David Koechner has made a living out of being a character.
He started on improv stages before becoming a cast member for one season of "Saturday Night Live" and has lent his talents in more than 80 movies and television shows.
Koechner never really left the improv arena, spending seven years in a music/comedy act with Dave Allen as The Naked Trucker and T-Bones. The duo took the act to Comedy Central for one season.
Now Koechner has developed a solo show in comedy clubs across the nation.
Q: What is a David Koechner live show about?
A: I am not a traditional stand-up. Let me just say it's hilarious, first of all. That's my own self-promotion. I do characters. I'm a character actor. So what I do is five or six characters strung together for an hourlong show. There is music and different behavioral aspects of life. How is that for a boring synopsis? (Laughs)
Q: What characters are you going to be playing on stage?
A: One that people may recognize is T-Bones from "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show." Then I also do a guy named Roy who is dating a man named Roy. There's Jerry Prastis, who is a tragic salesman. There's Jokesy, who has a compulsion to tell jokes -- even if it's not even a joke. And Jack Pritchard, who is one of the worst persons you would ever want to meet.
Q: Why did you want to bring these characters to the stage?
A: It's something I have always wanted to do. For years I have wanted to do a solo show. It's kind of a hybrid between stand-up and a solo one-man show -- but built for comedy clubs because there is a different expectation when you go to a comedy club than a theater. People just sit there and expect to hear jokes. But mine are more behavioral explorations of the human condition. Which in a way is stand-up too, right? But where a stand-up might tell 10 jokes, I will act it out but in a different way.
Q: How long have you been doing these characters?
A: Well, I have been doing each of these characters in smaller formats for probably 15 years. "The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show" -- we could have done a three-hour show. But our show tended to be an hour and a half. But all of these other characters, I have always done in 10- to 15-minute bits. There are always opportunities to go up and do different forms of comedy here in Los Angeles, in Chicago or wherever you are. So I would always do that. So I had this collection of different characters (but) I had never put them together in an act.
Q: Have you continued with the Naked Trucker and T-Bone duo act since the Comedy Central show ended?
A: We did it a couple times after, but then we let it go. We both felt like, well it was time to go to other things. But (Dave Allen, who played the Naked Trucker) and I are talking, and there might be a possibility of doing the show.
The live show was magic. Oh my god -- magic. It was my favorite thing ever to do on stage. It was a beauty. So that's why I want to take that out, because it was much different than the television show -- which, as we all know, was not a complete success. I love the show, but I understand that for a lot of people it didn't quite translate.
Q: Your bio said you changed from political science in college to become an actor. How does this happen?
A: Once I realized that I wasn't going to be a senator's aide or a senator, because I never stepped foot on a country club at that point of my life. I realized, oh, this game is not going to be for me. I wasn't going to be a lawyer and I started taking my legislative classes in the dry, boring stuff. I was like, wow, that sounds like just boring homework the rest of your life.
So I was visiting a friend in Chicago and went over to Second City (Comedy Theater) and then realized, oh my god, that's how you do it. That's what you do in classes. So I thought that is what I wanted to do and so I started taking classes and doing improv and sketch comedy there in Chicago for nine years.
Q: Do you still frequent the improv shows?
A: Yeah, and you know why, because it is a great way to stay fresh, stay relevant, and it's only fun to perform. My theory is every time you get on stage, you get better.
Memorable David Koechner Characters
* Stumpy ("Out Cold," 2001) -- In a small Alaskan ski town on the cusp of becoming a major resort, David Koechner plays a crazy drunk who spends most of his time lounging around in cut-off shorts and snow boots, and telling elaborate and false stories about his life.
Stumpy: "Did I ever tell you about the time I invented snowboarding? Yeah, I don't want credit for it, but they keep on giving it to me."
* Champ Kind ("Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," 2004) -- Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and Koechner play members of a news team in the '70s. Koechner portrays crude sports reporter Champ Kind.
Brian Fantana: "Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies. I mean they rev my engines, but they don't belong in the newsroom."
Champ Kind: "It is anchorMAN, not anchorLADY. And that is a scientific fact."
* Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons ("The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show," 2007) -- The comedy/music duo toured for several years before bringing the act to Comedy Central for one season. The Naked Trucker, who wore a hat, guitar, boots and nothing else, teamed with T-Bones, a Southern hillbilly with a penchant for petty crimes.
T-Bones: "Marriage, ugh, it's a big moment in a young girl's life, you know. It's the first step towards monogamy really."
* Lambeau "Coach" Fields ("The Comebacks," 2007) -- Koechner stars in a film that spoofs major sports movies. He plays a coach of a misfit football team.
Lambeau "Coach" Fields: "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a tackler. Same thing goes for a firearm."
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