Television and Cable

ARCHER

An interview with H. Jon Benjamin “Agent Sterling Archer”

The third season of ARCHER on FX as 10:00 p.m. has started and if you didn’t catch the first show with guest star Burt Reynolds you missed more laughs than ever!

Getting a chance to talk with Sterling Archer himself, in the form of H. Jon Benjamin is not only exhausting but side hurting as well. In his career he has done everything from a guest spot on “Space Ghost Coast to Coast”, “Lucy, the Devil Daughter” on Adult Swim, and the PBS show “WordGirl”. He also has a non-animated show “Jon Benjamin Has a Van” which began last June on Comedy Central. Since 1195 Benjamin has been a voice to be reckoned with and now, I’m reckoning!

Hi Jon, thanks for joining me!

Of course.

You’re doing double duty now with ARCHER and BOB’S BURGERS…

We all know how that’s going!

How do you balance them both?

Well, it’s a constant – tons of protein shakes and a very regimented workout schedule that keeps me energized. And the rest I just leave to my rabbi and my group of people who I consult with.

You’ve been ARCHER for quite some time now, what do you enjoy the most about being “Sterling”?

I like the way he looks. He’s handsome. That’s a big advantage. I’m not so handsome, and I like all the stuff I get to say, obviously. I like being rude, and it gives me a good opportunity to do that.

Do you even remember how you got the part of ARCHER?

It’s not a great story. Adam Reed, the creator of ARCHER, God rest his soul [joking], he called me – I think he had heard me do some other work on Adult Swim Shows, and he called me to read the part. I don’t know if other people had been asked. I don’t now if I was his first choice or like literally his last resort – probably last resort, right? Right?

Okay, you’re right!

So, yes, and then I accepted and then it worked out well. But I was tentative because I didn’t think I could pull off a spy. If you knew me, you’d know all the reasons why.

How was it working with Burt Reynolds?

What about him?

He is in the season premier…..

Wait, he was in it?

Ummmm…I believe so, yes.

Oh, man, no one tells me anything about this. That’s great. I can’t believe he’s still doing stuff. He should take a break. It’s been like 60 years. Like … just stop! I think they mentioned him – I think it was the natural – well, not the natural progression, but ARCHERS obviously referenced Burt Reynolds a lot, so I’m sure it popped into Adam Reed’s head to just to try and cast him. It’s funny that I should be calling like these people and you must think like they’ll never do it and then they’re probably like, “Of course, I’ll do it”.

You talked about BOB’S BURGERS mentioning there is a lot of adlibbing, would you say there is a lot with ARCHER too?

Very little. There is not a lot of room. The scripts are tightly written and he encourages sometimes on occasion, he’ll be like do you want to add anything and I’ll say no. So it’s not the same kind of production as BOB’S BURGERS, which is a lot of improving all the time, but the scripts don’t’ really require it.

Do you get much interaction or improv with Jessica Walters or Aisha Tyler? Why do you think the show is so popular?

Well, the masses are idiots, so they don’t know any better. They are to busy just staring at the light and cartoons are colorful. So don’t get me started about the masses. I’m really not a fan. But as far as interacting with the cast, I really don’t do any of that. They record everybody separately and once I tried to with Aisha Tyler, but that didn’t work out yet.

Your voice is pretty recognizable now.

So is yours, everybody’s is. Everybody’s different. It’s like a snowflake.

You yell a lot as Archer, how is that on your voice? Do you ever wish there was no talking?

I would love to…just once. It is, and I have to say, like I recently, whenever I finish – it’s not grueling or anything, but my vocal cords don’t recover for like a day after an ARCHER session. So they owe me. And it’s not like I’m at war, but it’s hard on the throat. But, yes, I would like to do that someday.

There are so many references in ARCHER like “Lord of the Rings” for one, do you realize some of them are unusual and people literally have to look them up?

Yes, I occasionally do as well. There’s like a 50/50 ration of me knowing and me not, but I’m always getting questions about that, and occasionally I don’t have the answer. I forgot to check. Fortunately, I’ve read some Melville, so that’s good. I knew a couple, but there is some stuff like the guy who invented or who started eugenics – I didn’t know that was him. So I’ll often times be asked, and the first season I always got the question about Johnny Bench or something that was said, which I did not know about him, or why. A lot of people ask me why did you say that. Nobody knew, but it’s a relatively educational show.

