You Can Call Him Al

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guest is his old SNL colleague Bob Odenkirk who talks about, as Al puts it, “his weird, amazing career,” or as Bob puts it “comedy, comedy, comedy, and drama.”  Or as I put it (the other Bob), it's very entertaining, funny and interesting.

One note: Odenkirk talks at length about Del Close, who was legendary as an improv director of Second City and much more, and Odenkirk references the Compass Players which he says was in St. Louis, and it was, at one point – but it began at the University of Chicago in 1955, moving around to different venues in the Hyde Park area, with people like Nichols & May, Shelley Berman, Barbara Harris, the great Severn Darden, Del Close, and Roger Bowen (who later played ‘Col. Blake’ in the film of M*A*S*H), and eventually morphed into Second City.  It was only after the Chicago company closed down in 1957 that some members moved to a new branch of Compass that opened in St. Louis.

A slight digression.  I crossed paths with Bob Odenkirk one time.  I was on a Writers Guild committee interviewing people interested in running for the Guild’s Board of Directors, and Odenkirk had applied.  Before he showed up, I knew he was just outside Chicago, so I put my Cubs hat under the table and waited.  The was a U-shaped table, with the applicant sitting at the bottom of the U and all the committee members along each “arm”.  I was near the end and waited as each person had their allotted time asking questions.  And then they finally got around to me.  Very politely, I turned to Odenkirk and said, “I only have one question.  Cubs or Sox?”  Everyone else in the room was bewildered, but I knew that anyone from Chicago would know how loaded that question was in proclaiming one’s baseball loyalty.  And he confirmed my assumption that he (being Bob Odenkirk) had a good enough sense of humor to get it.  A big smile broke out across his face, and he replied, “I am not crazy enough to answer that.”  We both laughed as I went and got my Cubs hat to lay on the table, and the questions went on from there.  Honestly, I don’t recall at this point if the full committee nominated him or not – but I do remember that he came across like a good guy.  Which this wonderfully entertaining interview with Al Franken confirms.

UPDATE:  Mystery solved.  I've subsequently read an interview with Bob Odenkirk where he talks about going to his trailer to watch a Cubs game.  So, once again, he shows his fine taste and judgement.