John Early is one of the funniest people on TV right now. In the Top 10, at least. Maybe Top 15 if you count animated characters, because c'mon, the Belcher kids knock everyone down a peg or two. Anyway, you've probably seen him in something. He's always popping up as a new character with scene-stealing exuberance that somehow doesn't come off as overacting — he's been Jerome, Jenna's stuck-up son on 30 Rock, and a very happy wannabe musical star in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day at Camp. He's appeared on Broad City, High Maintenance and Hulu's Difficult People, and he became a whole range of wonderful (and sometimes hard-to-watch) weirdos in his episode of the Netflix series The Characters.
More recently, Early starred alongside Alia Shawkat of Arrested Development in the critically acclaimed TBS show Search Party, playing Elliott, a self-absorbed compulsive liar who is absolutely horrible but still someone I'd want to call a friend. (Rooting for you, Elliott, even though you're the worst!) And have you seen his Britney impression? You need to see his Britney impression.
What's more, he's from right here in Nashville. And though New York is now his home, he still has a lot of love for Music City, so I got him on the phone to talk about hot chicken, Search Party and his new online miniseries, 555, premiering on Vimeo Tues., Jan. 31.
With both perfect and horrifying timing, he answered the phone just after Donald Trump's inauguration wrapped up.
John Early
Hello! How are you? I'm chilled to the bone by the Inauguration, but that's about it.
Did you watch it? I listened to it on the radio. Public radio. It will be defunded within the year, so that was my little act of rebellion.
I assume you are not a Trump supporter? I'm a vehemently anti-Trump person.
Him becoming president, does that make you feel more urged to keep being funny and putting more funny, happy things into the world? Totally. I think I, ideally, do two things. One is, yes, make things that are funny, but not in any sort of need to unify. I don't want to entertain Trump supporters. I want to create art with characters that are trans, LGBQ, black, brown — everything that [Trump supporters] fear — and create this chill world on screen that's seductive and beautiful and inclusive, and make Trump supporters maybe change their minds, and have a fear of missing out and want to be a part of a world that's more inclusive and interesting. But I definitely I do believe in art as escapism in horrible times because I've needed it, certainly, all throughout the campaign. Then since he was elected. I've been watching 30 Rock. 30 Rock is that mix of joyful and funny and bright, but it's also a deeply political show.
I feel like comedy, it just keeps getting more and more political, but also more and more funny. I'm also a big fan of that show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I went to college with [the show's writer and star] Rachel Bloom! I basically attached myself to her success [laughs].
That show is so smart, and so political too. Much like 30 Rock is, in a way — addressing all of the different obstacles women face, and people of color and LGBT people face, but in a really hilarious way that you don't even really realize you're being schooled on some of that stuff. I love how that's happening. I agree. I love that show. I think that's the best thing to do. Or, it's not the best thing to do, but it's a good thing to do. For those of us, like me, who don't have some extensive knowledge of legislation or foreign policy — I'll absolutely try to educate myself as much as I can in the coming years about those things and do what I can do on a practical level — [but] I think for those of us who are more artistically inclined, that is the goal. To make something so irresistible and funny and, ideally, make people question why they have these feelings about the people who are visible on screen. That's the goal.
Speaking of shows that are funny, congratulations on Search Party, which was a huge hit and is super great. It was just renewed for a second season last month, right? It was, indeed.
I don't want to put spoilers in here for people who haven't watched it, but the main plot line did wrap up. Do you know anything about what direction Season 2 will go in? They haven't told us. I hung out with the creators in the past few weeks, and it was so funny the way I tried to needle that into conversation in hopes to get something out of them, but they were completely silent. They literally will not say anything. I have no idea. I just know that based on how Season 1 ended, I feel like they'll be on the run. But I don't know how they'll do that. It's so funny to think of what the next moment will be. I'm already dying laughing thinking of what panic we will be in.
You're from Nashville, right? Or you at least went to school here? I was born in Vanderbilt Hospital.
You're a Nashville native! Oh, yeah. Lived there until I was 18 and I went to Percy Priest Elementary, and then I went to University School of Nashville through middle school and high school. My parents both worked at Vanderbilt in different capacities. I grew up going to Vanderbilt women's basketball games, sobbing for them when they would lose to Tennessee. I definitely spent my high school years loitering around Hillsboro Village trying to be cool.
