Al Madrigal has long been noted as one of the biggest up-and-coming comedians with a Comedy Central stand-up special already under his belt.
His newest role is on the new CBS comedy "Welcome to the Captain." Madrigal plays Jesus, pronounced like the famous one (or the character in "The Big Lebowski" (1998), if you prefer) who is the doorman of a famous Hollywood apartment building which is occupied by various Hollywood notables playing other Hollywood notables (including Jeffrey Tambor and Raquel Welch).
The show is scheduled to premiere on Feb. 4.
Question: How did you get involved with "The Captain?"
Al Madrigal: I'd been in stand-up comedy since college. I worked for my family business, and then I was firing people for my family business, and then I was doing standup, then I got cast in a show, moved to L.A. ... Now I'm in L.A. and doing standup all over the country. I got a call from John Hamburg ["Undeclared," "Along Came Polly" (2004), and now "Welcome to the Captain"]. I didn't even know who he was! He asked if I'd read for this, and I read with [costar] Fran Kranz, and all of a sudden I'm cast, and I'm working the next day alongside Jeffrey Tambor and Raquel Welch. That's twelve years.
Q: What drew you in for this show?
AM: It was luck. They had a very difficult time casting this part. I just showed up. I was cast at 9:30 p.m. and began working at 6 a.m. the next day. I was locked into another deal, or I would have auditioned earlier. I was a guy they were interested in, and I just showed up, and it was the perfect part for me.
Q: What's it like to share so many scenes with the legendary Jeffrey Tambor?
AM: I've been a fan of him for a long time. I saw him on "The Ropers." I was trying to act cool around him, but he was on "Hill Street Blues!" Here you have a stand-up comedian with no acting background trying to hold his own with a guy who's the bad guy in that Muppet movie. It's crazy - we get to play buddies. We were producing a lot during the writers' strike, and we couldn't change lines, so it was nice to have him there holding my hand.
Q: How is doing a sitcom different from standup?
AM: I kept feeling like I could make it funnier. I was tempted to goof around and change lines - that was the hard part. Here, we have 100 people telling me what to do; it was very different. Right now I'm calling from an Austin hotel room, but I'd rather be at home making more money. The first pilot I did in 2004, you had someone announcing you were coming. I shot that, and then I went back to work at my parents' family business the next day. In terms of standup, I'm right there in front of everybody. With a single camera show, the light goes on, people are protecting you from the extras; in standup everyone's right in my lap.
Q: What's it like working on a show with actors of so many different backgrounds?
AM: Fifty percent of the cast is Latino, and Raquel Welch has never done TV before. It was a trip. You have a really eclectic group of people from different backgrounds.
Q: What are your TV influences?
AM: "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Seinfeld" ... All the big old-fashioned shows about stand-up comics. Those deals have sort of gone away, but that's everybody's dream. Our show's like a modern day "Three's Company." I'd model my acting career after Don Knotts.
Q: So you've been working toward a sitcom?
AM: I was on tour with Mitch Hedberg in like 2004 or 2005, and he has a great joke about how everyone wants a comedian to have a sitcom; but that's not comedy, it's just something related to it. Asking a comedian, "can you act?" is like asking a cook, "can you farm?"
Q: Would you ever want to write for the show?
AM: Yeah, I'd write for the show. I'm happy right now just to be acting on it.
Q: How well do you all mesh as comic actors?
AM: You couldn't ad-lib because of the writers' strike. But a lot of the stuff was just hilarious. Jeffrey Tambor is a really funny guy - amazing. I've met a lot of people who could have been stand-up comics but were comic actors instead. I was hunched over laughing so much. He's a comedic genius. Everybody was just in awe of how funny he was.
Q: Did you get any criticism for filming during the writers' strike?
AM: I'm friends with a lot of writers; I'd picketed a little on my break. When I'd drive in to the lot, everyone would greet me. We were very open about it, and we weren't changing any of our lines. We were obeying all the rules. Without writers on set, we were a bit handicapped. As far as I know, no one was angry at us.
Q: What are your favorite shows?
AM: "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "The Wire," "30 Rock", "Two and a Half Men." Tell everyone not to work for a family business. Become a comedian; it's much better.
