Rob Huebel:<\/strong> I think we got a lucky mix of people, because it\u2019s all people that work in comedy and people that are producing comedy shows. Corddry does \u201cChildren\u2019s Hospital,\u201d I\u2019m on \u201cChildren\u2019s Hospital,\u201d I used to do \u201cHuman Giant\u201d with Scheer, and Scheer now does \u201cNTSF.\u201d So we all come from the business of making comedy shows, and, yeah, you develop to an ability to know what we need to get, which is important when you don\u2019t have a lot of money or time.<\/p>\n ShockYa: That skill is different than improvisational chops, however. Is that something that came easy or early on, however, that instinct?<\/strong><\/p>\n RH:<\/strong> I think you just learn that by doing that over and over. Paul Scheer and Aziz Ansari and I used to do a show called \u201cHuman Giant\u201d on MTV; we wrote that with some other friends of ours and were the executive producers on that, and you end up having to make a lot of decisions about editing \u2014 sitting there in the editing room and getting rid of jokes, deciding what stays and what doesn\u2019t stay. So from writing and producing [a show] like that you learn a lot. We\u2019ve gone on to write different movies and TV shows, and you just develop knowledge of the technical aspects of how to tell a story.<\/p>\n ShockYa: Is writing something you always see yourself doing? Does it satisfy a special itch that just performing (by itself) does not?<\/strong><\/p>\n RH:<\/strong> Absolutely. But for me it\u2019s not even about satisfying an itch, because writing is so hard, I fucking hate it. It\u2019s the hardest thing, but the most important thing. And so I think especially for comedy you have to do your own thing. The reality of the entertainment business [is that if] you\u2019re just an actor waiting to get a phone call that you got cast on a movie or TV show, you\u2019re going to be waiting around for a long time. So what you have to do is learn how to write and produce, you have to learn how to generate your own stuff. And it ends up being the best-case scenario, because you get to do your own thing and create your own projects that have your own style and tone and voice. So it ends up being pretty satisfying.<\/p>\n ShockYa: With comedically gifted or inclined actors and actresses, I\u2019ve always been surprised by the range of responses I get when I ask if they were always drawn to comedy as a kid, or viewed themselves as funny. Where do you fall on that spectrum?<\/strong><\/p>\n RH:<\/strong> I always wanted to be involved in comedy, but it took me forever to figure out how to do it. And so what I did was come through the back door, if you will. I thought for a long time that\u2026 well, I felt the best I could ever do was go work for an ad agency and write funny commercials. That seemed like a realistic thing that I could accomplish. That\u2019s what I wanted to do, so I moved to New York to do that. And thankfully I never did that. (laughs) I started improvising at the Upright Citizens Brigade, learned how to do that, and from that got into commercials and got to act. Then I sort of realized that what I really wanted to do was not write commercials, but be the funny person in commercials. So then I did that for a few years, and then I got to jump from that into doing funny stuff in sitcoms. And then from that I got to do my own show, \u201cHuman Giant,\u201d and little parts in movies. So it was stepping stones all along the way, but I could never admit to myself when I was younger that I wanted to act. I wish when I was 18 years old that I had just known that I want to perform comedy, because I could have moved to New York and started doing that. But I was just too scared.<\/p>\n ShockYa: You had a couple national commercial campaigns, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n RH:<\/strong> Oh, absolutely \u2014 to do this day, people still recognize me from a commercial before movies that played at the movie theater, \u201cCell Phone Man,\u201d where I was a rude asshole on my cell phone, serving as a reminder to turn theirs off. That ran for years all over, nationwide, and so anytime I would wear a suit similar to the one that I wore in the commercial and walk around New York on my cell phone people would stop, get out of their cars and point at me, \u201cHey, Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man!\u201d (laughs) And it took me a while to be able to appreciate that, actually \u2014 and I really do appreciate it, honestly \u2014 because people liked that and thought it was funny. They weren\u2019t saying bad things, they were mostly being cool about it. I think people tend to think they don\u2019t want to be known for a commercial, but it was one of my first big jobs, so I have no regrets.<\/p>\n ShockYa: What\u2019s your take on pilot season \u2014 full as it is, I imagine, of both hope and despair?<\/strong><\/p>\n RH:<\/strong> Yes, it is an experience emotionally because every pilot season for the past 10 years I tell myself, \u201cI\u2019m not going to get emotionally involved in this, I\u2019m just going to do it, take the money and then assume that it\u2019s not going to become a real TV show.\u201d So that\u2019s my attitude for the first day. Then by the second day I\u2019m like, \u201cHey, this is really fun, this would be a really fun TV show.\u201d And then by the third day, I\u2019m like, \u201cI really love this cast, these writers \u2014 this would be great. I feel like this is gonna go!\u201d You start to trick yourself into believing that it\u2019s actually going to be a TV show. I do that to myself every year. And all of the pilots that I\u2019ve ever done have never become real TV shows, and I\u2019ve done a buttload of \u2019em. But I never learn. I always get depressed, so all summer long I just mope, and then I have my sweet, sweet revenge every September when the new sitcoms come on and are so horrible that they all get cancelled in a month. \u2026But I\u2019m also thankful that I didn\u2019t get cast on that crappy show. Then I\u2019m able to go do my own group of projects with my comedian friends. Now, that said, let\u2019s get serious: If they called me up today and said, \u201cDo you want to be the dad on a sitcom called \u2018Hey, Where Did All These Dang Kids Come From? I Got My Hands Full Over Here!\u2019\u201d yes, I would do that. Because they throw you so much money, and money is pretty fun.<\/p>\n
![\"Rob](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/hell-baby-interview-2.jpg\" "\\"Rob")
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