about to launch a new American tour in January, and you get the feeling he was trying out new material at a rapid and threadbare pace. It’s not that he wasn’t funny—it’s just that the jokes were a bit rough when we are used to seeing rock-star talent and timing through his comedy specials like the seminal Beyond the Pale. The comic stood on a black curtained stage in his typical untucked black shirt and black jeans. The Pabst uncharacteristically turned off all the lights, leaving only the main spotlights: It was easy to see the pale man was a bit haggard, and a bit thinner than usual.

The more lithe Gaffigan is no coincidence. Much of his new material involved going to the gym or avoiding going the gym. Of course there were the standard riffs about food or fast food restaurants—the material that has made him famous—but there were also entertaining takes on being a father: “People ask me what it’s like to have a fourth child. Imagine you’re drowning. Then somebody hands you a baby.”

His well-known whispering audience member reaction voice was joined by others, like the Bronx guy selling the first Stairmaster: “You climb and never go anywhere, but on the upside then you die.” There was the polite handling of the drunk lady who went to school with Gaffigan’s wife and thought she could talk about it loudly to the comedian on stage: “She’s going to wake up and find meeting times for AA stuffed in her pockets.” Finally, Gaffigan started the car running with a riff on McDonald’s, and how we all have our own “McDonald’s,” whether its tattoos or smoking or watching TMZ. True, of course.

Like a rock star, Gaffigan thanked the audience and dashed off stage, then after a minute of applause came out for the encore. Like a rock star who has played his new album and now plays the classic that topped the charts, he reprised a few Wisconsin favorites, including a cheese-curd Hot Pocket. Gaffigan has been refining the Hot Pocket bit since his 2005 album, Doing My Time, which I’m listening to as I write this. And while the piece has evolved a little over time, the general timbre and rhythm remains the same.