Interview: Joe Pera
The vast majority of sitcoms, especially in the post-Seinfeld world, follow a similar format. The protagonists find themselves in an uncomfortable predicament, often by fault of their own, and it’s in their navigation through this awkwardness that hilarity pursues.
From All In The Family and Faulty Towers to The Office and Peep Show, discomfort has been a formula for producing laughter, both canned and real. Over the last decade or so, we’ve watched this formula get pushed to greater extremes. It’s possible that no characters have made us cringe harder than Frank Reynolds (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) and Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm). And that’s exactly why those shows are so popular.
For as much as the formula works, it’s also tired and cynical, which is why Joe Pera Talks With You was such a breath of fresh air. Running for three seasons, beginning in 2018 and ending in 2021, the short-lived Adult Swim program was unusual in just how comforting its brand of comedy was — which made it especially watchable during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the last thing anyone needed was another reason to feel misanthropic.
Written by Pera and Dan Licata, with the titular comic starring as a fictionalized version of himself, the show’s premise was simple: a folksy middle school choir teacher from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula speaks candidly to viewers, walking them through the purest joys of everyday life. As the show developed over the course of its three seasons, audiences were introduced to a number of characters from the town. Each of them was quirky in their own unique, small-town way; but, more importantly, they were provided with the kind of depth and heart generally lacking in sitcoms. In Joe Pera’s little world, humans were good-natured, even if flawed, and the humor to be found was within the most subtle quirks of society and our behaviors.
Joe Pera Talks With You was great because it never took the formulaic route. It never tried to convince viewers to laugh at the expense of one-dimensional dimwits designed to be the butt of the joke. Instead, the laughs produced by the show were the kind of chuckles that infuse your soul with genuine warmth.
In July, the Adult Swim series was canceled, leaving the cult fan base without resolutions for the characters that they’d become attached to, and wondering what Pera would do next. Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers a later that month, he jokingly announced himself as the next James Bond. Although it may be a while before fans see Pera as 007, or are provided with the conclusion they deserve for the television series, fans will have the opportunity to see Pera in person as his stand-up comedy tour makes its way around the U.S. The Fall Everywhere Else Tour, which will feature opening sets by Licata, reaches Asheville’s Orange Peel on Sunday, Nov. 13.
With him coming to town, I requested a brief conversion — and so, Joe Pera talked with me…
Jonny Leather: Thanks so much for doing this. It is such a pleasure to be talking to you.
Joe Pera: Yeah, thanks.
JL: You've been a comfort over the last couple of years.
JP: I appreciate that. I'm very excited to be coming to Asheville for the first time.
JL: Yeah, I was going to ask if it was. And you're in such high demand that you've sold out a show and added a second.
JP: [ laughs]
JL: How does that feel?
JP: People saw the listing wrong and thought it was Joe Pesci or something. They got excited then bummed out.
Jonny Leather: They just want to see 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag.
JP: Yeah [laughs]. There's old Joe Pesci sitting on a stool.
JL: So, I want to ask you about tomatoes, and the origin of your passion for them. How did that start?
JP: I honestly don't want to give away the exact reasons I'm doing that, but, um…I find them compelling. My grandfathers were tomato gardeners growing up. They're a special fruit to a lot of people.
JL: Are you able to grow any in Brooklyn?
JP: I have in the past. I've actually been on tour all summer, so I haven't been able to plant anything, or take care of it properly. I knew I was going to be in and out of town, so all my stuff died.
JL: Yeah. It's hard to keep up with. You recently diverged into posting about salmon jerky. Did you feel guilty?
JP: That was actually Dan Licata's idea. People were very kindly giving me some tomatoes after the shows, based on my Instagram account, and Dan Licata was like, "You should change your thing to scratch-off lotto tickets and salmon jerky so people start bringing you that after the shows.” I did it as a gag for a day or two on Instagram. It was very smart but I don't think that people find scratch-off lotto tickets as charming as tomatoes.
JL: You're from upstate New York. I'm originally from upstate New York. This is the region’s time to shine. Do you ever get to go up there to see the foliage and go apple picking?
JP: I'm doing shows in Ithaca this weekend, so I plan on doing just that. Spending an extra day to just go hiking and visit a good brewery, Ithaca Brewing. So, I'll probably stop by there and then do some hiking. So, yeah, pick up a pumpkin and maybe some hay bales on the way back to New York City so I've got some seasonal decor.