On the DVD set there’s a bonus feature of you becoming “Sterling Archer” in animation. Who decided to do that?

It was my idea, I believe, so I felt bad about it. I think it was my idea because it was actually made for this comedy festival that this comedian Eugene Mirman does, and I wanted to. Adam wrote the entire thing but I said we should do something to the show. They were doing an ARCHER event, so it was made for that and then they spun it off to ship it on DVD. But I think it was initially my idea.

Do you think Archer will ever be really happy?

Well, I don’t think it would behoove the show for him to be happy, so I assume that will be avoided. I think, by nature, he’s like a troubled character, so I don’t think he’ll ever be happy, but I got asked this recently, and I think my stock answer was that if his mother died, I’m not sure he’d be happy, but it would change everything for him and maybe he’d be happy. So there is some – I guess that’s not, but I just think that his mother created a lot of problems.

So some see you as the Mel Blanc of adult cartoons, care to comment on that?

Well, Mel Blanc was really good at voices, and I’m not, so he has the advantage, but I like being on the shows I’m on.

So ARCHER is handsome and dashing, do you share those qualities with your character?

Besides those? Well, obviously personality wise I can be a little shrilly, and that comes from the way I look and just having to go out in public is a struggle. So, yes, I think that my tension for anger and my general attitude – poor attitude – and failure to recognize authority and my sense of entitlement in life and being American and which and rich, those things I share, and I drink a lot in real life.

Do you get recognized from your voice?

I happens all the time in the steam room where I do most of my talking. It happens, actually, very rarely, obviously because nobody cares. But, on a few occasions, I’ve been recognized for my voice, and its just kind of hard – you have to be really keyed into that. Like there has been an occasion where like I’m ordering a tea at the coffee shop and the person behind the counter will get excited like, “Oh my, Archer’s voice is ordering a green tea”. But that being said it very rarely happens.

Archer and his mother Mallory are always going at it, in a cage match who would win?

Cage match?

Yes.

Do you need the cage? I mean seriously?

Yes, she’s a tough cookie.

I mean she’s frail at best. I would say it’s definitely me, unless I let her win or something, which, I don’t know, for money I would.

So now that your sort of in control of your character, if you could tell Adam Reed that you wanted Archer to do a specific thing what would it be?

That’s a tough question. There is so much, obviously, like spy world stuff to explore and I’m sure he hasn’t gotten to all the possibilities yet. I guess I would want him to sing more, maybe. Maybe start a band, like a really bad blues band or something. You know, Jim Belushi style.

How did you get involved with WORDGIRL?

The company that made HOME MOVIES, their company started as like an educational software company or something, and they made animated stuff for schools like educational discs that kids could play. So, there was a prior show on ABC, I think. I can’t remember what it’s called – Science Court. So they had done a few of those, and I was asked to do a part sometimes, but that’s like – WORDGIRL I get more, shockingly, more noticed for that than of the shows I’ve ever done. Kids watch a lot of TV.

There are a lot of prime time animated shows including yours, why do you think people accept them so much more now?

Well, I don’t think it’s specifically been begging for acceptance. There have been tons of animated shows geared towards adults, I guess, in the last 20 years or something hasn’t it? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s any more part of the cultural fabric. I mean maybe because of the success of shows like SOUTH PARK and the SIMPSONS, for sure, probably did start a reason to copy that formula because they were so unique. Then I guess because it was a very niche world before that. Not the whole world but adults who would read graphic novels or something like that. So in that world, I think it was pretty common and it just sort of spun off. Now everybody has it. So I don’t know what I just said, but I think you’re right.

Do you like recording ARCHER alone?

It’s more efficient to record alone, obviously, so ARCHER is quicker to do, which is a benefit, I guess if I wanted to go shopping. It doesn’t take as long – it’s not as long of a process, but there are occasions when being amongst a group of people is a benefit for the show – not for me but for the show. So, it just kind of depends on the day I guess. I have done, I think, once I recorded ARCHER and then had to go record BOB’S BURGERS or vice versa, and that day was too long.

Let’s see, your character was controlled by a microchip at one point, then Archer had cancer – what’s next?

I think it does get crazier – not crazier, but there are definitely moments of pure craziness, as there always is I guess in the show. But I think, he returns back to his regular life, so he doesn’t go off the rails completely. The show gets back to what it did in the second season, which is focus on all the characters who work for the spy agency and stuff like that. So he doesn’t have any more like crazy flights of – but they go to space. They get to go to space, but I think that was part of the mission, so it’s not like he was just like ‘I’m going to space’ and take off.

