Gaffigan shows clean can be funny
Nice guy Gaffigan addresses family, food and fatherhood with squeaky clean but highly successful brand of humour
By his own admission, Jim Gaffigan would have been a very odd choice to host the White House Correspondents Dinner.
It was a gig he was offered, but turned down in 2018.
This is not because he isn’t funny or is ill-equipped to handle tough audiences.
After all, this is the guy who opened for Pope Francis in 2015, performing for a massive crowd of not-entirely-amused and occasionally hostile fellow Catholics in Philadelphia.
But Gaffigan is not a political comedian.
The White House Correspondents Dinner simply isn’t his “wheelhouse.”
While he is quick to point out that he dislikes U.S. President Donald Trump, it’s still difficult to picture Gaffigan breaking from his nice-guy persona long enough to launch the sort of blistering comedic attack that brought host Michelle Wolf both passionate praise and criticism back in April.
“There are friends of mine who are very good at that stuff and we are in this decidedly tribal-sides kind of era,” Gaffigan says in an interview with Postmedia.
“My comedy is sort of a break from that. Look, I’m somebody who consumes a lot of news. I’m constantly reading a lot of articles. I find it fascinating. But I also know that people come to my shows as a break from it.”
Besides …
“I’m not trying to get more famous,” he says with a laugh. “I’m just trying to do my thing.”
Gaffigan’s thing has become an increasingly vast and lucrative empire in the past few years. His clean, non-political observational comedy has been mined for Grammy-nominated albums, bestselling books, sold-out comedy tours and an acclaimed sitcom. (For the record, Gaffigan had not been asked to host the Oscars at the time of this interview. “I don’t think they are going to ask a white guy and I’m quite possibly the whitest guy,” he says with a laugh.)
In fact, his growing fame was likely part of the reason he was asked to roast Trump to begin with.
After nearly 30 years doing standup, the Indiana native’s multi-faced career seemed to have hit a peak in 2018.
He has graduated from soft-seat theatres such as Calgary’s Jubilee Auditorium, which he played back in 2016, to arenas such as the Saddledome, which he will play on Jan. 19.
Forbes recently listed him among the Top 10 highest-paid comedians of 2018.
Vulture named Gaffigan’s Noble Ape among the top 10 comedy specials of the year.
As an actor, he is also in increasingly high demand. Later this month, three of his films — Light from Light, Them That Follow and Troupe Zero — will screen at the Sundance Film Festival.
All feature Gaffigan in dramatic roles that highlight his growing skills as a thespian. In fact, he has 10 films scheduled for release in 2019. All of this seems to have been achieved on his own terms.
This is not to say that he doesn’t work hard, but he doesn’t seem to be a typical showbiz careerist either. As an actor, he has little interest in headlining a “silly comedy.” Back in 2016, he walked away from his autobiographical sitcom, the Jim Gaffigan Show, after two successful seasons on TV Land.
The comedian and his wife, Jeannie, who co-wrote and coproduced the show, decided to end the series to spend more time with their five children.
Given that creating, writing, producing and starring in a series is considered the holy grail for comedians, it was a move that raised eyebrows but also won the comedian respect for sticking to his priorities.
“I just like creating things, whether it’s an acting role or a standup special or even some silly essay,” he says. “I’ve been doing it long enough to know that I can’t get caught up in other people’s expectations.
“The ego of having your own show, I suppose it’s good. But at what cost? In that situation, we had five young children. What is the purpose of doing something that takes you away from your kids and you can’t outsource? You can’t even let other people write other episodes, because it is so autobiographical.”
Still, some opportunities are too fascinating, or perhaps just too weird, to pass up. Gaffigan admits he felt obligated to open for the supreme pontiff back in Philadelphia, even though he suspected ahead of time that warming the stage for Pope Francis in front of an estimated million-plus devotees in Philadelphia would be a thankless gig.
“There’s certain situations as a comedian that are no-win situations,” says Gaffigan, who is a Catholic. “I couldn’t turn it down. But people who are going to see the Pope speak are not going: ‘I hope the Pope has a comedian opening for him.’
Also, comedy is constructed on a certain level of irreverence or inappropriateness going back to the court jester. I knew going into it, I would disappoint some people by not challenging the position and I knew I was going to disappoint some people with whatever I did being too challenging for the situation. I mean, it was a festival for families. It was outside. There were innumerable things that I knew were going to be a problem.”
Which is not to say that Gaffigan is out of place performing for families. Unlike many or even most comedians, he keeps his comedy squeaky clean.
The Gaffigans’ five children, who are now aged six to 14, often tour with their father in the summer and during school breaks. Fatherhood, family, food and other seemingly everyday topics have always been fodder for Gaffigan’s comedy. His two bestselling books, for instance, are titled Dad is Fat and Food: A Love Story.
Noble Ape, which was distributed through a variety of non-Netflix on-demand services, did delve into some poignant topics, particularly when it focused on Gaffigan’s role as a caregiver after his wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Gaffigan says Jeannie, who cowrote and directed Noble Ape, is “doing much better” and fans can expect a new show when the comedian hits the Saddledome stage on Jan. 19.
“Comedians are kind of constructed on challenging themselves and challenging their audience,” he says. “On an encore, I might do an old bit. But being fresh and new is an important thing. With audiences, it’s an unconscious thing. They want the new stuff.
“They want to be surprised.”