It’s a hot September afternoon in Milwaukee and Frank Caliendo sits comfortably at the Hyatt Regency finishing his lunch while rotating through local media interviews. He’s tired — his standup comedy tour has him traveling the nation with few breaks in between. But he makes time for us to talk about his second season of Frank TV debuting Tuesdays beginning Oct. 21 at 11pm ET on TBS.
What’s in store for this season, have you made any changes to the format of the show?
Frank Caliendo: Yeah, definitely. One thing I wanted to do was shorten up the intros. I wanted the show to be like my act — concise, and get to the sketch. To me it’s about being likable as myself out there and — getting a joke and line out then going right to the sketches. We got rid of the audience member thing. We added two new cast members, Mike MacRae and Freddy Lockhart. They do tons of impressions. Plus, we weren’t up against the writers strike either, so we were able to keep whittling things down and make them funnier and funnier and funnier.
We thought the first five of the 10 episodes were going to be great, and then we might go down a little bit, and then all 10 we were like “holy cow.” It’s amazing because in the first five episodes there was so much [George W.] Bush stuff, [especially the episode] on election night. I hosted as Bush, so it’s goofier and more ridiculous. When I’m me I like to be somewhat goofy but still kind of middle of the road, but when I’m Bush I don’t care if I say stupid, stupid stuff. In fact, it works for the character.
What’s the creative process like for the show?
I don’t live in Los Angeles, so it starts out where they call me with the pitches for the day. And then I’d say, “OK, I like this, I like this, I don’t like this, let’s try this but I’m not sure about it.” Then they go back and write it all, they table it, go over it, go over it, go over it, bring it back and I take a look at it. Then I go, “Yeah, yeah, OK, no, the one I didn’t think would work is great, the one I did think would work is just OK.” Then they do it again, bring it to the table read, we read it aloud. The network says what they like and don’t like. They rarely tell us don’t shoot something, rarely do they do that. They usually go, we’d rather you didn’t do this, but if you think you can make it work, go ahead, just understand you’re going to have a hard time making us like it.
So what was a sketch that the network didn’t like from last season?
The president of the network, Michael Wright, loves William Shatner and he didn’t like — he didn’t get — the version of William Shatner I was doing — the Priceline William Shatner. And it [later] became his favorite sketch.
I think I read you shoot over 10 pages a day for the show. Is that right?
We do 13 pages. A movie shoot is one. We had two other guys shooting sketches this year, too. And we had John Farley (Chris’ brother) — he would do stuff and make things better. It’s like having a cast instead of me just acting with me. Did you see the Clinton/Gore piece?
The “Clinton” movie sketch you did — the movie from Oliver Stone? Yes, the dress thing you did was so gross. Hilarious.
[impersonating Clinton] “Is that hers?” We never really say. You know what’s happening there, but we don’t come out and say it. You have to piece it together. That’s what I love about this kind of comedy.
Ballpark — how many impressions would you say you can do?
I don’t know, 50 to 100. I haven’t written them down in a long time. It’s a lot, but you run out of them in the show. You do seven sketches a show and sometimes I’m two or three people in a sketch.
What new impressions do you do this year?
People haven’t really seen me do them before, but I might have done it spotty somewhere — James Gandolfini, McCain, Rush Limbaugh, a couple of original characters.
So does John Madden really hate you?
Yeah. But he says he doesn’t. He doesn’t like me. I used to wish he would like me, but I know he’s not going to ever now.
What about Charles Barkley — is he OK with you?
He was great. Barkley’s in a little bit of denial when I’m doing it. [giving his Barkley impression] “I don’t do that. I don’t ramble like that.”
How long did it take you to craft the Bush impression?
Years. I didn’t do it for a long time. They picked Will Sasso to do it on MADtv over me when I was there first. And he didn’t do it great, and then they had trouble picking me to do it because they were going to give it to one of two other guys. It was a fight. Eventually they gave it to me and it ended up working pretty well.
Who was the first person you did an impression of?
That I remember, it was Leno. I’m sure I did some impressions of friends and teachers and stuff like that. At South [the high school he attended] there was this guy named Mr. Christianson that I did an impression of, stuff like that. Robin Williams probably was up there early, too.
I heard Milwaukee is the No. 1-rated market for your show. Do you attribute it to growing up here?
I guess because I’m from here. I just know tons of people here. It’s got to be from all the radio coverage, they have been huge supporters — all that kind of support is huge. The newspapers like the Waukesha Freeman and Journal Sentinel, they all let everyone know that I’m on all the time. Milwaukee likes that they have someone from their hometown doing their own show.
How would one of your old Waukesha South High School teachers describe you as a student?
I was always a good student. I never got in trouble. I wasn’t a class clown, but I would get laughs. I always knew how to read the audience so the teachers never got mad at me.
Was there a point when you were younger when you realized you were funny?
I never had plans to do anything like this until UWM [in college] and it wasn’t until my second or third year in when I decided I was going to try this for real. I started doing standup and I was able to move through it very quickly. Nobody was doing what I was doing. I didn’t want to take the impressionist vaudevillian style. My act was like sketch after sketch after sketch.
Where do you live now?
Tempe. We didn’t want to raise our kids in Los Angeles. We found a great spot in Tempe.
Do you bounce your impressions off your wife?
Nah, she can’t stand me. She doesn’t like the impressions. She could care less.
Does it take an effort to be normal in this industry?
No, because I’d rather be like this. It’s when the microphone is on, that is the time to perform. I used to be the person who was on a lot, but then I got the outlet. I’m not trying to stand out anywhere; I’m trying to hide.
So you don’t have a hard time turning it off at a party?
First of all, you’d have to go to the party. I don’t even go to the party. I take a nap or play with my kids. I’ll throw a line out there once in a while. People expect me to do something and think, “He’s boring,” but I’m just like everybody else. I just have to be me.
Who makes you laugh?
My kids. They are the funniest little dingdongs. My daughter tells me, “I want it right now!” Diva.
What’s been your strangest fan encounter to date?
There’s been some weird ones believe me. I was with my father-in-law in Baltimore and this lady wanted me to sign her rearend. I was like “Nah, I can’t.” And my father-in-law is like, “Frankie, go ahead.” And from then on I was like, no body parts, that’s too weird. People will come into bathrooms with you, and want to shake your hand. One time I was going to the bathroom at a urinal and a guy wanted to shake my hand and I was like, “Let me wash my hands.” And he’s like, “Oh, you don’t have to.”
Ewww.
Yah.
Have you ever been starstruck, and if so, with who?
I don’t really think so. I said some stupid things around Damon Wayans once because he’s one of the guys I grew up watching. I don’t tend to say a lot of things to people anyways. A guy walked up to me after I did a Television Critics [press junket] a few weeks ago in L.A. and he said “Frank, very hilarious, really funny.” And I was like, “Thank you STEVEN BOCHCO.” I don’t think starstruck, just humbled.
Frank and Channel Guide image: Credit: Barb Oates
Frank TV Images: © Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Credit: Robert Trachtenberg