Life After Jean-Ralphio: A Surprisingly Inspiring Interview With Comedian Ben Schwartz
"The fact that I can really help people out by acting like a dumb dumb on TV is very exciting."
Even through an international phone connection, even as the last call on a busy junket at the New York Film Festival, even though I know exactly what to expect, comedian Ben Schwartz is incredibly disarming — he sounds exactly like Jean-Ralphio.
Considering the actor played the role for the better part of five years, that shouldn’t be surprising. From Nick Offerman and Tammy Two’s upcoming Australian sex tour, to Aziz Ansari and the Tom Haverford grin that’s permanently affixed to his face, the cast of Parks and Recreation seem to have a remarkable bond with many of their iconic characters.
What’s more interesting are the ways in which Schwartz differs from Jean-Ralphio. He sprints through conversation with a trademark energy and open-eyed enthusiasm. He jokes around with a familiar infectious laugh. He’s both aggressively charming and polite — at one point, eager to stay on the phone, he asks me to pull another question out of my “little roo pouch”. But through all this he’s also speaking passionately about film and comedy, dishing out huge praise for his peers, and being generally chuffed at the thought anyone likes his work at all.
Against all odds, the man behind Jean-Ralphio “let’s ‘accidentally’ get run over by a city bus” Sapperstein may be one of the most lovable and earnest people in the entertainment industry.
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The Walk: A Long Way From Pawnee
Coming out the same week that filming would have normally resumed for a new season of Parks, Ben Schwartz’s latest film couldn’t be more different. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role, The Walk tells the true story of legendary wire-walker Philippe Petit as he pulls off his iconic 1974 stunt between the Twin Towers. Though this has already been well-documented in Petit’s memoir and the Oscar-winning documentary Man On Wire, The Walk tells the story from a fictionalised perspective — an epic 3D blockbuster that’s being praised as “breathtaking” thanks in large part to the direction of Robert Zemeckis.
Though he only has a small role, Schwartz is so genuinely into this film. He loves the story, he’s a born and bred New Yorker, and he calls Zemeckis his “hero” while fanboying over his other films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Flight and Back To The Future. He tells me has a replica hoverboard in his house, and one of the first DVD sets of the trilogies that was ever released. Because he ordered it from Canada, it’s all in French.
“I am so in awe of who he is as a director,” he says. “There was no doubt when we were making The Walk that it wouldn’t be gorgeous. That’s what he does. He’s so good at storytelling. [Back To The Future] is literally my favourite movie of all time.”
I bet Marty McFly puts his cruise control to 87 MPH all the time just to piss off the flux capacitor.
— Ben Schwartz (@rejectedjokes) September 2, 2015
I ask if he ever managed to get his hands on the film’s original hoverboard and he freaks: “Oh no no no. That would be a dream. You just made me so excited I don’t know what to do with myself”.
Schwartz took much of that excitement to his own role in The Walk, too. Though only featured towards the end of the film, his character is a (pretty dodgy) American accomplice named Albert who’s one of the few present on the tower roof for the final feat.
“At the beginning [Albert’s] so filled with anxiety; he doesn’t want to go to jail,” he says. “I think he sees the joy in it and then he quickly feels the fear in it, and then he bails when he’s up there … It’s great because the film tells the story from the perspective of Phillipe Petit’s book, so the idea that I could meet that icon, and then hear his point of view on this character was amazing. We could offer this pure experience being literally above the universe and exactly what it felt like.”
Though it’s markedly different from his past work, that doesn’t make it any less fun. “In Parks obviously, we got to light a room up — all of us get to be crazy — but within the realm of who this character was, [Zemeckis] let me play and take my timing,” he says. “I can’t tell you the joy I felt when Robert Zemeckis laughed at anything I did ever. It was like a dream come true for me.”
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The Unexpected Virtue Of “Acting Like A Dumb Dumb On TV”
When we start talking about Parks and Rec and Jean-Ralphio, it’s in the same way kids talk about summer camp. “I miss him so much,” he says. “I mean, I miss him so much. I already miss those guys a lot … I do miss it a tonne. Do you miss it?”
I tell him it was my favourite show. It ended on my birthday and I spent the day saying goodbye with a very loving recap. “Ohhh, that is great!” he says. “That makes me so happy! That’s such a cool thing to hear.
