An Insomniac Learns to Sleep

Nudist colonies, homosexual biker bars, midget porn-stars. As host of Comedy Central's Insomniac, comedian Dave Attell witnessed all of the above and more. With a cameraman by his side and a beer in his hand, Dave took his viewers on a three-year bar-hop. From his native New York City to Amsterdam's red light district, and all points in between, Insomniac offered a glimpse of a life that takes place while normal people hibernate.

With filming completed for the series, Attell is back on the road this winter with Lewis Black for the Comedy Central Live tour. We caught up with him recently to discuss the tour, his fear of acting, and why he decided to put Insomniac to sleep.

How has the Comedy Central Live tour differed from your prior jaunts across America?

Well, instead of a week in one place, it's a day. A day here, a day there, and we're not on a tour bus. We're either driving or flying. It's a lot more travel, and a lot less time. The theatre aspect adds to it. It's different being on the road with the same people all the time. It's good though. It's good being with Lewis, because we're kind of the same guy; the same animal. It's definitely been a different experience from the last couple of years; shooting Insomniac and touring clubs.

The clubs are your bread-and-butter. How have you adapted to the larger theatres?

Well, it's really ego-boosting to walk out there and see 3,000 people. You're like, "Wow, this is amazing!" I do love the clubs though. I'll definitely do clubs again, because I think that's really my element. You feel like you can get off the script a lot easier. When you're doing a theatre show, you don't want to fuck up, because it's hard to recover. There's not really anything going on but you and your show. We don't even have a backdrop, or a smoke machine, or anything else. It's just you standing in front like a motivational speaker. In the clubs, you can work the crowd easier; work off of different situations.

It gives you a lot of respect for people who are great theatre acts, and I think Lewis is becoming one of the best I've ever seen. He's got an excellent "command of the stage" as they say. He brings it every night. Last week, we drove 6 hours through a snowstorm to get out to Norfolk. We were all swimming in our own misery, but he closed the show and did great.

You're a regular on "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn". It's not uncommon for guests of the show to rip each other apart verbally. Have you ever been offended while appearing on the show?

No, not at all. That's how comics talk when they're together. They're very sarcastic and mean-spirited. The thing that's great for that show is the guys that are involved with it; especially Colin [Quinn]. Colin's like the best-kept secret in the country. He's super-funny, all the comics love him, and he's probably one of the smartest comics working. He's amazing with a crowd and he's got that ability to pick out the funny in situations. This is a good venue for him, because it's topical and it gives him the chance to bounce off of a lot of different things. The other guys involved there; Keith Robinson, [Jim] Norton, Patrice [O'Neal], Greg Giraldo. I know all of them, and they're all really funny. What they're doing there on the show, they do the same thing at the Comedy Cellar when they're sitting around the table; just talking and putting each other down. It's like a barbershop. I think it should be more offensive actually. I'm waiting for the first guy to get punched in the face.

You've also lent your voice to "Crank Yankers". Whose idea was it for you to call an electrolysis plant for your fictional pet monkey?

I don't know, Daniel Kellison kept calling me to do it. That's not really my scene. I mean, that's a funny show, but I never was really into crank calls, even as a kid. All of these shows where people are pranked on hidden camera, I don't know. It's one thing when it's a celebrity, like the Ashton Kutcher thing. When it's someone sitting at a desk for 6 bucks an hour, and you're getting all up in their shit, it's a little weird. It seems to have definitely caught on though. Jimmy Kimmel is a really good guy. I remember when he stopped doing "The Man Show", and he was like, "Our new show is about prank phone-calls and puppets." I was like, "Wow, good luck with that." But, like I said, it really caught on. People love it.

You wrote for Saturday Night Live a number of years ago, at a time when one of the funniest casts ever assembled was on the air. What did you learn while working on the show?

Well, just because you work for the show doesn't mean you're working on each and every show. A lot of it is sitting at the writing table and listening to people talk. It's very competitive, it's very clicky. That was then. Spade, Sandler, all those guys deserve all the success they got. They're really talented and they learned to bring out their own styles of comedy while they were acting.

I guess when you're there and you work on a show like that, you really can't go into it like I did. I was a guy who was seen in a comedy club, and they brought me in to write. You have to be a writer, or you have to learn how to do it really quick. Otherwise, you're just going to spend a lot of time sitting around. People will look right through you. It's very high-school oriented; whose the big man on campus, you know? It was a good experience though, it taught me a lot about show business. How people react to each other, and how competitive things really are. Another thing about that job is, it's kind of like a government agency. Once you get a job like that, you will be employed for the rest of your career.

I also realized that I'm not a writer and I don't want to do any of that. I was one of those guys; we'd write all day and night, and then I'd go out and do standup. The other writers were like, "Why would you do that, when you have the job? This is the job." It just blew their mind. You know, "You don't need to be in these smoky, sweaty clubs anymore. You've got this job." It's a good job to hang on to for most people, but for me, I kind of like the club work; being able to call my own shots. I'm more of a loner.

You'll be appearing in the film Max and Grace next year�

Yeah, for a second.

It's a small role?

Yeah, I got the call for that the day before shooting. This was when I was shooting Insomniac. I went out to I guess it was New Jersey. You know it's not a good situation when the director, prior to shooting the scene, goes, "Can we just cut this scene and move on to the next one?" I'm not an actor, so I was really nervous. I'm hoping to do as much film and TV stuff as I can, to get over my fear of doing that kind of stuff. Everybody says, "Just be yourself." It's never like that. It's a lot more work than that. The people I got to work with on that film, I really do like though. I'm really not into the acting scene, but Natasha Lyonne and Dave Krumholtz; those guys are great. They're not on everyone's radar. You know, you don't see them popping up on Entertainment Tonight every week. They're just good, funny, eclectic people. Working with them was cool.

What was your gut idea on Insomniac? Were you confident that people would tune in to watch a show about a guy who walks around drinking all night?

I didn't think the drinking was going to be as big a part of the show as it turned out to be, and I never thought the show would go on as long as it has. I had no idea that that would be the thing that would connect with people; the smoking, the drinking. It's just amazing, the following that it developed.

How accurate does the show portray your off-camera life?

Well, some things carry over now, when I go out drinking by myself; which is kind of good, kind of bad. When I go out personally, a lot of people want to drink it up and bar it up. They all want to drink a shot with me, usually to say, "Hey, I drank with that dude." It's kind of the opposite of watching TV and going, "Man, I banged that chick." For me, it's hard because I'm not really a party guy. I like to go out and drink, but I wouldn't say that I walk into a bar, and a party suddenly happens.

How has your act evolved since Insomniac hit the air in 2001? What did the program do for your standup comedy?

Well, it definitely brought a crowd to me. People got to know me as a standup comedian. Some people don't know that I do standup. I did a show in New York a while ago. I was trying to work on some new stuff, translation: bombing, and this couple gets up to leave. I go, "Where are you going?" They go, "We like your TV show. You should just do that and not do this."

Why pull the plug on the show after four successful seasons?

The more the show went on, the harder it got to go into a bar and sit and drink. That's kind of why I said no to a new season. I didn't want it to get lame.

With Insomniac out of the picture, what else do you have in the works?

I wouldn't say Insomniac is completely out of the picture. We'll be doing an hour-long special here and there. It depends what's going on, and where I'm at. We shot one of them already, actually. We're also going to be releasing DVD's for Insomniac seasons 3 and 4; some unseen footage there. You know, all that Apocalypse Now reduxe shit. Other than that, I think I'll check into rehab!