Funnyman Christian Finnegan knows America doesn’t want to hear about how put together he is or how he’s shot to superstardom thanks to his painstaking wit on VH1’s “Best Week Ever.”
People don’t want to hear how he shed 50 pounds, is a blushing newlywed or climbing the stand-up circuit by leaps and bounds.
“No one wants to hear about genuine accomplishment,” he said in a recent telephone interview from Kansas City. “People just get pissed. I went to the gym today…’oh yeah, go (expletive) yourself.’ No one wants you to act like you’ve got your (expletive) together. People get disappointed.”
Still, Finnegan, the resident humorist on the popular weekly wrap up show, says he’s “one French fry away from being a fatty” and still works hard to keep his stand-up act in check.
He wants fans of the show, who might check out his act, to know they won’t be hearing all about how crazy Tom Cruise is or why Britney Spears could use a lobotomy.
“I think that stuff, it’s too disposable,” he said of the pop culture mocked on the show. “I mean it’s perfect for “Best Week Ever” because you watch the show and another week comes along and it moves on. But if I were to do that in my act it would require so much context for people who aren’t reading Page Six or reading US Weekly every week or watching “Inside Edition.” It just wouldn’t be worth it. I don’t find that kind of stand up fun.”
But being on VH1 and other talk shows has introduced Finnegan to even greater audiences.
“It’s great in a sense. I want to be able to entertain anyone that walks through the door,” he said. “It’s even better when people come with an expectation of who you are. Some idea of what your voice is for a lack of a less pretentious word. ‘Oh I’ve heard him make jokes before.’..the idea is you want a room full of people who know who you are so you can really be the most “you” as possible and you don’t have to kind of introduce people for half of your set.”
His ultimate is to have a group of people who already think he’s funny.
“If you like me on “Best Week Ever” I think you’ll like my stand-up,” he said.
The comedian just completed a Comedy Central college tour named after his debut stand-up CD “Two for Flinching,” released by Comedy Central Records. Fans also know him from “Chappelle's Show” when he played Chad, the only white roommate in the infamous "Mad Real World" sketch.
“The best shows I’ve ever done and the worst shows I’ve ever done have been at colleges,” he joked. “You never know when you get there. It has nothing to do with how big the school is or how much they’re paying you. You show up to a college and generally speaking you might be walking into a room with 1,200 screaming people who are just thrilled that you’re there or you might be walking into a snack bar where somebody maybe put up a piece of construction paper with your name on it and there’s like a plank of wood with a microphone stand on it. You just never know.”
Finnegan will be filming his very first stand-up comedy DVD in the late summer or early fall. Details are still being finalized, but Finnegan says it will include a full hour of previously unreleased material, and it will be packed with goofy extras. Also, a good portion of the DVD will be aired as a television special.
Aside from his gig on the hit series Best Week Ever, he serves as a frequent guest on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” Other credits include his own half-hour special “Comedy Central Presents: Christian Finnegan”, “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson”, “Last Call with Carson Daly” and numerous appearances on the “Today” show.
Finnegan recently co-starred in the film “Eden Court” with Kimberly Williams-Paisley and “Reno 911's” Thomas Lennon. If that didn’t keep him busy enough, he also served as a staff writer for Comedy Central's “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.”
“I’m not going to dance around it, we’re definitely helping America slide into the ocean,” he laughed. “The whole world is getting smareter and dumber at the same time. Like, you know, you can say all this attention to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, that has always been around. People’s interest in stupid celebrity gossip exists in direct proportion to their ability to acquire it…sure, before the days of the Internet and Google News alerts and things like that. Sure people paid a little less attention to it but that’s not because the interest wasn’t there it’s just technology didn’t allow you to do that. You don’t think people in the 70s desperately wanted to know what the Bay City Rollers were up to on a day-to-day basis? They just didn’t have the capability to know, now they do…so God bless America.”
Miriam Ramirez covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4468.
