Last Thursday, The Sarah Silverman Program began its third season on Comedy Central, with Sacramento-born actor/comedian Brian Posehn back as Sarah's gay neighbor and friend Brian Spukowski. Like his character on the show, Posehn is a passionate metalhead who enjoys couch-surfing and smoking pot. Unlike his character, Posehn is straight and does not have much time for the couch these days since he is touring the country for his Cold as Fuck Comedy Tour. (Posehn's next album, Fart and Weiner Jokes is due out in March). Movieline caught up with the comedian in Chicago to discuss the first Silverman episode he wrote, his stand-up and weed.
You have a pretty hectic stand-up schedule. Have you found that certain cities embrace your humor more than others?
There's a bunch like Nashville, where I recorded my last record. I've had good luck in the south. I recorded the album before that in Athens, Georgia. But I seem to draw people that get me almost everywhere.
I saw that you wrote an episode of Sarah Silverman this season. Did you come up with the plot or did the other writers assign you one?
That was the thing. I'd been wanting to write an episode but you can't go in as an actor on the show and look out for yourself more than [Sarah]. You can't pitch a story where you're the hero or where you get all of the funny stuff. It's still The Sarah Silverman Show so part of me wanted to write a funny bit for me but the important thing is to come up with a story that everyone would love for [Sarah]. I did that and I can't give away the A-story. But the B-story with Steve (Steve Agee) and Brian, that came from the feeling I'm sure a lot of people have where you're standing behind a cop and you wonder what would happen if you grabbed the cop's gun. You just get that crazy urge and most people don't act on it which is great but in the scene, Steve and I act on it.
Hilarious hijinks ensue, I'm sure. Would you want to write another episode for the series?
Yeah, I love writing. It's one of my favorite jobs. Of the things I get to do, I love sitting in a room and coming up with ideas and I love going home and pounding them out. I definitely had been wanting to be a part of the writing since the show started. I knew I had a similar sensibility with Sarah and everybody else on the staff so it was fun to finally get in there with them.
Do the actors ever get the chance to improv?
Most of the directors on the show do let us have at least one take where we try it our way.
Your stand-up has a pretty substantial following. Would you ever consider creating a show for yourself?
Definitely. At this point, I'm locked into this show so I can't really try and get my own show going until we're done but that's the idea. I've had a couple ideas over the years of things I'd like to do on my own. But for now, this is one of the best gigs I've ever had.
Would you consider reality?
No, I mean we kind of did that with Comedians of Comedy on Comedy Central [stand-up tour that originally featured Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford] and I didn't love the experience of having a camera in my face. Ultimately I had fun and I'm glad I did that. But it's not my favorite thing to have a camera always on me and to have to be "on" constantly.
I've read some articles that label your brand of comedy as alternative. Do you feel like you're part of any particular comedy movement now?
I wouldn't call it a movement but my friends and I all kind of do our own thing. For Patton [Oswalt]'s show, The Comedians of Comedy, we had completely different acts but we sort of fit together in the end. Other friends of ours have varying degrees of popularity now but we are all similar in the idea that Sarah, Louis C.K., Patton, David Cross and a lot of us were different than the main stream comics that we watched when we were younger. I never really thought of it as a movement though. I think it's just us all sticking to our guns and eventually getting our different degrees of success from it.
Do you feel like your humor has become more sophisticated as you've become more successful? I guess your new album is called Fart and Wiener Jokes, so you are sticking with your guns -- or at least your dick jokes.
[Laughs] I do have my fair amount of dick jokes and actually this new record, like you said, I call it Fart and Wiener Jokes for that reason. That came from a review of my last album, which was called Nerd Rage. Somebody gave me grief over the fact that there wasn't a lot of nerd rage on the record so I figured if I called the next album Fart and Wiener Jokes, they couldn't argue with me. But I like to think that I do more than that. My act is pretty much me reflecting on what I want to talk about and what I think is funny and what has happened to me. And yes, sometimes I go to the well. I go to the dick well. [Laughs]
So with Sarah Silverman, I imagine you're not auditioning a lot now. But I'm curious, when you were auditioning, if you were going against a lot of actors with similar looks. You have a pretty distinct appearance --
[Laughs] Are you high?
No! No, I'm not.
That was a stoner-y thing to say.
What I meant is that you're 6'5, with red hair and glasses. I'm wondering if there is this secret subset of actors that are abnormally tall, nearsighted and have red hair.
I wouldn't be in a room full of actors that looked like me. It would be a room full of character-y-looking guys. I used to see my friend Harland Williams in a lot of auditions. Then you'd see one of the DeLuise kids because they're kind of heavy and character-y. You'd just see a lot of the same guys over the years. I remember going for a West Wing audition once where I was going up against a lot of nerdy guys. It was a role as a tech guy. There was a group of Asian guys and they all knew each other. They were there for the part of an Asian senator or something. Then there were all the older guys and they were in for the old guy part. It was really funny to watch all these guys bonding within their cliques.
You brought up weed before. I know that you are pretty open about your use of pot. Does that help you in the writing process?
Um, a little. [Laughs] If done in moderation.