when you when you did groundlings what drew you to groundlings

i knew about i was a did plays in high school i was a major for four years at ervin and then acting us but i always liked comedy and then My dad kept saying, oh, there's these patients of mine, and they're in this group called the Groundlings.

And then when I was, I knew about it.

When I was 20, I went, a recommendation of a manager saw Paul Rubens do Pee Wee Herman at the Midnight Show, and I thought it was great.

So I called the next day, and Tom Maxwell is the artistic director.

He needed a release.

I think he's from North or South Carolina, one of them.

how often I

[laughs] I didn't know that b- before you, uh, SNL, you, you, you got started at a renaissance fair?

Yeah, my first acting job, got paid $25 here in New York in a, a tuxedo.

Sterling Forest.

And anyway, everyone had to pick a character, so I was the village prankster.

So I c- y- I could just do whatever I want, just improvise all day.

So I'd see, like, a baby in a carriage, I'd go, "There's the man who stole my money-"

Oh, yeah.

In, uh, Hollywood.

Oh, thank you for being here.

I was here in '79, I used to come on Monday nights.

This was the hottest club in the country, in the country.

Robin Williams, got Mark Minni.

Every Monday they had improv potluck night.

I went two weeks in a row.

The third week I'm standing there and they go, "Oh, we're asking certain people not to come back, and you're one of them." And now I'm here.

Yeah, Lewis.

I

did Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen's routines in my college dorm.

They'd have, like, a talent night, and they'd go, anyone can be in it and do whatever you want.

So I did that.

I would learn their routines.

So you were like a cover comic.

Yeah, well, just for that night, you know, I would do it in my dorm.

Do you mind? I mean, is it...