Jon Glaser – Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter

By: Jamie Steinberg

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

A) “Neon Joe” obviously. Before that, I was doing a show called “Jon Glaser Loves Gear.” Those have been the most recent two and they have been keeping me pretty busy, thankfully.

Q) People recognize from various comedic roles. Do you have a natural ability for comedy or is it something you have had to work at?

A) It’s a little of both.

Q) Fans will recognize you from your work on “Parks and Rec.” What was it like working on the series?

A) That was a great time. Very fun. I was lucky. It’s a really fun character. As an actor, when you get to do such a fun show and the show is also great…As an actor, you don’t always get to choose what you do. I’ve been lucky I’ve been able to create my own things for myself. When you are just auditioning for things, a lot of times you are just hoping for the best. To get a really fun role on a really quality show is great because it doesn’t always happen.

Q) How did you come up with the concept for your show “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter?”

A) The whole thing really came from nothing. It was a total arbitrary joke I made on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” maybe four years ago. I just wanted to do something to amuse myself when I was on the show. I just randomly paired a couple articles of clothing that I owned for separate comedy bits and put them together. One was a neon hoodie and one was these Coors Light sweatpants. I made a joke that I played seriously. I made a joke saying I was sad this other show I was working on was over, but I had a new project that was called “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter.” I said that’s all we had at the moment and had to figure out the rest. It was a total joke, but I had a feeling that Adult Swim might bite so to speak and call my bluff. They said, “We know you were kidding, but it sounds funny! That sounds like a show we’d make. That such a stupid sounding title.” Even when I tell people it sounds ridiculous. There was no show idea. There was no character I had been wanting to do for years. It was just a random joke. I had to create something from nothing, but it was a very fun challenge coming up with this show and character. To get the opportunity to create something like that is kind of cool. And here we are in the second season of the show!

Q) How involved are you in the casting of the show?

A) Maybe it is not the way for everybody, but I would imagine for most show creators you are very involved in the process from top to bottom. You’re either writing the show or overseeing the writing and also producing. For me, it’s having a hand in everything. So, I’m very involved in the casting and all the auditions. I sit in on the auditions. I run them with our directors. I’m very involved in the whole show, including the edit. I oversee the edit, which is how I like it.

Q) What can viewers expect from this season of “Neon Joe?”

A) A little bit. It’s very different form last season. We have a whole cast, which was kind of on one hand too bad because we had put together a really excellent last season. A lot of times you can make or break a show with the cast, obviously. We had a really good one and it was tough to make the decision not to use them. So, with the premise of the show Joe goes to a new town and there was an opportunity to maybe pursue a similar storyline or storyline with some of the same characters, but we decided to start over. Neon Joe is in a brand new town. There is one character that comes with him, which is Cleve (Steve Little). Joe has opened up his dream bar, which is a tropical themed bar Oahu Joe’s that he alluded to in Season One. So, that’s where we pick up with Season Two with Neon Joe opening this bar and running it with Cleve who is there to help. Right away we start getting visions of Joe’s past and things appear from his past that kind of force him to confront…I’m trying to speak very vaguely without giving things away. In Season One we learned about Joe that there was a past love. That character becomes very prominent this season. There is a rival werewolf hunter, whose name is Plaid Jeff. He dresses similarly stupid, but he dresses all in plaid. He shows up out of nowhere and Joe is forced to deal with him. There are still a lot of werewolves and supernatural stuff. There is a bigger one that I don’t want to give away. It’s nice. Tonally, the comedy is the same stupid stuff. Visually and tonally it’s a little different. It looks great.

Q) How much of the series is improv and how much is prewritten?

A) There is a little bit of improv. I always try to make this point that it is me and two people that do all the writing together. John Lee and Ryan McFaul are the two guys I write with. They are part of the production company. They make their own shows also and are really talented guys. Alison Levy is the third part of the production company. They are a very smart, funny group of people. John directed this season. So, the three of us do all the writing together. As far as improv goes, we’re certainly open to it. There is a fair amount that we do during the shoot, but we really try to get what is on the page first and then we’ll screw around with some takes or we’ll try something else. It’s a part of the show, but it’s not a huge part of it.

Q) Joe and Cleve share a great friendship. Talk about working with Steve Little.

A) He’s just so funny. He was a guy who when we were writing last season and came up with that character he just felt like the guy. I didn’t know him before that, but I was such a fan of his from “Eastbound & Down.” He had done something on “The Heart, She Holler” that I had worked with him and really liked him also (meaning John, Ryan and Alison). He’s great. He’s extremely funny. He’s a really nice guy. He’s really good at the show. We see more of his character this season. He’s way more involved this season than last year, even though we got a nice little chunk of Cleve. You get more this season. He’s hilarious!

Q) How long is the process for putting on Joe’s tattoos?

A) That tattoos take about probably a half an hour. They are all obviously fake tattoos. There are ten tattoos so maybe it is a little longer. The scars come on and off every day. The tattoos we try to leave on and they would just touch them up depending on how much abuse they took. It’s hard to say. Some of them stay pretty intact and others come off every day. It takes maybe thirty to forty minutes and then maybe another half hour for the scars because there are a lot of them.

Q) What do you think it is about “Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter” that you think has made it such a fast fan favorite show?

A) I don’t know. Is he? Is he a fan favorite? [laughs] I’d like to say it’s the aggressive stupidity. I don’t even know. It’s hard to say. I’m sure there are lots of different things that appeal to people. Maybe people like the horror part of it. Maybe people like the stupidity of it. There is a promo online right now that we made for the show that is grounded and rooted in the Neon Joe opening his bar. It’s like a fake commercial for his bar. So, we did a regular version where I’m like, “Hi, I’m Neon Joe! Come on and check out my new bar Oahu Joe’s!” Blah, blah, blah. Then, we did another version which is all “He-Yump.” It’s just that dumb thing Joe says. So, it’s like, “Hey-do-ho-he-yump-hope-he-hump-he-yump.” It’s all the dialogue is just that. Someone posted a thing on Instagram that was that version. Maybe that’s what people like about it. [laughs] It’s fun to do as dumb as it is. He looks cool. The outfit is great. I thought Hero Joe’s Neon Outfit was great. We’ll get more of that this season, but it just starts in a different place. The visuals are really good. As dumb as the premise is, I am still really proud of it. It’s funny and I do think it looks great. I think we did a good job of working with what we had. The costumes are good. We’ll see a lot more this season. We’ll see a lot of Joe out of that main outfit. And there are some other really good outfits this season. I think that’s part of the appeal. Who knows? I’ll let fans decide why it’s so great.

Q) Is anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about this season?

A) We have a whole new cast. It’s a whole new town. It’s a whole new premise and story we’re following. I think it turned out really good. It looks great. It’s maybe a little darker in tone this season, which is relative because it is still a dumb comedy. The trailer is a cool thing to watch also.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I would say thank you for enjoying what I do. I always appreciate whenever people enjoy whatever stupidity that is coming out of my mouth and find it funny. [laughs] I get to keep making this show. I can’t thank fans enough. Keep watching. Hopefully, keep enjoying. And tell your friends!