“[Parks] was that first thing where people started connecting with one of the characters I did, and it was really exciting. I tried to make you like [Jean Ralphio], so when he does something stupid you laugh and you don’t get upset.
“Amy [Poehler] had a good line where she said you almost treat him like a puppy. When he pees on the carpet or he says something wrong, you have to be like, ‘Oh, Jean Ralphio’. He wants to be liked so badly, he’ll try and do anything. You can’t really take him seriously.”
Schwartz’ career is full of that mix of fun energy and total determination. The 34-year-old comedian has spent a little over a decade hustling his way up in comedy clubs, mastering improv at the UCB Theatre, and writing jokes that may or may not be heard by anyone. He paved his way into the industry as a page at The Late Show With David Letterman, then began freelancing jokes for the monologue and SNL‘s ‘Weekend Update’ before eventually making his own clips.
While being constantly knocked back, he exhibited (and perfected) his work through a website that he still keeps updated: Rejected Jokes.
“I used to take all the rejected jokes and film myself performing them for zero people — I wanted to see why they didn’t work,” he tells me. “If you watch those short films, I am so awkward in front of the camera. I hadn’t figured out what to do yet.”
“I was so fortunate,” he says. “[The site] took off and had 500,000 Tumblr followers. I’ve been very lucky. I started doing all my short films when YouTube first came out and people started going crazy for that stuff. I was so lucky to have been able to create when it was all starting with those things.”
Though that was three mentions of luck in about three seconds, talent’s also got a bit to do with it. Off the back of his success in Parks and Rec and his still-running sitcom House of Lies, Schwartz was featured as a guest on Letterman earlier this year — something he now describes as a “full-circle moment”. Also, after starting out as a baby in the UCB improv family under greats like Amy Poehler, he now practically runs the joint. Though Schwartz lives in LA, he returns to New York at least once a week to do a show called Snowpants.
“Every week I get to together with old school improvisers like Thomas Middleditch, Horatio Sanz, Zach Woods and then I get one or two people who have never done improv before like Blake Griffin, JJ Abrams, Jane Fonda, Helen Hunt, Don Cheadle, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and all of the money goes to charity. All the money so far has gone to mental health rehabilitation clinics in New York, and it’s amazing.”
“I come from a family who were really big on non-profit, so the fact that I can really help people out by just acting like a dumb dumb on TV is very exciting.”
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Where To Next?
Though his fans — those who don’t have the option of casually dropping by UCB each week — are still feeling a little tender after the “death” of Jean-Ralphio, there’s still heaps to look forward to from Ben Schwartz.
“After The Walk, I’m gonna talk to Zemeckis and be like, ‘Alright: me, you, Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2. Let’s stop messing around.’ It’s time to give the world what they want,” he says, like a particularly creative Entertainment 7Twenty pitch. But it’s actually not that far off the truth. After much success in writing skits and shorts — he even won an Emmy for co-writing Hugh Jackman’s opening song at the 2009 Oscars — Schwartz is looking to the big screen.
“I’ve been very fortunate to sell some scripts,” he says. “I try to work my butt off so when I’m not acting I get to be making money elsewhere, [and] I’ve sold four movies. They’re all in different states of writing, or different drafts. You never really know what’s going to happen … There’s one that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and Adam McKay are all attached to, and they give me notes. It’s a process; I’m just learning so much. But it’s a process. I’m psyched to hopefully see one of them get made.”
Having just started filming his fifth season of House of Lies alongside Brisbane-born Josh Lawson, he also says a trip to Australia is on the cards — in particular, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. But ultimately, he just seems thankful to have choices like this at all.
“My hope is that I get to keep doing movies like The Walk and work with people like Zemeckis and then at the same time on Sundays, for free, pop in [to UCB] and do a show at 9.30 for an hour,” he says. “That would be a pretty special thing: to continue doing the thing that got me there and to be able to work with people like that, and tell stories like this that I connect with.
“You never think you’re going to work with someone like Zemeckis. You just get incredibly lucky. You work hard enough, you put your head down, and you hope that one day it happens.”
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The Walk is in cinemas now. Season five of House of Lies will premiere in 2016. Parks and Recreation is gone forever.
Here are some of Jean-Ralphio’s best moments to help ease that pain:
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