Just because one of the funniest TV's shows (Chelsea Lately) went away doesn't mean that show writer and comedian Chris Franjola's career had to. And it certainly didn't judging by the hilarity he brought on his album “The Shallow End.” And if you miss his quick wit on the Chelsea roundtable not to worry because he's bringing all of that and more to the Irvine Improv Tuesday December 16th. Before you give yourself the early holiday gift of tickets to his show, we talked to Franjola about how life has changed for him over the past year and what's coming up for him in the new one.
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OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): I'm sure you're sick of this but I'm going there anyway. How much are you missing Chelsea Lately?
Chris Franjola: Oh yeah, the daily show was great and I loved it. I miss it a little bit and when I say a little bit I mean, I'm enjoying being on the road right now. It's a nice change. The show was a long road.
When the new show goes to Netflix in 2016, do you think that there's any chance of “After Lately” getting picked up too? I loved that show.
I loved it too, it was so much fun to do because we all got to act. There was a script but we improvised a lot so it was a whole different thing. I would say it's probably a long shot but it would be great if it did come back. It was critically acclaimed and people really seemed to enjoy it but E! just never really got behind it too much. They just didn't know if it was reality or scripted…it was tough for them to wrap their heads around.
It seems like it's hard for E! to wrap their heads around anything without the Kardashians in it.
Exactly! And that was a lot of our frustration too. It was a fun half hour show but they would have rather put on wrestling wives or something like that.
Yuck. It seems like even dogs have a podcast and I thought it was interesting that the crew from After Lately never did one together. You guys have such a great dynamic.
That's a good idea. That was the beauty of that show and I think a lot of other people try to capture it on different things. I mean, there were main writers on the show and the other guys would come and just be there for a few hours and leave. A lot of the people are doing their own podcast though so everyone kind of has something going on. But again, it's a good idea!
Thanks! I'll think of a good name for it too for you. I know your album “The Shallow End” just came out in October but, are you already writing material for your next one or are you sort of always doing that?
I try to. It's tough to come up with a new hour because when I'm on the road, I tend to do a lot of material for the city I'm in, so there's that. It always changes from city to city.
I'd love to know what you'll be saying about Irvine…
I've played that Improv a few times and it's new and giant. I'll have some stuff. Irvine is an interesting place. They don't have the greatest sense of humor when you go after them but I love that. I'll be bringing Jiffy Wild with me and I may have another person coming with me as well as a surprise. So yeah, I'll be doing some of the stuff from the album but I have a lot of new stuff too.
Check out Chris Franjola at the Irvine Improv Tuesday December 16th, 31 Fortune Drive Irvine, CA 92618, (949) 854-5455. For tickets go to www.Improv.com. You can pick up Chris's new album “The Shallow End” on iTunes and for more info, go to his website www.Franjola.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisFranjola.
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Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.