Is there a line you like that stands out the most for you?

I get asked that a lot and I’m always at a loss because I never remember lines, but I do like whenever I have to say something really like falsetto and quick. I used to be like danger zone or something. And I really like doing his answering machine messages because they’re usually written out exactly as I do them. They make me laugh every time because in real life I do that stuff. So I like when he really messes with people on his answering machine. That makes me giggle.

Will we get to see more of the Wee Baby Seamus this year?

I don’t think so. Ocelot – I forgot about that. I think Seamus is – I hope he’s all right. I don’t remember doing a lot. I know we see the tattoo a lot. He has a tattoo of Seamus’s name, I think, but I think that’s all you get of Seamus. He’s probably already off in some very exclusive place.

Do we get to see if Archer takes on Barry Dillion again, the guy who killed his wife?

Yes. He’s sort of the most prominent nemesis to Archer but I, as well as the baby, I don’t think that character comes back as much after, but I’m not certain. I don’t remember, and I am sorry. I don’t think he comes back, but that character’s really funny and bionic.

Archer is famous for his black turtlenecks and is pretty protective of them, how do you look in them?

It’s been a while since my bar mitzvah. I can’t imagine I would look good. I don’t think everybody does. Archer does look good and maybe Sammy Davis Jr. looked good and a few more – Bert Convey, but I think nowadays it’s probably a huge fashion faux pas to be walking around like that, unless you like work at a club called Turtlenecks.

Did you like spy stuff when you were young?

I was into the Torah, mostly and into the movie “Torah, Torah, Torah” because it fooled me because I thought it was Jewish, and it was actually a movie about kamikazes. But I thought that it was like this movie that was going to be crazily about the Torah – like “Torah, Torah, Torah” And it had nothing – no Jews – there was nothing Jewish about it except maybe one – I don’t know. They didn’t mention that any of the pilots or the people killed were Jewish. So yea, as a kid, it was strictly all about Judaism. I was crazy for it. So I didn’t have time for spy stuff.

So now you have done voice work, what do you think of live acting like your show JOHN BENJAMIN HAS A VAN?

Well, we are waiting to hear if this comedy central show that I did is going to get a second season. I hope that it does. I liked doing it a lot. But, you know, voice work right now is predominately what I do. But it took a year to make that show, and it was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it, so I would probably like to do more stuff on camera.

Do you like doing the continuation of the stories more than single story episodes?

I think it’s very successful when they try and do more longer arcs, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a detriment when they don’t. The television I watch is probably more story – more narratives. But I don’t know – Adam Reed is so good at crafting narrative threads that run throughout everything that like it’s kind of always a combination of one-offs and I guess it’s like any sort of really good sitcom where you start to love all the characters. He does such a good job keeping it vibrant. I’m sort I said that – keeping it vibrant. I never wanted to use that. I never wanted to say those three words, but I think like when Archer got cancer and this sort of first of three-parter – those were really fun to do.

Was doing the episodes where Archer has cancer or his wife is murdered difficult or challenging or what?

Well, it’s always sort of difficult to – I don’t know – I can’t discern anything about acting when you’re doing it. There’s acting when you’re doing voice overs, but it was definitely strange to do that. It’s always odd when you have to like cry or something – like for real, when he was like, whatever – your woman dies or something and you’re crying. It’s so easy to do but its weird to – was that terrible? It’s not like a movie, I guess, where everybody’s standing around and people are watching and you really got to do it. There’s something odd – very false about standing in front of a microphone. So hopefully the cries are believable. I actually cry. I cried a couple of times.

Are we going to see more of your van show and your take on interstellar justice and, more importantly, do you get grief over some of the racy stuff?

We wrote half of the second season of the van show and we’re waiting to hear. But I’ve heard nobody watched it. That doesn’t seem like it’s encouraging but I hope we can do more of them. And the scripts we wrote are sublimely funny. I get asked that question a lot whether I’m shocked when I read some of the stuff I have to say, and I’m not. I’m not shocked.

And neither are we, thanks Jon for taking the time to rant, rave, and making it difficult to not laugh trying to be a serious journalist.

Okay folks, FX on Thursday nights, 10:00 p.m. is the new season of ARCHER!

