"I've been comedy-adjacent for a lot of my life, but not a comedian. I had no idea what I was in for. That was a crash course in confessional standup. Five nights a week, for six weeks, Arnett would write and perform material across the city, going up cold, ignoring any hecklers who might insist he was actually the star of one of the US's best-loved sitcoms, as well as BoJack Horseman, Blades of Glory, The Lego Movie etc."
"Every time a comic goes on stage, they are jumping off a cliff, says Arnett. It's unnerving and very scary. Sometimes it paid off. One night he went to a club, and killed it. They loved it. Really vibed with me. And then I went around the corner to a different club, did the same jokes, and completely bombed. Some actors are smaller than you expect."
Will Arnett spent six weeks performing confessional standup five nights a week across New York to prepare for his first dramatic movie lead. He wrote and tested material live, often joking about his divorce, and faced hecklers who compared him to a well-known sitcom star and voice actor. The live work produced extremes: nights of strong audience connection and nights of complete silence that left him feeling exposed and diminished. The film role centers on a man who avoids a bar's entrance fee by doing five minutes onstage and, through that ordeal, discovers himself.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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