You can’t miss Brett Gelman’s mug. He’s plastered all over subways and televisions as “Little Bit of Luck,” a tiny person in an overwhelming ad campaign for Take Five lotto tickets. It’s amusing to see him introduced to the general public in this way because he’s otherwise known for his prodigious ridiculousness on stage at the UCBT. He talked to me about his riotous hip-hop group Cracked Out, the revival of his must-see one-man show 1,000 Cats and what he thinks of these lottery ads.
And if all goes well, you may be seeing Gelman in a more substantial television role since he, Jon Daly and the filmmakers of Brooklyn-based Waverly Films are in production on a comedy/horror show pilot.
NYPress: You’re one of my favorite performers to watch because you’re totally fearless on stage. Were you a child actor or something? What’s your background?
Thank you very much my kind friend. Not having fear on stage takes a lot of work, and it’s definitely not a constant, but I try to be as fearless as I can. In a way, I was a child actor. I never did any professional work, but I was always involved: theater camp, acting classes where I was the only boy. Really, I’ve had my heart set on doing this since I was six and saw A Night at the Opera.
When did you get involved with the UCBT? And how did Cracked Out come into being?
Well, I’ve known Jon Daly since we met in college at North Carolina School of the Arts, where we studied, can you guess... acting! He left a couple years before me and came to New York. He started telling me about this amazing place he had gotten involved with called The Upright Citizens Brigade. So when I came here, I started taking classes and immediately loved it. I owe the UCB a lot. Without them, I wouldn’t have a career, but also, I don’t think my life the last eight years would have had as much purpose.
Cracked Out got started three or four years ago. I was doing this project based on New York Public Access, and I wanted to make a really shitty rap video, so I asked Jon to do it with me. After we recorded the song, we were like, “That was awesome. We should make an album!” And since that moment, we’ve recorded three albums that no one has heard of. One time a guy told me that we were living a fantasy through these characters, and there’s no doubt about it. There’s a part of me that definitely wishes I was a real MC.
Why don’t musical comedy acts go on tour like traditional musicians?
We’d love to tour; it just hasn’t happened. We don’t feel we have enough heat under the group to tour, plus we’ve been involved in other projects that keep us here or in L.A. Cracked Out is a focus, but it’s definitely not my only focus. At the end of the day, I’m an actor and a writer and I want to do a lot of things.
When you restaged your one-man musical opus “1,000 Cats” this past fall at Rififi, I felt like I was witnessing history. It’s a mind-poppingly excessive piece in which you utilize the full spectrum of Broadway pomp to act out the lives of literally 1,000 different cats. What went into it?
“1,000 Cats” is like eight years old. Originally it was part of a character show and was only 15 minutes long. Then I decided to make it a half-hour show and enlisted the help of two total geniuses. Noah Warner did the music; he’s one of the most amazing musical minds I know. And I got my friend Michael Lluberes to direct it. He helped me find the arc of the piece and all the different levels to the characters. Not many people know this, because it’s never said, but “1,000 Cats” is really about this one character completely losing his mind through the course of the show.
I put it on the shelf for a few years, and recently started doing it again. It’s the one old thing that I used to do that I still love. It’s an example of treating utter stupidity with dead seriousness and great emotional weight. I love taking something dumb and making it serious.
What sorts of projects are you working on now?
Besides a special project I’m working on that I can’t discuss, Jon and I are about to film a video for the Cracked Out song “FUPA,” which will be on CollegeHumor.com. I just acted in an episode of my brothers of different mothers’, Curtis Gwinn and John Gemberling’s, upcoming Adult Swim series Fat Guy Stuck in Internet. This show’s going to be amazing. I’ll also be in an episode of Human Giant, who are also my boys, and this season is going to be something really special. Plus, I do my improv show every Friday at UCB, Death By Roo Roo, which I’m very proud of, and I’ll be doing 1,000 Cats there.
I have to ask: Did you have any idea how big the NY Lottery Take Five campaign was gonna be?
I did not know the Take Five campaign would be so huge. It’s insane to see myself all over the city like that. What’s really insane is it kind of turns me on. Does that mean I’m narcissistic? Jeez, I hope not.