UNSUPERVISED

Talking with David Hornsby, Creator/Executive Producer and voice of Joel

FX has a new animated series created by David Hornsby who is doing triple duty as executive producer and the voice of Joel. When he’s not working with UNSUPERVISED, he is also serving as executive producer and writer of another FX hit show “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and starring as Rickety Cricket.

Now I get a chance to sit down, if it’s possible with all his energy, and ask some questions about the new show following my beloved ARCHER.

Hi David, it’s a pleasure to get to talk to you today!

You too.

So what is the best part of unveiling your new series?

I think we’re just all excited. I work with Rob Rosell and Scott Marder. We all worked on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and branched off to do this project. I think we’re just excited. We feel like this how has a really unique point of view, coupled with the type of humor that I think people enjoy from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, but different enough to where it feels like this has a real unique point of view to the show.

So we’re all excited to show it’s about two kids, these high school kids who are very optimistic and earnest freshmen in a very bleak world. They have a very bleak living situation in the sense that neither of them have parents. My character has, he’s the kid that’s a 15-year-old with 65-year-old parents and I feel like everyone has that person from their high school. Justin Long’s character Gary, his father ran off and left with a step-mom who does not want a child.

They have these very bleak circumstances and yet, they’re very optimistic, so that point of view in the show paired with a very bleak world, we just think it makes for a great show. We’re really excited, I think, for people to see that because it does feel different to us.

So its original based on the dynamics of family situations today, that’s pretty cool.

Thanks. We see them as the children left behind and there are unfortunately plenty of those. So we feel like we’re trying to reflect as much as we can; not only the real high school experience, but also the reality of what the world is like and how people have to navigate it on their own, even if you’re 14 or 15.

Are you excited that it’s animated?

It’s really fun. It’s a completely new thing for all of us. I actually draw the characters as well, so that for me is really exciting in terms of having them in a show. It’s something that I’ve always done, but never been able to share because I’m not a professional artist. So for me it makes it even more exciting to – I basically designed the characters, all the characters and then send them to Floyd Country, who does the production. They’re in Georgia and they do ARCHER as well.

It has its own set of limitations as well. You think it’s animated, we can’t do whatever we want, but you still have to worry about sets and all that adds up – budget. But it’s really exciting for all of us and I have to say it’s mostly been a learning curve, as it’s our first animated show.

I would say in terms of the animation side of it, we write it just like we write “Sunny” in that we approach it like it’s not animated. WE just approach it as breaking good stories and writing the best comedy. It’s a very character driven comedy.

You and FX seem perfect together; did you shop it around or stay with FX?

Well, actually, we didn’t really shop it around. Myself and Rob Rosell and Scott Marder, again who work with “Sunny”, this show came out of, in a sense, a room bit where the three of us were always joking around about these sort of characters. So we started realizing like we have these characters with very strong points of view and whenever you have that feeling of strong point of view from a character in the back of your mind, that is a flag of this could be something!

And so we went to FX, who know us very well at this point, we haven’t done much more with my career at this point. I’ve just been there for so long that we said we have this idea for a show. What do you guys think? They said ‘that’s almost exactly what we’re looking for’. We want something that feels like it could appeal to that “Sunny” crowd, but almost even skew younger if we want, almost like a “Superbad” in a way, for whatever reason, and that’s what it is.

Have you always enjoyed animation?

Not necessarily. I’ve always drawn, for example, and I did consider when I was younger, it was either do I become an actor or do I become an animator cartoonist at that point. Do I work at Disneyworld or something and do animated cells or something? But I’ve always loved animation and it’s not like it’s been a priority of mine and I’ve always said I wanted to make a animated comedy some day. I think you’re always trying to challenge yourself to do new things and not repeat yourself. And so this is a way to be able to do something different and see how that went.

I think maybe at first we thought it’s going to be fun. It’s a cartoon, it’s going to be a little bit easier and it’s not. It’s just as much work and you approach it like a live action, but it’s been really rewarding.

It sounds like you’re enjoying yourself.

Absolutely.

So what inspired your characters and are they from personal experience?

There’s not usually one specific person we’re talking about, but the three of us with our combined high school experiences have different stories and they are funny. We try to find that universality between all three of us because we had very different high school experiences in a sense. We have different background, but there’s something that’s true to all of it.

There’s always the slut in school or people who they consider the slut, there’s always the druggie kid, the drug dealer whose also super nice. There’s the ‘Joel’ character, there’s that kid that has super old parents. There’s a kid that Rob Rosell plays, Russell, that always seems to have a broken limb. He always seems to be in a cast.

