Nick Offerman

And it just, you know, like all things, it was a slowly accumulating awareness of what it took.

And so I was really grateful.

I would get supporting roles.

And then finally, I did a good enough audition for this play called The Quarantine that Joe was directing.

And I finally got the lead.

And, you know, I was perfectly mediocre, but I was better than I had been.

That's the beautiful thing about life, maintaining the attitude of a student, is that I'm still on the same journey.

Hopefully, the next play I do, I'll be better than the last play I did until my faculties give out.

It was around this time that you became friends with Amy Poehler, but you didn't get involved with comedy until your mid-30s when you started to work with Amy at her Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York.

Why did it take so long for you to realize your comic chops?

Well, I love making people laugh.

I mean, but when you study legitimate theater at like a drama school, basically, comedy is simply one of the things you do.

You are hoping to work at theaters that put on a season.

So you're prepared to do Shakespeare or Chekhov or Sam Shepard or

Or absurdist Pirandello or Pinter or you name it.

Or musical theater or like Fado farces.

Hopefully in your toolbox you are able to do anything that's on the season.

And one of my favorite things to do was be funny and make people laugh.

It's a weird specialization in modern thought.

And nowhere is more specialized than Hollywood.