Wing Chun: Congratulations, first of all, on the Emmy nominations!
Scott Adsit: Thank you! Yeah, it's amazing.
WC: Do you get to go?
SA: Yeah, I'm going on Friday.
WC: Have you ever been to the Emmys before?
SA: Nooooo, I haven't.
WC: Are you excited?
SA: Yeah, I'm ecstatic! I mean, I hear it's a terribly boring evening.
WC: Yeah, that's what everyone says.
SA: You've not been?
WC: Nooooo, no. I've been to the National Magazine Awards; that's the most glamorous awards ceremony I've ever been to.
SA: How are those?
WC: Um, pretty boring, yeah. Also, it was Canada, so they were ten times as boring.
SA: [laughs] Wow! Well, maybe I'll count myself lucky, then.
WC: Everyone from the show gets to go?
SA: I think so. I mean, I haven't talked to everybody about going. At least I know everyone in the opening credits is going, but I would imagine everyone else is, too -- all the regulars.
WC: Did you get a new outfit?
SA: I'm trying to! I think I'm just uncool enough not to get a designer to give me a suit.
WC: [laughing] Right.
SA: Hopefully, I fall just below the mark, but no -- nobody's interested in me showing off how good a paunchy guy can look in his suit. But I'm gonna try to get one on Saturday. I'm going to try to just run over to...I don't know. Nordstrom or something and get a black suit.
WC: Oh, geez, you're going to get there without an outfit?
SA: Yeah.
WC: Oh my.
SA: I was just talking to some writers on the show, and they're planning to get their dresses, and they're trying to decide where they're going to be getting ready for it and everything, and I'm just saying I'm going to be changing in the limo.
WC: [laughs] I guess you don't have to get waxed and everything beforehand.
SA: No. Just changing my shoes. And I am lasered.
WC: That's good planning. And fortunately, Studio 60 got shut out of all the broadcast awards, so no one's going to be waiting for there to be a rumble.
SA: That's right, yeah. Aw. That's a shame.
WC: Is it a shame?
SA: We already won.
WC: I guess you probably are sick of people asking you about Studio 60 -- particularly now that they're in the dustbin of history.
SA: Um...I saw the pilot, and I saw it was really very good. I didn't see anything after that, though, so I don't know. You know what? It was funny -- I was auditioning for that show at the same time I was auditioning for [30 Rock].
WC: Get out of here!
SA: Yeah!
WC: What part were you auditioning for?
SA: I don't even know! I don't remember, because I didn't get a call back. I just went in once. It was for one of the leads. You know, I think they went with attractive and famous instead.
WC: [laughs] And see how that paid off for them! Not that well!
SA: Yeah! Ugly guy makes good!
WC: So prior to 30 Rock, you did a lot of TV, but not really much that was of this style -- a single-camera sitcom. What are some of the challenges of working in this format?
SA: Wow. It's finding the middle ground of trying to be funny and trying to be real, and not going too far either way, I think. Because the camera's so intrusive -- it can tell when you're trying to be funny, which is death. And it's ugly. And then being too subtle, it's like you're doing a different show. That's my challenge -- to walk the tightrope. In the three lines I have in every show.
WC: I know that you come from Second City, so you have a background in live performance, so I imagine that would be hard too -- not to have that kind of feedback.
SA: Yeah, it's tough. I was just talking to Tracy [Morgan] about that, just now -- about having a wisdom about comedy, and knowing something's funny without having it reinforced by the audience, and feeding off that. Having a sense of humour -- just being aware that something's funny.
WC: You guys do a very good job.
SA: Thank you. It's the writers, who do such a good job, I think. Everybody takes what the writers give them runs with it, but the writers is where it starts.
WC: Because of Second City, I assume you have a background in improv -- how collaborate is the process for the writers and actors on 30 Rock?
SA: There's a lot of writers, and everybody trusts them implicitly. And certainly everything filters through Tina [Fey], and she's just as smart as a whip. You get it, and you may adjust it. Occasionally, on set, things change, and occasionally Alec [Baldwin] finds a better way for something to happen and go down and he will ask for a change. But generally, we're handed really beautiful things to do, so we kind of go with it. It's just changing lines a little bit here and there, or improvising past where the scene would end. That kind of stuff goes on.