So we were just trying to find what is true and we have to do that. We have to put that in because that totally happens in high school where you almost kill yourself doing something, throwing a party even if it’s that simple. We do open the yearbooks and we do talk about maybe different people or experience and they can inspire, but nothing like particularly based on one person.

Like the little kid eating cereal?

That joke was initially that – and it got cut away in the pilot, but that’s how our character just eats cereal everyday for dinner because that’s what he’s left with. He doesn’t have a mom that’s making him food and he feels like it fortifies him with a daily dose of vitamins and minerals.

Thanks Dave for taking the time to talk with us today.

You can see UNSUPERVISED on Thursdays, 10:30 p.m. on FX!

UNSUPERVISED

Talking with Romany Malco as "Darius"

UNSUPERVISED

Talking with Romany Malco “Darius”

FX has once again brought programming to a whole new level with its animated show UNSUPERVISED. The show, which airs Thursday nights at 10:30 p.m. e/p time after an all-new ARCHER episode.

One of the ‘kids’ of the show is none of than Romany Malco who voices “Darius”. If the name seems a little unfamiliar to you, the face will have you saying “ohhhhhh yeaaaa!”. Let see, perhaps a little known film entitled “The 40-year-old Virgin” might ring a bell as Malco plays the well meaning friend Jay. For those who are fans of the show “Weeds” maybe the character of Conrad Shepard from 2005 to 2007.

Malco has a lot to say about his character of “Darius”, the reason why he truly enjoys doing the show and the history that most might not know about this versatile actor along with his new projects and coming films.

Hi Romany, how are you today?

I’m good.

Can you tell us what about the show interested you when you first heard about it? What there something that was appealing to you personally that you wanted to get involved?

I don’t know if most actors will ever admit this, but look, I tell on myself all the time, you can just look at my timeline on Twitter and it’s obvious that I tell on myself, and straight up, I’ve always wanted to do voice overs on something. I got to do a little bit of stuff on American Dad, but for whatever reason I had never really landed the gig that I wanted. So when I learned that there was an offer out to me to be involved with this project instantly I wanted to know more. When I started learning who was involved, and that had a lot to do with it. No matter what happens the track record of these gentlemen, they’re just brilliant people, they really have the type of taste that I like and honestly speaking, anyone who is on FX, that changes the game. FX is one of the networks that is in the business of empowering their artists. They have a different business model to the business model of a lot of these different networks. What I mean by that is FX is encouraging co-ownership of material. I call it the network that builds rock stars. They don’t just throw something out and if it doesn’t get the ratings that you want in the first three or four episodes – can it! They really do take time to nurture and grow an audience around the material that they use. That tells me that they get behind the stuff they believe in. So that was another major factor. Then when I realized Justin Long as going to be involved – I’m a fan! Everybody involved just made me excited to be involved. At the end of the day it was the people. Then lastly and most important, I read that pilot and was busting up. My agent read the pilot and she was busting up. My manager read the pilot and she was busting up. My dog, who’s going through the Evenly reading school thing, read most of the pilot.

I want to be in the business with people that are in business with FX because somewhere down the line I will be doing that type of business with FX. It’s good to learn and know the options that you have, the type of business models, and the people with entrepreneurial mindsets are the people that I’m just usually attracted to. You can take almost any job you want in Hollywood, but I’m the type of person that I want to work with a certain quality of people, a certain mindset of people, and this is giving me that opportunity. The sensibility and the humor, the relatability of the project, all of it was just awesome.

What do you think about the direction of the style of the show?

I did not know really what the show looked like until after the fact. It really looked like places I had grown up in Texas. I lived in Baytown, Texas and I literally ran around and lived and grew up with people like these guys. The thing that I caught on to almost instantly was, and this is going to sound really cheesy, in fact it might be one of the first things I tweeted when I started doing this show was it was nice to be part of a show where these kids, borrowing from friend and producer Jon Feldman “These kids are burdened with optimism”. I thought it was a rare quality for shows because usually there’s so much sarcasm and shock value humor in cartoons, and it’s rare that you come across a couple of lead characters that are almost motivational speakers in their own right. They’re looking at it from such a young and naïve perspective. Of course as you get older you become more aware that your childhood and your upbringing had a major impact on your self-esteem and outlook on life, and as a result of that it tends to, if you allow it to, if you’re not aware of it, dictate what you become in life.

