One of the writers/actors behind the cinematic gems Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter, and television shows The State and Stella, Michael Showalter is diversifying his resume with a little standup. See him explode on P-Town with Eugene Mirman and Leo Allen. Now, let's see what he has to say...
Were you popular in junior high school?
I definitely was not popular. I was sort of like the Anthony Michael Hall character in The Breakfast Club. I was an asshole dork.
Can you recount a particularly humiliating childhood experience?
I was in fifth grade, and it was the first time I'd been to sleep-away camp. I was down at the lake and suddenly overcome with the need to go number two. So I started walking back to the camp as fast as I could. I'm walking and sucking in little bits of air. At this point I'm waddling, not walking. I'm doing the speed-walk waddle thing. I crest a hill and the bathroom becomes visible and at that moment I shit in my pants. Then I make it to the bathroom and clean up, but I still have some clothing to dispose of. So I go into the woods and throw my dirty underwear under a rock. Later that day my bunkmate appears at my bunk and asked if I'd thrown my dirty underwear under a rock, and I said, "No." But unfortunately my name was sewed into the underwear. I still denied it, though.
Stella was my favorite show ever. What happened to it?
It was one of those sad things where it was sort of well-received critically, but nobody watched it.
What's your impression of Portland?
Portland is a really cool, mellow, burgeoning city in the Pacific Northwest with a professional basketball team filled with potheads and date rapists.
What about pornography?
I think porn is extremely hot. Porn is like crack cocaine. It's not healthy, but it's hot.