WC: In Season 1, fans of your character, Pete, were distressed that Pete's hit a rough patch with his never-seen wife. What can you tell us about what's on deck for Pete in Season 2?
SA: We just had a script today; we did a table read today of a script that involves Pete and his romantic life. I can't say too much!
WC: That's exciting, though!
SA: Pete will not be alone very long.
WC: Okay...
SA: But he is still living with Liz.
WC: That's good. Lots of comedic potential there. Like the same-outfits gag. That was a good one.
SA: [laughs] Thank you.
WC: When you were developing Pete, the character, obviously the writers did a lot of the work there, but when you were developing your take on Pete, were there other TV characters that you had in mind, or other influences from your real life?
SA: Pete is based on Mike Shoemaker, at his base, and then he's written to be a little more pathetic than the real Mike. He's a producer on SNL, has been for years and years and years. I'm filling the spot that he would fill if this were real life. As far as his home life goes, I don't know how similar we are, but I hope not too.
WC: He doesn't do an Elmo impression that you're aware of?
SA: Ha! He's a father, so he must. But I don't know if he's afraid of his children. I don't think he is.
WC: Do you do any other impressions that we should be aware of? Other than the Elmo that's already been unveiled.
SA: Just me. Just me in my crying, weepy moments.
WC: How is it working with the guest stars? Elaine Stritch just won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the show, and Jerry Seinfeld's going to be in the Season 2 premiere. How do they blend with the cast?
SA: Well, generally, everybody we've brought in have been pros longer than we have. It's great to see them come in and kind of stoop to our level. I feel like we get to play with royalty. It's daunting. But they're always really nice -- and they like the show, so that helps. To tell you the truth, I personally haven't had many scenes with guest stars, because generally, I'm with Liz. But socializing with them is great. They're really pleasant, happy people. Rich, happy people.
WC: Do you get recognized in public from the show?
SA: Yeah -- it's weird, I get recognized about half the time for the show, and half the time for other stuff. A lot from Second City, for some reason. We had 300-whatever people a night, so that adds up after a few years. I get stopped in other countries about Second City. It's very strange.
WC: That's a nice compliment.
SA: And now, I have another show, on Adult Swim, and my voice is getting recognized now. Very, very lonely, geeky boys, or men with backpacks, come up to me and tell me how much they like Moral Orel. Moral Orel won an Emmy, too, this year.
WC: Congratulations! What category?
SA: It was for animation, for an episode I wrote and directed.
WC: It's quite a year for you!
SA: I know!
WC: I would think that you'd get recognized because you've been in such a wide range of different kinds of shows -- Felicity to Still Standing.
SA: I get stopped a lot for The Italian Job, because I did one scene in that, but apparently it sticks with people, for some reason.
WC: When I saw you in the 30 Rock premiere, the association I had was for the episode of Friends that you did, with Joey and the Silly Putty.
SA: Oh, really! Yeah! I only had the one line there, but I think that was voted the #6 best moment on Friends ever by TV Guide.
WC: It was a good one. Yeah -- that and Tenacious D, I remembered you from.
SA: Yeah. That was fun.
WC: Even if that's all you ever did, those would be two very high points. Do you ever get to shoot here at 30 Rock? I know they do externals here, but I guess your character's mostly in the studio.
SA: We did some of the pilot in the lobby there. But yeah, just externals. I've been there a few times, and we do go there for meetings and stuff.
WC: Do people who work here talk to you about what they think of the show -- how it's depicting the environment?
SA: [laughs] No! I wish I could tell you yes. That doesn't happen.
WC: The only story I have is from when NBC was working on buying the site, when we were here in November having meetings, one of the people who was working on the deal told us that she doesn't even know what anyone else gets out of 30 Rock, because she finds it so insider-y. She was telling us that Six Sigma was a real thing, and we had no idea.
SA: I didn't know that.
