“I pursued acting and stand-up comedy at the same time, but I never really got as many opportunities in acting. In stand-up, you have a little more control over your own destiny,” says Jim Gaffigan, one of the most well-known comedians alive today. 

“But also, the most fulfilling characters to portray end up being dramatic roles. So, over the years, finding creative fulfillment in stand-up, writing, or acting, I selfishly choose the things that are the most rewarding,” jokes Gaffigan.

Past the point of “dying to be in a movie,” Gaffigan has found his own niche as “a partner in the creative process.” This was perhaps most clear while working on The Jim Gaffigan Show in 2015 and 2016. Seeing both sides of these collaborations, this experience inspired him to look for the type of person he needed to make each episode a success. 

“It’s been an evolution. Obviously I love getting laughs, but playing Cameron and Kent in Linoleum, there’s a different level of fulfillment and complexity that is more rewarding than being in a screwball comedy.” Linoleum, written and directed by Colin West and co-starring Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), follows the host of a failing children’s science show who tries to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut by building a rocket ship in his garage.

“This movie presents questions like what is success, what is the true meaning of life, what are we trying to accomplish? Then there’s part of me that thinks this movie is just a big love story. When we talk about other people, we can see selflessness and longevity as beautiful, but when we look at it ourselves, we don’t necessarily see that.”

“It’s Not That Simple…”

Linoleum somewhat gives Gaffigan a chance to reflect back on his own career, both as a struggling comedian in the early days and now as a creative looking for new innovative ways to express himself. In the film, it’s expressed as a single idea: “it’s not that simple” (we also see this difficult idea expressed in Bleed for This).

“It’s all so confusing. The entertainment industry is the perception business and it’s creating stories. So we tell ourselves stories. If you look at my career, it might be viewed as ‘this guy has everything,’ but the reality is, I was somebody told to study business and it was very unfulfilling for me, so I made the decision to pursue acting and stand-up.”

For seven or eight years, Gaffigan says he had essentially no success. “From a personal perspective and outside perspective, it looked like it was not going to happen. So I went through therapy and tried to figure out why I was doing this? To be on The Tonight Show? To tell people I was in a commercial? I decided I was doing it because it was creatively fulfilling.”

Once he embraced this process > results mindset, he was able to experience success. This led to Letterman (1999) and then a sitcom called Welcome to New York (2000). “Because I was seeking creative fulfillment, I [eventually] tied myself up in stand-up. Acting is an insane pursuit, so I concentrated on stand-up, then started touring, so the perception is that’s a success. But the reality was, I was the last of my peers to get a late night spot.”

Looking back, fans would later notice Gaffigan on TV shows like Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Dr. Katz, Three Kings, Super Troopers and Sex and the City, but the perception was, “He’s a comedian who does acting.” Gaffigan clarified, “But I’ve always done acting.” Some headlines at the time even read, “Sitcom Actor Does Stand-Up Comedy.”

Understanding Joke Structure

From an outside perspective, Gaffigan is known for talking about bacon and being the “clean” comedian. With a closer look, he’s also known for observation comedy, using voices to reflect the audience’s POV, and of course, self-deprecating comedy – a love he shares with Conan O’Brien. As he shifts from stand-up to acting, the real job is not making the joke. 

“Understanding the structure of jokes and what makes things funny is… it’s actually more fulfilling to not do the joke,” he says. “When you’re around people who are constantly funny, we find it exhausting, because you’re like… enough!”

Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan) Photo courtesy of Shout! Studios.

Shifting between writing and stand-up and acting, Gaffigan is able to find more fulfillment across the board. But, most people will think of him as a stand-up, especially with so many specials coming out consecutively, Beyond the Pale, King Baby, Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, Noble Ape, Quality Time, The Pale Tourist, and Comedy Monster. 

“Stand-up comedy is such an individual pursuit. You can adjust wherever you want, so being in an acting role and part of a team, it’s so very different. But it’s also really fulfilling. Playing these simple moments or playing the vulnerability, which is – as humans – we don’t want to sit in that vulnerability. We want the distraction, which is why we’re always scrolling.”

Despite being an individual pursuit, Gaffigan gives his wife credit for much of the work he comes out with, be that a comedy special, a book (Dad is Fat, Food: A Love Story), or a TV show (The Jim Gaffigan Show). Although this has changed in recent years after his wife survived a health scare. 

Writing with Your Spouse

“I don’t know how to adjust that on my Wikipedia page,” jokes Gaffigan about writing with his wife. “Let me describe the process. I started dating my wife. I’m a nineties New York City comic, so writing is everything. The material is king. The joke should be so good that you [a.k.a. the performance] is not important. Writing is the key element.”

He continues, “It’s something where you would never farm it out. Its authenticity and the purity of the joke. You deliver it properly, but you would never collaborate. So I started dating my wife. She worked in sketch and theater and all that. The reality is, the collaboration began to happen. I would run things by her. She has a strong opinion. So it felt dishonest not to acknowledge this collaboration.”

After they got married, Jeannie Gaffigan would come with him to shows and they would discuss the material afterward. “She was kind of a director and writer. She knew my point of view. She knew when I was getting lazy. She knew when I lost the intention of some joke. Not even all comedians can do that for other comedians. So there came a point where I did my first hour special, and had no material [afterwards], so I thought it was dishonest not to include my writing partner.”

As they went on to have five children together and write the book Dad is Fat, the collaboration continued. “What happens is, understandably, the writing relationship shifts. It went from us drinking wine together to me waking her up or she’s breastfeeding and I need more bacon jokes. Progressively, we have five kids and can’t write like we normally do, but there are special times where she gives me notes.”

“Then it evolved to, our kids are getting older, my wife has a brain tumor, so she can’t write while recovering from a brain tumor, so she proceeds to write her own book, When Life Gives You Pears,” he continues. “So the collaboration has shifted dramatically. Now I might give her a thumb drive of a video show in an arena and she’ll email me notes while I’m touring. The collaboration is still there but we’re not sitting down writing together everyday. The reality is, sometimes you don’t have that luxury.”

Stand-up, Books, and Screenplays

There’s quite a mental shift to be made when you think about writing stand-up versus books versus screenplays. Not only are they formatted differently, but short versus long form, where every syllable matters, naturally causes shifts in various intangibles that are required to do any of these well. 

“Stand-up spoils people on a lot of things. There’s an immediacy to the creative fulfillment. With acting, the audition process is like stripping, but you don’t get a dollar afterwards. With writing stand-up, you come up with an idea, execute that idea, rewrite that idea, and it’s a lot of rewriting.”

One somewhat middle ground project for Gaffigan comes in the form of commentaries for CBS Sunday Morning. Here, he’s got about 300 words to get to a point (or make a complaint), but that’s it. And it has to be funny, interesting, and concise. In one example, he discusses “Politicians with their Hands Out.”

He starts this particular short admitting he has a stalker, or stalkers. “These sickos are probably watching right now,” he reveals. “Frankly, it makes me nauseous. They’re obsessed with me. They have a problem.” About thirty-seven seconds into the two minute talking head short, he reveals these “sickos” to be politicians with their hands out. 

“Those commentaries actually hold me back from writing longer. If I go too far, it’s too long. As a writer, that organizing reminds me of gardening, but the creative fulfillment in these three pockets — stand-up, writing and acting — are pretty amazing. Stand-up is solitary. Writing is solitary. The communal aspect of acting is probably the healthiest thing I do, even though actors are crazy, ya know?”

This interview has been condensed. Listen to the full audio interview here.