| The Apiary Network |  |
 |
 |
||
 | |||||
August 23, 2006
Inside With: Jonah Ray, Writer, Comedian
By: Ben Kharakh
Comedian Jonah Ray is in town from LA for a week, filming a mockumentary about The Onion and doing some sets. We took this opportunity to ask him a few questions about what else he's been up to. Turns out, he's involved in "the best sketch group ever," is going to be involved in a new Adult Swim show, and sheds some info on the coveted third season of the Andy Milonakis Show.
Tell me about this TV show you're filming right now.
It's an episode of this G4 show called Icons. It's a fake documentary about The Onion. I play a reporter hot on the trail of a country with nuclear weapons. Pat Healy, a comic and actor from LA, plays my partner. We're a reporting team, like in All the President's Men. It'll air September 2nd.
And what of the Andy Milonakis show?
It's in between seasons right now. They've done two seasons at eight episodes each. They're coming back in the fall. They've revamped the whole show and I'm waiting to hear back. I'm actually going to be working with the director, Tom Stern, on his new Adult Swim show. It's going to be a Sid and Marty Krofft sort of show, like HR Pufnstuf or Land of the Lost. So there will be green screen, live action stuff, and horrible animation.
How did you get involved with Andy Milonakis?
One of the producers, John Kimmel, who's been writing on South Park the last few seasons. He's a really funny guy, and Jimmy Kimmel's brother. He mentioned that Andy Milonakis was coming up for a second season and he said, "I was wondering if you'd like to be a writer's assistant." I said, "Sure." I was really bad at it. I moved out to New York and was stressed out everyday, so I was losing rewrites and sketches. They took me outside and said they were firing me from the position of writing assistant, but they said, "We like the stuff you've submitted, so we're going to bring you back as a contributing writer for the rest of the season." I fucked up into a better position.
Is that filmed in New York or LA?
All the pre-production is in LA and they film all the stuff in an apartment on the lower East Side on Grant Street. The postproduction starts there and then goes to Burbank. The new formatted show, I think, is going to be done mostly in LA.
Tell me about the sketch duo you and Anthony Jeselnik have.
Cops Brought Pizza is basically the best sketch group ever that has never written a sketch. It's a project that we'll one day get to and, until then, we'll just talk about it all the time. It's fun. Anthony and I have such different styles, but we have a similar sensibility.
You have a couple videos about hecklers. What's the worst you've ever been heckled?
The second time I'd ever done stand up was at an open mic in North Hollywood called The Ha Ha Café. It was this really bad place that seemed like they were bragging more about their menu items than any comic they'd have booked that week. I was at the open mic and I was really nervous because it was early on. I didn't have confidence, style, and was still trying stuff out that I thought was funny. One of the jokes went toward the area of incest. After the punch line, some dude stood up in the middle of the place and said, "We got to listen to this fucking guy? He's a creep!" I was nervous enough as it was and thought that that was the end of it, but before I could think of something to say other people started calling me a weirdo and a creep. The whole room was either yelling at me or murmuring to themselves how weird I was. I didn't know what to do, so I dropped the microphone, marched off stage, and never did that open mic again.
What was weird about that was that it made me want to do it again so much more than the first time I did it. The first time, I did okay and thought, "Maybe I'll go again," but after bombing I thought, "I've got to do this all the time!" Hecklers in general are pointless. I have friends that say, "Yeah, I'll come to your show and heckle you." I say not to, but they say, "No, it's what you do." They think that that's what they do to make the show. That it's like an audience participation thing.
What other shows are you doing while you're here in New York?
I'm doing Invite Them Up , The Greg Johnson Show at Rififi on Friday, and I might be doing something in front of the Hard N' Phirm show on Thursday at the UCB.
Visit Jonah Ray online at Jonahray.com or simply stare at pictures of Jonah here.
Ben Kharakh is the creator of the online humor magazine One Trick Pony, which features interviews with comedians such as Todd Barry, Paul F. Tompkins, and Neil Hamburger.
Posted by The Apiary at August 23, 2006 1:14 PM