Al Madrigal Interview
February 27th, 2008 | Interviews, San Francisco Comedyby Chris Garcia
San Francisco native Al Madrigal is appearing at the the Punchline Comedy Club February 26th- March 1st. Star of the new CBS sitcom Welcome to the Captain, Al won the Jury Award for Best Stand-Up at the 2004 HBO Comedy Festival and his other credits include Comedy Central Presents, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
How’s it being on the new show?
It’s great to be on it. My peers think it’s wonderful. It helps separate me from the rest of the pack. It helps differentiate me from the guys with the same credits I have. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Being on a show like that seems like it would bring a lot of longevity to your career.
Yeah, it’s great. I get to play this funny character. I get to act. The money is fantastic. It’s wonderful.
Do you like it more than stand up?
That’s a question I get a lot, actually. I got into this to do stand up, and everything else just comes as a result of acting, but stand up will always be there for me.
Is it as hard as stand up?
It’s different. Everyone thinks that stand up is so hard, but after you’ve done it for so long – I hit 10 years in May. And it’s not that much. You need a good 14-15 years to actually get good. You know, I’m still making a lot of mistakes. But in terms of it being difficult – I’d say being on the show is harder because of the money that is riding on you. If I fuck around and have a bad set at the Punchline on a Thursday night, there aren’t so many people paying attention. But if I fuck up during a taping on a Thursday, and there are executives from CBS, producers from Paramount, the president of CBS stops by that day, there’s a lot riding on it. 30, 40, 50 people working on the shot, 40 people watching, and hoping you don’t fuck up. There’s a lot more riding on you, because it’s so expensive to produce. With stand up, there’s nothing riding on it. (Laughs) There’s no pressure at all. Just you and the patrons, and that’s it. So stand up is a lot easier. That’s probably why we all gravitated towards stand up, because once you get it, it’s so free up there. You can do anything you want.
What was it like working with Jeffrey Tambor?
Incredible. You know he’s an SF guy, right? Born and raised in San Francisco, and I think he went to San Francisco State. He was great to work with. All the experience. When the writer’s strike was going on, I could lean on him a little bit if I was confused about anything, I could ask him how I was doing. I think at one point I did a scene, and he goes, “Yeah, you’re gonna wanna do that one again.” (Laughs) He was great.
What I have to realize is that you can’t focus entirely on this. If I were to give any advice, and I do, I give advice to younger stand ups a lot, way more than I should, like Louis [Katz] and Sheng [Wang]- is constantly have lots of things going on. I have 3 or 4 things going right now. Just because down here in Hollywood, and in stand up in general, there’s a lot of talk, people flake out, say the Captain doesn’t get renewed. When I got Montreal, I was on this show The Ortegas on FOX. And it was supposed to air after the Simpsons and it just never aired. That was extremely disappointing to me, because I thought it was good. I came down here and I thought I was gonna be famous. I was doing stand up for 5, 6 years, and all of a sudden, I got a tv show. And that never went anywhere, so since then I’ve never gotten too excited about any of this stuff.
I think the particularly cool thing about that is that, no matter what happens, whatever project gets cancelled, no matter how high that pile of bogus hollywood business cards gets, you, as a stand up, always have your “act”. That’s pretty bad ass.
We always have our act. And all of this is not too hard. I always get mad when people move from SF down to LA and then they move back. I don’t think they really tried. All it is is trying. If you have a talent for it, all you have to do is try and it’s that easy. I don’t think a lot of people put the effort in as much as they should.
How did you time your move to LA? Do you feel like you waited until LA was beckoning you, and you justified the move?
It was different for me. I was older, I started when I was 27. I had a family. I wasn’t really messing around. There was no way I was going unless I was beckoned. I had a manager in Los Angeles. I went to the Montreal Comedy Festival, and right after that, I did the pilot for The Ortegas down here. I guess I could have been happy as a local comic up there like say Larry Bubbles Brown. I can be a Bubbs! I was in it to do stand up- anything else that came I was just rolling with it, and still am. Now I go out, I’m on the road, and I can make my living off of stand up comedy which is crazy to me.
That’s awesome. That’s the dream right there.
I know, I can’t believe that I work an hour a night, two tops. I think Seinfeld says in the “I Killed
I understand you grew up in the Sunset District.
15th between Irving and Judah. The Meehan Bros were on my block. Michael Pritchard was on my block for a little bit.
On your block?
On my actual block. I would ride my little bike to Michael Pritchard’s house. I think he won the first [SF International] comedy competition. Robin Williams looked up to Michael Pritchard. And I would ride my bike to his steps. Him and a few comics would be there. I remember being in college, being 22, 23 years old, and I remember seeing the Meehan Brothers hanging out with a bunch of other comics on their steps, and they were forming a sketch troupe. And I was so interested in that, and I would walk by, stop by to chat, and they would stop talking about comedy. (Laughs) I’d never seen stand up, but everyone said I should do it. I’m able to do stand up because I was able to see someone else be successful at it.
Watch Al Madrigal:
About the author:
Chris Garcia is a comedian currently based in San Francisco. He will be appearing at The Punchline June 10th-15th .
