Life on the road with John Hodgman

Daily Show’ show star on hijacking CL for economic gain, life on the road, and Robin Williams

Just looking at John Hodgman, you’d think he’d be a funny guy. From the glorious bush that is his mustache to the unflinching deadpan stare he gives the camera, Hodgman has an inherent knack for making people laugh. Interestingly, though, comedy was never in his life plan.

“I watched a lot of stand-up comedy as a kid. It never occurred to me that I would be a stand-up comic; I always thought I’d be a writer,” Hodgman says. “Now all I want is to be on stage.”

The humorist, actor, and writer’s stand-up comedy incorporates elements of his “Deranged Millionaire” persona from “The Daily Show,” a crafty, superior-to-thou attitude that can be seen in his “PC” character on Apple commercials, and in his series of almanacs, Complete World Knowledge.

Hodgman spoke to Creative Loafing about life on the road and finding inspiration in the late Robin Williams.

John Hodgman: This is Hohn Jodgman speaking. You are in the state of Atlanta, and I am in the state of Brooklin, Maine.

Well, hello, Mr. Jodgman. This is Warah Silson. Have you ever been to Atlanta before?

Yes, I’ve been to Atlanta many times! And I’ll tell you why. First of all, there’s a major airport there: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

I believe I’ve heard of it.

Laughs Yes, I have been on its never-ending tram. Second, my wife is from Atlanta. I have visited there many times to see my father-in-law, as well as my dear friend Chuck Bryant of “Stuff You Should Know,” a podcast based in Atlanta. ... My experience with Atlanta is perhaps deeper than most humans’.

I have also read a newspaper named Creative Loafing before. It has the best name of them all. It sticks with me because it makes me think of lunchmeat, of olive loaf. It makes me a little angry, because now I’m thinking I could really make a lot of money bringing out a weekly newspaper just for the lunchmeat crowd hipsters, who are making all kinds of new olive loaf, and it would be called Creative Loafing but I can’t now because you guys beat me to it.

Yep, too bad.

What if I, the Deranged Millionaire, were to buy the Creative Loafing newspaper and, to the anger of Atlantans everywhere, turned it into my own bizarre newsletter for lunchmeat manufacturer? If there’s one thing we can agree on, newsletters about lunchmeat in the print form are the future.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you on tour?

I think there is an opinion that exciting and strange things happen on tour, but when I am on tour, the weirdest thing that happens is, you know — I might take a jog around the welcome center in Michigan or something, just to work off some of the stink of “Duck Dynasty” brand beef jerky that is infecting our country. But really ... this is why you go on tour: Not to experience strangeness, but to be reminded of normality. The little mundane things are the things that you don’t see unless you disorient yourself by going out on the road.

You kind of became a comedian by chance. Was there ever a person, comedian or otherwise, who inspired you, or continues to do so?

Well, you know what ... a great inspiration to me, although I may not have been able to articulate it until today, was Robin Williams.

Yes, you both performed at the 2008 TED Talks Conference.

We were at the reception together, and that was my chance to meet him, but I was too shy. He was talking to everybody — he was happiest and most comfortable in front of an audience. So he was holding court over in the corner of this room, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go and say something. As you say, I’m a comedian by accident. Truth is, I’m an everything by accident. I didn’t set out to become a literary agent, then abandon that career to become a magazine journalist, then abandon that career to write humor for a website, then pen a series of fake almanacs that would get me onto “The Daily Show,” or become an accidental minor television personality that would put me in front of Apple that would lead to a new career as a commercial spokesperson, and then have an opportunity to go and talk at the TED Conference. ... None of these things were in the design. And to be standing there in a room next to Robin Williams, I felt too much a fraud to go and say anything. I do wish that I had talked to Robin Williams, though, when I had the chance. He was a profound inspiration to me, which I think he was to everyone in ways that we had forgotten about.

You’ve worked beside other comic greats as well. Who would win in a fight, Jon Stewart or John Oliver?

It would be a very embarrassing fight. Everyone would be sad. They’re both such deplorable human specimens. They’re both so sallow and weak. It would be something that would have to be called off for humane reasons within 30 seconds. Children would run away weeping from fright from seeing these skeletal men aim their floppy arms at each other. Overall, I think John Oliver has the height advantage, but I think he would collapse out of British embarrassment before it was over. Truth is, Jon Stewart, besides being a comedic genius, is a fighter. He knows how to throw a verbal punch.