Brent Morin – Undateable

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) Right now, I’m working on a lot of my own stuff. I write a lot, screenwriting wise with movie ideas and television shows I’m trying to get off the ground. That’s mostly where I spend my time and then I spend my nights mostly doing standup.

Q) Please tell us about your new show “Undateable” and about your character Justin.

A) It’s kind of like “The Odd Couple” meets “Friends” meets “Cheers.” My character Justin is a lovable loser that has his shirt tucked in and is the romantic type. He tends to over think things and the girls he likes he tends to put on a mountain. He moves in with Danny (played by Chris D’Elia) who is pretty much the exact opposite of him. Danny is very secure and masculine. He takes what he wants, but he can’t hold a relationship. They are two people that fit each other pretty well. I also have a bunch of friends at my bar that are also similar to me in that they are not very dateable. Danny takes the opportunity to help change us, but he also has his own problems. It’s basically a group of friends that are figuring out that they are almost there at that point in their life. I think everybody in their life at some point has felt undateable and this is kind of like coming in at that point with these characters.

Q) What was it about the show or cast that made you want to be a part of the project?

A) I’ve always been a fan of Bill Lawrence and I was a fan of “Scrubs.” I was very aware of him and he had seen me do standup and wanted to meet me. I thought that was pretty cool. We just hit it off right away. That was the initial part of it. Also, it was Bill’s ability to let us improvise and play. Having that freedom of him saying, “We’re going to do the script and then if you have any ideas then go for it.” That is just really, really good to do with people that are comedians because you don’t usually get to do that on sitcoms. I got booked first with Rick Glassman (who plays Burski on the show). Rick and I are neighbors in the same apartment building and have been best buds for years. He was a waiter and I was a production assistant when we got cast. So, this was a job that we both desperately wanted. When Chris D’Elia got cast – Chris D’Elia is like my best friend! I’ve known him since I was a teenager. It was very odd how it all came together, but everybody on the show already has a relationship. And the people that didn’t know us before fit in almost immediately. So, I think that will come across, too. I got really excited for the Bill Lawrence aspect and the ability to work with my friends every day is insane.

Q) Along those lines, was there anything about the role that you added that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) Justin is interesting. As I said, he’s kind of a lovable loser shirt tucked in kind of guy and there is something really fun about playing somebody so genuinely honest. There is something about playing kind of the loser and not the tough guy type that sounded very interesting. Initially, I went for my part and for Danny because in real life I wouldn’t say that I am much like my character. There are definitely traits that are there. There are certain things, comedically, I find in my wheelhouse and that’s like the overthinking thing, the stuttering of the words, the back tracking and digging himself a hole. I love that style of comedy. I’ve loved it since Woody Allen and Albert Brooks. I love anything where it’s like the guy sabotaging himself. So, I was able to find parts in the script where I could put those things in. And I’m very interested and curious to see what they used. I know in the trailer that was released there is a moment where my character is walking away and he doesn’t say a word – he just laughs and walks away. That’s from my standup. I said to Bill, “Let me try something because it fits in and it’s from my act.” So, there are moments where I tried to put that aspect of comedy into this character, which I thought was so fun.

Q) What do you think it is that makes someone undateable?

A) Honestly, in real life, the thing that makes somebody undateable is just not believing in yourself. That’s pretty much it. Once you like yourself or believe in yourself, anything is possible in the dating world. What’s interesting about the show (and can be misleading with the title) is that it is less about these guys trying to date and more about them trying to live their lives and figuring out what they want to be. It becomes really a show about friendship and about this group of guys who genuinely like each other and constantly mess with each other, which is similar to us in real life. Chris and I are always going at each other, making fun of each other. There is something fun about being able to do that in the show. So, I think you can get anybody as long as you just believe in yourself and not be afraid to be rejected. In high school, you never want to be rejected and I talk about this in my standup act. But when you grow up, you start to realize that you get less and less embarrassed by things and being turned down is going to be a part of it. You’ll get hurt a little bit, but that’s part of life. It’s going to happen. I get shot down all the time…

Q) You have great comedic skills. Is it something you’ve worked to hone or is it a natural talent?