These kids are still in their naïve phase and they’re completely unaware of that and working so hard to do better. I live for that. I’m telling you, look at my Twitter line, look at Tijuana Jackson’s Twitter line, look at my Facebook page, I live for this. Before this show ever came along I was talking about doing this just from a different perspective. So I love that about it and I love the contrast of them being in the neighborhood with ‘Jojo Vanetti’ and all these guys. Do you know what I mean? I grew up like that and I relate to that, and even though I was a lot skinnier, I was ‘Darius’ in Baytown, Texas.

So your life is the inspiration for ‘Darius’?

I’m going to just go ahead and say it, ‘Darius’ is inspired by a family that I grew up with called the Greene Family in Baytown, Texas. I go to Baytown for two families; for that family and my cousin, Darlene. ‘Darius’ is inspired by my best friends; I grew up in their house, they grew up in mind, the Greene family, in face, Cane Greene, to be specific. It’s just a certain voice and a certain perspective. I remember one time there was this guy in Baytown who was a really crazy dude and he always had negative things to say and he came up in a conversation and Cane didn’t say a word, and then my cousins was like, Cane, you know who he’s talking about right? Cane’s response was this, are you ready, he said, “Two percent, homey, two percent.” I said, “What the hell does that mean?” He said, “Man, people like that get about 2% of my energy, dog. That’s why I ain’t talking about him, 2%” That right there is how I see ‘Darius’. He tells it like it is, but he doesn’t waste much time doing anything else. And I love that. It’s like the voice of reason almost.

So it’s your voice of reason?

It is. He’s conscious of his shortcomings but he doesn’t kill himself for it. Whereas most, at least for me, I shouldn’t say most of us, but I’m like the kids, do you know what I mean, I want to fix myself. I’m like ‘Gary’. I want to fix me. Cane and ‘Darius’, they’re wise and they accept who they are and leave it at that.

In the episodes, do you ever think to yourself I know a kid like that or this reminds me of a neighbor I use to have because it’s just so familiar?

Literally every episode. I’m lucky, I get to read opposite David all the time, David Hornsby, whose actually one of the creators of the show. I get to read opposite of him, and there’s always a moment where it goes silent in the booth and he’s like ‘what is it? Is everything okay?’ and I say, ‘yes, this just reminds me of my West Indian parents and how I grew up in the Caribbean, I grew up in New York, I grew up in Baytown, Texas, and the fights at the games, we had those for real.

That sounds intense?

This is no joke, Baytown, Texas, there are two high schools, Lee and Sterling, and they were serious rivals, and we literally would go to games with the intention of having fights. We were that school. The dude with the patch over his eye, we had that guy. The whole “yo, we built a lake – you’ve got to come down and see it”, we built that lake. I’m not exaggerating. It’s so weird because I didn’t grow up in Hollywood, so as a result of that I think that my references tend to come from a different place. A lot of people have this huge catalog of movies and shows and cartoons that they can reference. I don’t have that. I have a real life experiences. I grew up with those dudes.

We had this creek that ran behind our house and once in a while you would see life in it and we literally did go there and intentionally shovel the bank into an area so we could create our own little pond. Now, here’s what’s crazy, we’ve even done that in New York. In New York we dug a big trench where I lived in Queens, and we dug a big trench in my yard and filled it with water and then we went to a pond in Queens, and at the time we didn’t catch any fish but there were a bunch of these little tadpoles so we brought the tadpoles back and put them in the pond that we made. I kid you not, you haven’t seen anything until you see these frogs hopping all over your street in Queens, mashed, people freaking out because frogs chased them into their front porch and they think a frog is chasing them. I’ve done it all.

David does a really good job with each episode having a moral to it, how important is that for you?

In my personal opinion it’s everything. In my opinion if there’s no moral to the story, if there’s no point to the story, what’s the point? That’s how I’ve always been. Like I said, I’m burdened with optimism, that’s a quote that I got from a producer of mine back in the day name John Feldman. I don’t really want to be part of anything that isn’t really delivering some type of message. It doesn’t mean you have to be preachy, because sometimes the stories that I write, the morals are the darkest and most twisted things you’ll ever hear. Look at Tijuana Jackson, that’s all I hear all day is give me the most twisted. I’m doing stuff like that all day in my standup. So I’m not saying it has to be the most optimistic and enlightening thing, no, but I believe that usually the reason that we hand on to a story from the beginning to the end of the book is because we are rooting for someone, and we want an outcome for that someone. So that outcome is usually, especially in movie land, you usually encapsulate that outcome in the moral, something that we can hold on to. It’s a quote, something that we can walk away with. I love that about this show, even when the moral is so jacked up. So that’s just my opinion.

