Friedlander will be performing his stand-up routine at 7 p. The Review caught up with Friedlander as he drove back to his home in Queens from the 30 Rock set to discuss his collection of amazing-bad art, his impressions of Cleveland, and why he loves stand-up so much. Adrian Goulet. Did you ever consider a career outside of comedy? Was there any point in your career where you got tired of it and wanted to quit?
Traveling can also get tiring, but comedy is my most favorite thing to do. What about it appeals to you? With 30 Rock, for example, it takes 14 hours to film one minute episode. Stand-up needs an audience; it feeds off of it. I also like the sense that anything can happen. Who are your favorite audiences to perform for, in terms of demographics or regions of the country? My ideal audience would be very diverse and encompass all races, all sexual persuasions, all political persuasions, all income levels.
Time for the requisite 30 Rock question: how do you think the show has changed since it first went on air in ? What do you think? In film, the auteur is normally the director and in T. The first season or two were actually less writer-dominant then they are now. There was a little more room for improvising. The show is just different than it was at the beginning.
Do you mean in terms of relying on fabricated situations for comedic effect rather than relying on the interactions between the actors? The show is still grounded in reality, but there are a lot more elements that are just flat-out jokes, flat-out absurd. Where do you find the art you collect and what constitutes bad art for you?
To me, bad art is just something that does nothing for me. This could be anything from art hanging in a great museum to art hanging on the wall of a Super 8 motel; if it has nothing original, nothing unique and does nothing to excite me, I would call it bad.