A) I’ve probably worked to hone it. Being on stage, when I first knew Chris (I’ve known him since I was nineteen) I was so fast and you couldn’t understand what I was saying. And the things I was saying were stupid. It’s definitely something that I knew was there, like in my day-to-day life I knew what timing was. I grew up watching all of these comedians and I would just idolize comedic actors, less standup and more comedic actors. Ultimately, with my life, I never thought I would do standup comedy. I thought I would be writing, directing and acting. I think it’s something that you slowly start to form and standup definitely helped with that because you are doing shows every single night. It calms you down and you’re not nervous. I’m not nervous anymore. I’m very relaxed and you realize where to take the time. I think that’s one of the benefits of having four standup comedians multicam sitcom. I don’t know why people have strayed away from it recently. Instead of just getting actors trying to pretend to be funny, you should get funny people to be in the show because we can play off a crowd better than anybody. I would put us up against any actor because we know when to hold for the laugh and know how to get a bigger laugh on a line. Bill Lawrence would let us do that and he’d let us play in that way. There are certain things you start to pick up by doing fourteen shows a month, like I was doing.

Q) Filming with your friends must make for a number of memorable moments. What were some of your favorites?

A) Every day I left with a headache from laughing too hard. Chris and I were in a lot of the scenes together and we had a running bit that we would do in rehearsal all the time. With rehearsal, you just get the script and you are cold reading it trying to block it at the same time. So, you’re going to mess it up. Especially me. if I’m cold reading it and trying to act at the same time you’re going to mess this up. Chris and I had this bit that if we were reading together and one of us was messing up a lot we would cut the other person off and say, “Thank you for coming in. We appreciate it,” just like it was an audition that they failed. It was a running thing where Chris and I would call each other out and during take-night when Chris or I were doing something that wasn’t good we would just go, “And bad. Very bad.” I think the best moments were just us literally us telling each other that we were terrible actors. There are good scenes in this! We are not bad actors! I don’t know…You tell us!

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant feedback you’ll be receiving from fans when the show premieres?

A) As a comedian, you have to be connected to social media. When you are connected to social media, there are pros and cons to it. The pros are that when you come to somebody’s city you get to communicate with your fans and let them know where you are. The cons are that you get some assholes. There are just some people that want to be mean. Yes, I’m looking forward to some peoples’ comments on it, but honestly there are always just going to be people that are mean. It’s just weird. That’s how the Internet can be. It’s very funny how mean the Internet can be. All of us are so connected to social media that there are going to be people who are positive and what is good about that is they’ll tweet about it and talk about it. They’ll tell their friends about it, which is great. That’s the great luxury we have on our show that other actors don’t have. Chris alone has 1.6 million followers on Vine. There are sitcoms that don’t get that many views. So, it’s really good that those types of things will be out there. But as for people talking about the show, we’ll have to see. Maybe I’m acting well. Maybe I’m not.

Q) What do you think it is about “Undateable” that will make people want to tune in?

A) Honestly, it’s funny. It’s just a funny show. You’re going to know when we’re improvising and you’re going to know when it was us coming up with something. There is genuinely joy there and they always told us that, “If you have to laugh, don’t suppress that. Friends laugh at each other in real life.” So, there is genuine laughter in the show. You can tell we’re having a really good time. This show is filled with great comedians that I think are the next generation guys. Chris is becoming the guy. Ron Funches is America’s sweetheart. If this show goes away, I need to live on his couch. Rick Glassman is very much Andy Kaufman like. We’re all different styles of comedians and we have these great supporting actors that are actually professional who are able to tell people like me, “Don’t do that, idiot.” I think that was nice. I think you’re really going to get a sense that we’re actually friends in real life. I think that comes across. I think a big thing that is exciting for people is that we would take the script and we would have the ability to improvise. I think that’s a fun thing for audiences to look out for. Those are the questions that will be asked on social media, which parts did we improvise and which parts were in the script. We took some wild turns in this and Bill really let us go in the second and third takes. I think those are going to come across and people are really going to enjoy it. I know it’s a summer sitcom so set your DVR. I know you popular kids might not be home at 9pm on a Thursday night so set your DVR and watch the damn thing! These guys are funny and if this goes, then these guys are going to blow up. There are so many funny people on the show that I think people should just give this an opportunity.