Is there anything you’re working on for 2012?

Here’s what’s going on. I probably shouldn’t say this but I’m just going to say it anyway. Let me think about it, I’m basically going out on camera to perform a show. I don’t want to tell too much, but I’m going out for a show and literally meeting the people within the span of my social network. So anywhere from Facebook to Twitter to whatever, I’m actually going to go on the road on the tour bus and meet with people and document it for a show. I’m really excited about that because if you look at my social network, you’d get a good sense of how I engage. It’s very personal, because really I’m thinking out loud. A lot of people would prefer not to share their private life like that, but for me it’s the whole point. The people in my personal life, when I engage them, I engage them on a very real level. Why would I do the same? If I could multiply my span or my outreach why wouldn’t I do the same?

I’m really curious on people’s opinions. I grew up in a West Indian family. A lot of my family’s from the country, and I don’t have that etiquette as a lot of people that was passed on from their upbringing. I don’t have that etiquette. A lot of time I can be offensive or I can be off the mark, and it’s nice to learn other people’s upbringing and their perspectives or culture, and so this has been an opportunity for me to do that. So now that we’re taking that whole thing and putting it on the tour bus and I’m actually going cross-country doing that and it is really exciting.

I also have a movie called “Think Like a Man” that comes out in April with me, Kevin Hart, Taraji Henson, Michael Ealy, Gabrielle Union, Jerry Ferrara from “Entourage”, Gary Owen, Terrence J., who is the host of “106 & Park”, and Regina Hall. Three weeks after that I have another movie coming out called “A Little Bit of Heaven” and it’s got me and Whoopi Goldberg. I play Kate Hudson’s best friend, it’s got Kathy Bates in it, and it’s a complete opposite. It’s a drama, but it’s a really heartfelt drama. So those are the other things that I have going on that I forgot to mention.

What’s it like working with Kathy Bates and Whoopi Goldberg?

Well, Kathy Bates really knows how to set the tone. She’ll crack jokes in between takes. She’s got a real dirty sense of humor, and you know I like that a lot, okay? Of course me and Kate Hudson, we go together like cooked food. I really did learn a lot working on this project because of the concentration that it took. It was a drama. Oh, I’m also on “The Good Wife” right now. I forgot to mention that. So I’ll be on “The Good Wife” until the end of the season. But to work on a drama and have to focus and concentrate like that with a real thespian, it really humbles you, it makes you pay attention because the last thing you want to be told is the odd man out amongst such a talented cast. So I had a blast with that. I had a real blast with that. I really, really, really like Kathy Bates and I’m looking forward to working with her again.

With “Unsupervised” are we going to see ‘Gary’ and ‘Joel’ get less innocent and more aware of the reality of things?

I will tell you something. I’ve been following it on Twitter and it’s amazing how many quotes go up with the hash tag #Unsupervised FX during the airing of these shows and throughout the week. It’s amazing to me because I know for a fact that the show takes off, and when I say takes off it just hits a different level of entertainment starting on Episode 4, or is it Episode 3? So what I’ve experiences so far is this, the characters become much more refined and the relationships amongst the characters become much more defined, but it does not become any more serialized. It’s different episodes, not continuing, it doesn’t lead into the next. You get a look into each individual character’s life and how the guys play into it. It gives us this feel of a continuation because you’re suddenly aware of the quirks of the different characters. So once you get that opportunity to step into their personal lives, it doesn’t seem like it’s out of nowhere.

Is ‘Darius’ role going to get bigger? He’s already the little scene-stealer!

Not only does he do that, but he also has a few of his own episodes. How else can I say it, I think that’s what happens with most shows is that you’re figuring it out as you’re going along. You don’t know how the characters are going to mesh. You’re feeling it out. You’ve got to do testing to see what people are responding to, and I genuinely believe that those guys man, they struck a chord when they starting writing ‘Darius’. All I’ve noticed since I’ve been coming back is more and more material for ‘Darius’ to perform.

