ACTOR/COMEDIAN NICK OFFERMAN EXPLORES ‘WHAT FUNNY MONKEYS WE ALL ARE’
Nick Offerman’s
You’ve heard of the healing power of laughter? In comedy show, it works both ways.
“By occasionally performing as a humorist, I can get my fix of a live audience,” he said. “It’s probably my favorite thing about being a performer — the medicine that’s exchanged between performer and audience. I love to make people laugh in a big room.”
The big room on Friday will be the Events Center at Harrah’s Rincon Southern California resort in Valley Center.
“My material is about what funny monkeys we all are,” said Offerman, known to many as the inimitable Ron Swanson from TV’s “Parks and Recreation,” though he’s a man with an extensive acting résumé, including a highly acclaimed performance in a recent episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us.” He’s also written five books.
He’s not averse to a little self-deprecation either.
“If I get on a particular riff making fun of myself in some way,” he said, “I’ll milk it until it’s dry.”
Offerman integrates his own songs into his show as well, such as “I’m No Scientist” (“about people who think they’re smarter than science”) or “PG-13” (“making fun of college venues that ask me to keep it PG-13”) or a paean about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh titled “I Like Beer.”
“No one has ever accused me of being particularly good at making music,” Offerman said in his trademark deadpan delivery, “but it serves as a successful laughterinducing mechanism.”
The laughter aside, Offerman said he’s “over the moon” about the critical and fan response to his dramatic turn as a survivalist on “The Last of Us.”
“It’s been a crazy phenomenon in our household,” he said. (Offerman is married to performer Megan Mullally.) “I’m 52, and for the first time I got a very specific kind of approbation from the world.”