What were some of your favorite places? I loved Fido. My friends and I would go to Fido and try to make eye contact with cute baristas. We'd just sit there for hours. I loved Caffe Nonna. There's this place in my heart for Caffe Nonna. My parents and I, whenever I go back to Nashville, we go there. I just love that stretch on Murphy Road. It's an unbelievable area. It's a shame because I really stayed indoors. I really watched a lot of TV, and then when I went to New York for college and stayed in New York, every time I'd go back [to Nashville], I'd be like, "Oh my God, this is such a cool city," and I completely missed out on that. Oh, you know what? My favorite memory, I worked for Las Paletas for three different summers.
That place is delicious. The paletas are so good. They're so good and [co-founders] Norma and Irma Paz are, oh my God, those sisters, they're so good to me. They took care of me, and it was such a dreamy way to end my years in Nashville, getting to know their family and their kids. Norma and her sons came and stayed with me in New York one time. They're just such an incredible family, and I love those popsicles so much. I miss them desperately. I'm starving.
Hot chicken, was that a thing while you were growing up? Yeah, it wasn't a thing for me. I don't know. When you grow up in the city, you're blind to what makes it a tourist attraction. I'm not saying that hot chicken is for tourists, I'm just saying it's become a thing. Local food bloggers write about it. There were no food bloggers when I lived in Nashville. It wasn't really properly brought to my attention. I was mostly eating my mom's food. I didn't really eat a lot in Nashville.
Have you come back and tried it? That's my goal. My goal is to come back, and I'll be back there soon, probably next month actually, but my goal is to fully dive into these restaurants that I keep hearing about. Maybe I will once and for all form an opinion on hot chicken.
I wanted to talk about your upcoming Vimeo series, 555. What is it? Is it a miniseries, is it a movie in pieces? I couldn't pin it down. The truth of it is, we didn't want to say "web series." We were so tired of mediocre web series, where it's just "Me and my friends and we're dating." We wanted it to be something really ambitious and really cinematic and really lush. Kate [Berlant] and I, when we first became friends, had all these ideas for short films and all these types of characters we wanted to play, but they always got pushed aside. Like, "Oh, this will require a budget. We cannot make these properly without money." So these are all ideas that have been festering over the years, and then once we got in the position where people are actually giving us money to make things, we're like, "Let's do it."
We realized there was a common theme in a lot of sketches we would make, of these characters loosely tied to Hollywood, the underbelly of Hollywood, the forgotten people behind the scenes. We made five short films where we play radically different characters in each one, but they're all these desperate people crawling towards their goals, which is an inherently humiliating act and an inherently comedic emotion. Also we worked with Andrew DeYoung, who we've collaborated with on some shorts before. He really brings a very moody, nuanced tone to everything we do. We made them five really dreamy, very funny shorts, and we are so excited for it to come out. It's so good.
They're not related. We call it a miniseries just because that feels more grand. A web series felt too low-stakes or something, and these, there's something very big and bold about them. We're like, "A miniseries is so hilarious and pretentious, let's just call it that."
I saw something that compared it, in a way, to Black Mirror. Where it's all one thing thematically but also very different from episode to episode. Exactly. Each episode's very different and they are these weird cautionary tales, too, à la Black Mirror.
You really seem to enjoy being able to play all kinds of different characters at any given time. Is that something that you want to continue doing? With Search Party, you're going to be tied down to Elliott, that character. Do you think you'll always have several different projects at a time? I am a, in some ways, like a Vaudevillian. It's so pretentious, but I like to do a lot of different things. The dream has always been to make my own work and to make movies and television. I do want to make sure that I get to play lots of different characters, which is why, I think, Kate and I even made this 555 series to begin with, to show people that we have these cinematic ambitions and we like to go to really weird places and to play really different kinds of people.
Basically, I grew up being so obsessed with Saturday Night Live and the women of Saturday Night Live. If you could see my room in middle school, it looked like a serial killer whose sole victim was Cheri Oteri. Constantly building shrines to these great character actors. That's always been a huge part of me. As I get older, knowing television changes, I absolutely am interested too in doing more, or rather playing one character for a long period of time. That was the real draw of Search Party. I was like, "I've never done that." I had never played one character for 10 weeks. It was really, really fun to get really comfy in a role and feel like you understand that person. It was very appealing to me.
It's great that you've built this career where you're able to have a hand in all those different pockets. Maybe it's because you're very enthusiastic and seemingly tireless, but I like that you always seem to pop up in so many different things — 30 Rock, High Maintenance, Broad City, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day at Camp. You're a very busy person. I don't know if you noticed that. Yeah, it's crazy. I'm very busy. I'm very tired. [Laughs]