So yes, he’s going to have a much more in depth role starting around – in fact, they just tweeted on Twitter they’re saying stick around starting in Episode 4 that ‘Darius’ really gets to shine, so, yes, definitely. We’re just feeling it out. My first job – they didn’t know if I was going to suck at doing this thing. They didn’t know if I was going to hit the right beats, and voice over is difficult. Also it’s the beginning of the pilot and you’ve got to establish the main characters and establish them well. Then you build around it. So you guys be patient. If I disappoint you, you can tweet me directly and I’ll give you your viewership back.

When you are doing your part of the voice-overs, are you alone in a booth or with other actors?

The truth is, I’m not technically reading alone because I do read with David. I read with David almost every single episode, and sometimes I get to read with Rob Rosell. What it is, is they’re sitting in a sound booth in LA and I’m in New York because I’m doing “The Good Wife” here. I’m in New York so I don’t really have anyone in the booth, which is a different experience but its kind of cool. One, David and Rob know what they want so they know how to guide me along. They also encourage me to try different takes, different perspectives. We improvise together. A lot of stuff sometimes ends up in it, sometimes it doesn’t because sometimes I just stink. A lot of times I’m just asking them for lines. The point is this, I have a reference point that I think a lot of people don’t have, and that reference point is I grew up in a neighborhood amongst people like these characters. So as a result of that there’s this picture and this idea of where they are, what the room is like and the people – getting to play off that and incorporate that into the show. I can always tell when Dave and Rob are really excited about that. It really does resonate as if it’s coming from somewhere genuine. I guess I just sounded really arrogant right there, but you can tell. That’s all I’m saying. There’s a difference between a guy who talks about fighting and a guy who’s been punched in the face. That’s all I’m saying.

What kind of audience do you think your show appeals to?

Well, literally I can go on Twitter right now, enter hash tag #UnsupervisedFX and it’s weird, it’s this wide range. Now, here’s my curse, to answer your question, I want to make this really clear, my curse is people who watch “Weeds” do not know that it’s the same guy from “The 40-Year-Old-Virgin”. People who watch that usually do not know that I’m the same guy from “Weeds” or “Baby Mama” or “Blades of Glory” or “The Love Guru” or “The Good Wife” for that matter, or “No Ordinary Family”. I have a very fragmented audience, but I will say that suddenly the people who are watching for the first time, I’m on a project where, like even now I have a movie coming out called “Think Like a Man”. It’s my first urban film, and as far as the urban audience I’m the least recognizable in the film. My point is basically being is that for the first time I’m doing a project where the people watching the show are aware of my body of work. I’m going to make an assumption and I’m not 100% positive, I’m glad you asked me about the rapping first. What it seems to be like this show is appealing to is a demographic of males between the ages of about 18 to 35 and they seem to be the same type of audience that is aware of me not necessarily “The 40-Year-Old-Virgin”, but aware of me from “Weeds”. So that’s part of it.

So is it true you use to be in a rap group?

That is correct! When I first came to California I came here to pursue a record deal. I ended up writing a lot of stuff behind the scenes, stuff for that animated cat entry, Skat Kat. I wrote a lot of stuff for Paula Abdul and that led to me getting a record deal at Virgin Records. I had a group called The College Boys. We put out a record called “Victims of the Ghetto”. It became a big hit. It was very timely because it happened around the same time as the riots in Los Angeles. So every time the news came on our song came on and it became the mantra. We ended up on the “Arsenio Hall Show – we ended up everywhere. It was a great time to be in hip-hop. It was a great time to be a rapper too!

Finally, what do you want people to know about you?

About myself? I would want them to know that I am sincerely inspired by people, by everyday real people. It’s the reason that my Facebook page and my Twitter page leads and engages the way that it does, and my Tumblr blog. It’s the reason that I engage the way that I engage because I am a person who likes to feed off the energy of inspired people. I’m really discouraged, it’s really difficult to validate me from the outside, so it’s very difficult for someone to – if someone tell me, ‘oh you are great or this or that’ that doesn’t really move me, but everything inspires me. It’s just that I’ve conditioned myself, like a defense mechanism, to not accept external validations. In the same breath, every single thing inspires me and if I wanted people to know something about me it would be that I am a major advocate of entrepreneurship and I live to inspire people to do and be the same.

Thanks for taking time to talk with us today!

Don’t forget to check out UNSUPERVISED on FX Thursday nights at 10:30 pacific time following all new episodes of ARCHER! That’s a night of laughter you won’t find anywhere else.