Cracked Out, Feb. 23 at Midnight; Death By Roo Roo, Fridays at 11; 1,000 Cats, March 4 & 7 at 7, all at UCB Theatre, 307 W. 26th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-366-9176.
And if all goes well, you may be seeing Gelman in a more substantial television role since he, Jon Daly and the filmmakers of Brooklyn-based Waverly Films are in production on a comedy/horror show pilot.
NYPress: You’re one of my favorite performers to watch because you’re totally fearless on stage. Were you a child actor or something? What’s your background?
Thank you very much my kind friend. Not having fear on stage takes a lot of work, and it’s definitely not a constant, but I try to be as fearless as I can. In a way, I was a child actor. I never did any professional work, but I was always involved: theater camp, acting classes where I was the only boy. Really, I’ve had my heart set on doing this since I was six and saw A Night at the Opera.
When did you get involved with the UCBT? And how did Cracked Out come into being?
Well, I’ve known Jon Daly since we met in college at North Carolina School of the Arts, where we studied, can you guess... acting! He left a couple years before me and came to New York. He started telling me about this amazing place he had gotten involved with called The Upright Citizens Brigade. So when I came here, I started taking classes and immediately loved it. I owe the UCB a lot. Without them, I wouldn’t have a career, but also, I don’t think my life the last eight years would have had as much purpose.
Cracked Out got started three or four years ago. I was doing this project based on New York Public Access, and I wanted to make a really shitty rap video, so I asked Jon to do it with me. After we recorded the song, we were like, “That was awesome. We should make an album!” And since that moment, we’ve recorded three albums that no one has heard of. One time a guy told me that we were living a fantasy through these characters, and there’s no doubt about it. There’s a part of me that definitely wishes I was a real MC.
Why don’t musical comedy acts go on tour like traditional musicians?
We’d love to tour; it just hasn’t happened. We don’t feel we have enough heat under the group to tour, plus we’ve been involved in other projects that keep us here or in L.A. Cracked Out is a focus, but it’s definitely not my only focus. At the end of the day, I’m an actor and a writer and I want to do a lot of things.
When you restaged your one-man musical opus “1,000 Cats” this past fall at Rififi, I felt like I was witnessing history. It’s a mind-poppingly excessive piece in which you utilize the full spectrum of Broadway pomp to act out the lives of literally 1,000 different cats. What went into it?
“1,000 Cats” is like eight years old. Originally it was part of a character show and was only 15 minutes long. Then I decided to make it a half-hour show and enlisted the help of two total geniuses. Noah Warner did the music; he’s one of the most amazing musical minds I know. And I got my friend Michael Lluberes to direct it. He helped me find the arc of the piece and all the different levels to the characters. Not many people know this, because it’s never said, but “1,000 Cats” is really about this one character completely losing his mind through the course of the show.
I put it on the shelf for a few years, and recently started doing it again. It’s the one old thing that I used to do that I still love. It’s an example of treating utter stupidity with dead seriousness and great emotional weight. I love taking something dumb and making it serious.
What sorts of projects are you working on now?
Besides a special project I’m working on that I can’t discuss, Jon and I are about to film a video for the Cracked Out song “FUPA,” which will be on CollegeHumor.com. I just acted in an episode of my brothers of different mothers’, Curtis Gwinn and John Gemberling’s, upcoming Adult Swim series Fat Guy Stuck in Internet. This show’s going to be amazing. I’ll also be in an episode of Human Giant, who are also my boys, and this season is going to be something really special. Plus, I do my improv show every Friday at UCB, Death By Roo Roo, which I’m very proud of, and I’ll be doing 1,000 Cats there.
I have to ask: Did you have any idea how big the NY Lottery Take Five campaign was gonna be?
I did not know the Take Five campaign would be so huge. It’s insane to see myself all over the city like that. What’s really insane is it kind of turns me on. Does that mean I’m narcissistic? Jeez, I hope not.
Cracked Out, Feb. 23 at Midnight; Death By Roo Roo, Fridays at 11; 1,000 Cats, March 4 & 7 at 7, all at UCB Theatre, 307 W. 26th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-366-9176.