I'm sure the leaves are pretty down there, too.
JL: Yeah. Asheville is really full of foliage, so it's pretty beautiful.
One of my favorite moments from the show was when you discovered “Baba O'Riley” [by The Who] for the first time. Does that song actually hold any special significance to you?
JP: I guess now after the episode. I always liked the song. Dan Licata, we've been friends since high school and do stand up together, as well as write the show. That episode came from: we were driving and the song came on the radio, and we got to discussing how, if you were to hear it for the first time, it would still feel modern and compelling, even amongst everything else on the radio, still.
JL: It definitely tapped into a very pure moment of finding something that you love.
JP: Yeah, definitely. I think everybody has had moments like that. That's for sure.
JL: My wife would like to know how Gus is doing.
JP: Good! I saw him. He came to the shows out in Milwaukee and Marquette, and he's such a good sport. He said hello to everybody on the way in and out of the theater. He wore his bowtie. He's doing pretty well.
JL: Regarding your upcoming role as James Bond, did your early role as Zero Fucks Boyd [on The Chris Gethard Show] prepare you for that?
JP: [laughs] Maybe a little bit. I haven't connected that before, but perhaps. How did you draw the thread?
JL: I've been watching a lot of Gethard [The Chris Gethard Show] recently and you popped up on there, and that character works with the whole James Bond mentality...James Bond doesn't give a fuck, either.
JP: That's true. Except about martinis. So yeah, he was like if Zero Fucks Boyd had maybe two or three fucks: women, Aston Martins, and martinis…
JL: Was the Gethard Show your first real TV performance?
JP: I think so. I only did the public access version, which was really wild and fun. I remember that episode. You got an email and call. You had to come up with something on the spot. You didn't have to run it by anybody. I kind of went for it and it was like a cool live performance. A lot of it was unscripted. The television version was as well. I don't know if you saw Conner O'Malley's bits, too. There were a lot of really good performers there. You got to let loose and watch the crowd laugh spontaneously because they didn't know what was coming, and even Chris didn't know what was coming. It was a very special time. I'm so lucky to have been a part of those early episodes.
JL: Yeah, it seems like it gave everyone a chance to really try things out in a way that they wouldn't normally be able to.
JP: It was the best. Chris knew funny people and made them laugh, and just let them have fun on the show.
JL: Was there anyone who kind of took you under their wing when you started out in New York?
JP: Sure, there were plenty of people. John Lee and Alyson Levy of PFFR [Wonder Showzen, Delocated] have been really helpful along the way. They've given notes on scripts early on. Chris Gethard, he's taken me on his shows. He did a living room tour that gathered three or four comics, and they'd have a group perform in a living room with them. That was extremely nice of him. I don't know — a lot of people have been nice to me throughout my time in New York.
JL: I feel like people think of New York as this place that's going to chew you up and spit you out. But there's a lot of communities there that really support each other.
JP: Yes! Especially if you do comedy. That's how I met all my friends, doing stand-up or improv. There's a lot of nice people here. There's certain parts of the scene that value being harsh or whatnot, but there's a lot of nice parts of the community where it's purely about being funny.
I guess another version of someone who took me under the wing — I wasn't shadowing him or anything — Seth Meyers had me on his show early on. That was a pretty big deal, and stepped it into the next level. Conner [O’Malley] showed him my videos. He has very good taste in what he thinks is funny — not as a compliment to me, but the writers he hires and the people he uses on the show are really top-notch performers. I’ve appreciated him having me on his show a number of times now.
JL: So, I have one last thing to ask you. Considering that you have a pretty large cult fan base…
JP: [ laughs]
JL: …have you ever considered starting a cult?
JP: No. No. I want to be by myself. I like my alone time. Running a cult seems like a lot of work.
It’s often said that you should never meet your heroes, but as we ended our conversation speaking about traveling during autumn and exchanged cordial goodbyes, I concluded that Joe Pera was every bit the delightful personality that I’d hoped for. Maybe if I bring the perfect tomato to The Orange Peel as an offering, he’ll reconsider his stance on heading a cult.
IF YOU GO
Who: Joe Pera with Dan Licata
When: Sunday, Nov. 13, 6 & 8 p.m.
Where: The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave., theorangepeel.net
Tickets: $35 advance/$40 day of show
(Photo by Ryan Nethery)
