Odenkirk gets wasted for show
Anything for his art. Bob Odenkirk got the call to appear on an upcoming episode of “Drunk History” to help detail the infamous disco demolition night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1979.
Problem is, Odenkirk had avoided getting inebriated for more than three decades.
Each episode of the Comedy Central show provides a history lesson told with a twist — intoxication. Host Derek Waters and his guests get liquored up because, as the show’s website claims, “Booze helps bring out the truth. It’s just that sometimes the truth is a little incoherent.”
Appearing on the show was a tough decision for Odenkirk, the Emmy-nominated actor-comedian from AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” according to Page Six.
“It was scary for me to get drunk,” he said during a PaleyFest NY appearance Monday. “Derek knows. We had a lot of conversations about it. I almost backed out because I haven’t been drunk in a long, long time.”
“Not that I was going for a record but it was probably over 30 years,” added the 55-year-old Odenkirk.
But he went for it in a big way, and his liquid courage for his appearance came courtesy of two and a half double gin and tonics, plus four shots of tequila.
“It was a tough call to do it and I just bit the bullet and the worm, and Derek was very protective of me. … I was definitely drunk,” Odenkirk said.
Part of his hesitation was that he didn’t want his college-age children to see him sloppy on TV. “I have kids who are teenagers, both in college now, and I was a little worried about them seeing me on TV really drunk — like — vomiting drunk,” Odenkirk explained.
But the Illinois native relented because he said disco demolition night was part of his childhood. On July 12, 1979, the Chicago White Sox hosted the Detroit Tigers in a twi-night doubleheader.
The “disco sucks” backlash was at its peak, and the evening’s promotion involved a crate of disco records being blown up on the field in between games.
Following the detonation, fans rushed the field, which then became so damaged that the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game to the Tigers.
Waters, who appeared on the Paleyfest panel alongside Odenkirk, revealed that among the other topics that will be covered during season six of “Drunk History” are the Little Rock Nine, Martha the Mouth and Sam Cooke. A premiere date for the sixth season has not been announced.