Judah Friedlander: The World Champion. With Jon Dore. Sep 23-24 7:30pm & 10pm. $29.99. Second City, 51 Mercer. 416-343-0011.
www.secondcity.com.
The hats — yeah, yeah, yeah, with Judah Friedlander people always want to know about the hats. Those foam, bargain bin, trucker monstrosities that the 30 Rock star and stand-up comic always wears, usually with something random like "balls" or "over easy" or "world champion" printed on the front.
Short answer: he makes them himself, they've been part of his act for some 10 years and he averages about three per episode when playing TV writer Frank on the NBC sitcom.
But as long as we're picking apart the guy's wardrobe, what's the deal with those glasses? They're at least as ugly as the hats — like twin windshields held in place by black PVC pipes — and as much a part of his trademark, slovenly look.
Turns out he got those from Uncle Sam.
"When I was a kid all the hipsters were wearing the tiniest wire-rimmed glasses," says Friedlander, on the phone from his home in New York, "so I decided to rebel against that and find the biggest, ugliest glasses I could find."
His dad was in the U.S. military, which gave out glasses for free. Around base they're known as BCGs, as in "birth control glasses."
"Basically, you put them on, you'll never get laid," he says, talking in his slow, flat-note grumble.
Friedlander was wearing his BCGs when he started doing comedy and, years later, hooked up with a prop master in L.A. who had a house full of Elton-worthy eyewear going back to the '70s. Others he finds at flea markets.
"I don't have as many glasses as hats, but I have a lot," he says. "My philosophy is: celebrate 'em, don't hide 'em."
Friedlander is a regular on the New York club circuit, known for his mock-boastful bits about being an all-around world champion, and for a hectic schedule that has him speeding around town to play at famous Big Apple spots like Caroline's and the Comedy Cellar. But it's harder to make the rounds these days because of his duties on TV.
"It's a little difficult. I still usually go out one to three nights a week," he says. "On some episodes my role's not that large — on others it's quite large and I've got to really focus and do quite a lot of work for 30 Rock."
He plays his first shows in Canada on Tuesday and Wednesday at Second City thanks to a one-week window that opened up in his schedule.
Friedlander does a lot of material about being world champion of pretty much everything and, when asked about the recent Olympics, he deadpans that he was unimpressed with his country's supposed golden boy.
"I didn't see anyone that could take me," he says. "Michael Phelps may have won eight gold medals but to me that just proves that he likes jewelry."
"He's just a water nerd. I saw him the other day and I beat him. He was in his little Speedos and I was just in jeans and my hat. And I smoked him. I swam backstroke underwater the whole time."
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Andre Arruda needs cash for a new scooter, seeing as he and his last one got hit by a car earlier this summer. But those things aren't cheap so, naturally, the physically disabled comic and friends are putting on a show at Second City. Also on the Handicrap bill: Fraser Young, Andrew Chapman and Punch Drysdale. Sep 20, 3pm. $15; $18 at the door. 51 Mercer, 416-343-0011. www.secondcity.com.
Expect gags about coffee shops, moussaka and words ending in "-opolis" at Greek School Dropouts, the start of a planned cross-Canada tour with Manolis Zontanos, Dini Dimakos and Tim Nasiopoulos. Sep 21, 8pm. $22. Panasonic Theatre, 651 Yonge, 800-461-3333. www.mirvish.com.