Podcast spawns “Smartest Book in the World”
With his crisp suits, black-frame glasses and coiffed hair, comedian Greg Proops certainly looks like someone who would host a podcast called “The Smartest Man in the World.”
And when the 55-year-old speaks, letting forth a gravel-flecked accent that has led to voice work in Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and kiddie fare like “Bob the Builder,” the illusion is complete.
But the last thing you should do is take him too seriously.
“I was on the phone with Phil Beauman, a friend of my mine from the Bay Area who works with the Wayans Brothers a lot, and he said, ‘Do you know how you come off ?’ ” Proops said via phone from a tour stop in Boston last week.
“And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘Like you know everything. So you should do a
show where you take questions and call it ‘The Smartest Man in the World.’ And I was like, ‘That’s genius!’ ”
Nearly four years later, Proops — who’s also known for his improv work on the U.K. and U.S. versions of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” — has written a book called, appropriately, “The Smartest Book in the World,” to be published May 5 by Simon & Schuster.
We caught up with him in advance of his Comedy Works podcast recording and stand-up sets April 22-25.
Q: Did you reach out to your comedy buddies for advice with your first book?
A: A little bit, but I’m terrible at community. I’m a lone wolf, baby. I asked Jen Kirkman and Aisha Tyler (another “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” veteran), as they’ve both written books, and they were very helpful. What’s really surprised me about publishing, which obviously is not in its boom days, is how DIY it is. Not just in putting together the tour and everything, but having the gumption to get everything done. I have a manager in L.A. and he’s been reasonably useless with this. He was excited to book me on a TV show, Chris Hardwick’s “@midnight” (on Comedy Central) and I was like, “I could have booked that myself!”
Q: So it’s a lot more footwork than you were expecting?
A: Well, this is basically just me whining at this point, but that’s the reality of it.
Q: After reading the book, it seems like more of a condensed version of your podcast, where you hold court on music, film, history, poetry — all kinds of subjects.
A:I love the schtick. I’ve always found it funny in other comics, but when I first started doing it almost four years ago I was like, “What is this? I don’t know what to do, really.” Then my wife said, “No, this is it. You found the thing that you can do, after 30 years of being a stand-up.” And now, honestly, I like it more than anything else I do.
Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing the book?
A: Not to make it a lengthy diatribe, because that becomes very wearying. But early on I decided to not do what Chelsea (Handler) and all her cohorts have done, which is write a memoir. I could tell road stories for 1,000 years, but I do that on the (podcast) and that’s why I say at the beginning of the book, “This is not just going to be me talking about myself.”
Q: How did you choose what to write about?
A: The podcast informed everything. It’s all the things I obsessively talk about on the show, like stealing artwork, baseball, drinking, old movies and music, feminism. I don’t need a lot of guidance in general, but it was very important for me to have some here and there for this book.
Q: Do you ever come across anyone who doesn’t get the podcast, who thinks, “Jeez, what a pompous fool”?
A: Most of the time people get it or are familiar with it, but once in awhile someone just thinks I’m a crank. And I’m like, “It’s a joke. I’m a comedian!”