Judah Friedlander Doesn't Just Do Funny

Friedlander stays in '30 Rock' role
Friday, December 21, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

Judah Friedlander's comedy act is written across his yellow T-shirt in big, black print: World Champion. Every night that he does a show, he goes onstage and talks about being a great athlete and a role model for children.

The punch line: Friedlander's persona. A trucker's hat saddles his long, straggly hair, above black-rimmed glasses that cover half of his face. His sideburns frame his five o'clock shadow, and he never sucks in his substantial belly.

This is the same look that Friedlander sports on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock." He'll be performing this weekend at Carolines in Manhattan; he spoke recently about staying true to himself and disappearing into an acting role.

Q. Why is your role in "30 Rock" so similar to your stand-up persona?

"30 Rock" is something you film every day for seven or eight months. For doing a character like that on a daily basis, I did not want to have to do something where I would not look like I normally do. The way I look like when I do stand-up -- the hat, the glasses, the long hair, the sideburns -- that's what I look like every day. ...

And a TV show could go on for six years. That's about six years of your life when you're never ever looking or acting like yourself ... that would drive me nuts.

IF YOU GO WHO: Judah Friedlander. WHAT: Comedy. WHERE: Carolines Comedy Club, 1626 Broadway, Manhattan; 212-757-4100 or carolines.com. WHEN: 8 and 10:30 tonight and Saturday; 8 p.m. Sunday. HOW MUCH: $26.75 to $31. LAUGH LINES: judahfriedlander.com.

Q. Are those your real glasses?

They are prescription glasses, and I wear them on a daily basis.

Q. What's unique about your character, television writer Frank Rossitano?

I think I'm the only character on the show who is from New Jersey. I imagine he's from Lyndhurst. I play an Italian guy, and Lyndhurst has a pretty big Italian neighborhood.

Q. How do you balance your stand-up and acting work?

Stand-up for me is still my first love and still my home base and still what I love to do the most. Even when I'm taping "30 Rock," if I have an off day, the night before I'm doing stand-up. That weekend I'm doing stand-up. But now, because of the writers' strike, our show was shut down four or five weeks ago, so now I have even more time to be doing stand-up.

Q. You've gotten a lot of critical attention for your role in 2003's "American Splendor." The persona that you have on the stand-up stage and on "30 Rock" is completely absent. Can you tell us how you got into this role?

When I got the script, I realized these were real people, so I started doing research right away. I collect rare movies as a hobby, and the guy I play, Toby Radloff, was in some super, low-budget, rare horror movies. So I tracked them down. ...

For my first audition, I already had him down pretty well. The casting director told me, "Wow, we weren't even able to find those videos." ...

The night before we started filming, I actually met the real Toby. He basically gave me his entire life story. We spent a couple hours. So I really got personal, psychological, one-on-one information from him, which helped me mentally.

Q. But what about staying with your regular hat and glasses persona?

For a movie, I love doing it: completely change my look, how I talk, how I act. Because a movie's usually one month to three months, tops. ...

I'm trying to get more projects where I can totally change it up.

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com

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