WC: Apparently it is an actual GE professional development tool. So these real references get dropped in, and people who work here are like, "That's awesome!" And it just goes over everyone else's head.
SA: [laughs] Yeah, but I think the audience gets it. It's not a showbiz comedy so much as just an office comedy.
WC: Right, of course. And even if you didn't know specifically what Six Sigma is, even just the name is funny, because it sounds very official and black ops-y.
SA: And we're being introduced to it, you know. You watch House without knowing anything about microbiology.
WC: Well, speak for yourself.
SA: [laughs]
WC: What would you say is your favourite thing about working on 30 Rock?
SA: Hanging out with Tina.
WC: Did you know her well before the show? Were you together at Second City?
SA: Yeah, for years. It kind of became a cliché that the two of us would end up in two-person scenes a lot, so we were kind of partners. And it's nice to be in a job where I get to pretend to be her partner, and pretend to be her friend.
WC: [laughs]
SA: It's very comforting to know that I'm friends with the boss, because I have a little bit of good job security.
WC: That's another question that I wondered, too -- do you follow the news? Do you pay attention to ratings and time slots and stuff, or do you get insulated from that?
SA: I don't pay attention to it. Someone said we're like 130th in the ratings and that shocked me; I thought we'd be in the top twenty, but I just discovered that we're rather low. But so is The Office.
WC: That's true.
SA: So I have every confidence. I know Tracy got arrested a couple of times. And I know Alec was in the news briefly, earlier this year.
WC: I think I read something about that.
SA: But otherwise, now I don't read the message boards or Entertainment Weekly or whatever.
WC: That's wise. Although Entertainment Weekly is very complimentary. I don't think you have anything to fear from them.
SA: Oh, I read the ones that I'm in.
WC: [laughs] That's striking a good balance, then.
SA: Someone will email me and say, "Hey! You were in such-and-such!" So then I go buy that.
WC: I think that's all I had -- they told me that your time was very tight this week -- it's such a big week for you.
SA: I have all the time in the world for you.
WC: That's very sweet! Is there anything else that we should know about the show?
SA: It'll be coming back--
WC: In October, right?
SA: No, in the spring. Sundays at 12:15.
WC: [laughs]
SA: On Cartoon Network.
WC: Oh, that show.
SA: Yeeeeeeah.
WC: Nicely done. You also have two movies out this week, right?
SA: Mr. Woodcock, and...oh! I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With! I just went to [Jeff] Garlin's movie [Cheese] in New York. He was taking questions. It was really charming -- I almost wish it had more of Jeff's personality in it. He's all over it and everything, but his quirky sense of non sequiturs, I think, I would have loved to have seen a lot more of from his character. It's a great movie. Did you see it?
WC: I did not, but I saw that it's On Demand, so I will look it up.
SA: Yeah, it's fun! Sarah's [Silverman] really good in it, and David Pasquese.
WC: Plus I just was in Chicago two weeks ago, so I enjoy that also -- Jeff Garlin and Chicago!
SA: Oh yeah, it was wild. We shot that three or four years ago. I only worked one night in it, and every scene that came up, I knew everyone in the scene. There were some people I hadn't seen in ten years. And every location was Chicago and genuine. It was great.
WC: It sounds like a great experience. So good luck on Sunday! Good luck with the suit.
SA: [snorts] Yeah. Do you have any suggestions? Do you think I should get a tux, or should I just get a black suit?
WC: I think a black suit is a good look. It's classy. Sometimes I think that a tuxedo is trying too hard.
SA: ...Yeah. Okay.
WC: And, in addition, everyone's going to be in a tuxedo.
SA: Right.
WC: So then you'll look distinct.
SA: Maybe I'll just wear a turtleneck.
WC: You could go that way too. But you're tall, so you can really wear a suit.
SA: I'm six-two!
WC: I'm saying! I can tell, because when you're in a scene with Tina Fey, she looks about four-foot-two.
SA: [laughs] Well, good -- I'll take that advice. Thank you.
WC: That would be my recommendation. Good luck, have fun, don't be bored. Bring in a mickey.