http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/books/story/248ADEDA200A4AE0862570E30061E1E4?OpenDocument
Chris Elliott: author - now there's something weird
By Jeff Daniel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Tuesday, Dec. 27 2005
One glance at that sly smile and you fully expect to be dragged - kicking
and
screaming, if need be - into a path of swirling absurdity. But it doesn't
happen. Because Chris Elliott the performer has fashioned a career
portraying
weirdos and oddballs, there's really only way to describe the normalcy one
encounters with the real Chris Elliott: weirdly odd. Or, if you prefer,
oddly
weird. Take your pick.
So, on a recent afternoon in a downtown hotel lobby, Elliott is just your
average nice guy sharing a cup of coffee and some conversation. That dark
and
twisted side that often pops up in the comedian's performances? Nowhere to
be
found. Elliott comes across as so grounded and down-to-earth that he might
easily be mistaken for a bag of potting soil.
If the bag of potting soil were sharp and witty and talented, that is. And
if
the bag were traveling around the country promoting a laugh-out-loud funny
novel about a 19th-century serial killer. A murderous tale filled with
laughs?
Now there's the off-kilter Elliott that audiences will surely recognize.
In fact, "The Shroud of the Thwacker" brims with the sublime silliness
that
one
would expect in a historical crime thriller borne from this mind, the same
one
that brought the world a bizarre film such as "Cabin Boy" and a
cutting-edge
TV
show such as "Get a Life." Characters in "Shroud" include a flatulent
Teddy
Roosevelt, a news reporter named Liz Smith and the author himself. There's
time
travel, historical detail (some real, some not) and enough strangeness to
propel a twisting plot into a full-length novel.
Well, a novel that's kind of sort of a novel. More like a parody of those
penned by Patricia Cornwell, Caleb Carr and Jack Finney. Or maybe even
something more than that.
"The idea behind this book is that it's not just a parody of that genre,"
Elliott says. "Everything I do is actually a parody of me doing it.
It's funny to read reviews that take the book at face value as a novel. I
mean,
it is that, and I guess it works like that. But it's more like: 'Hey,
here's
Chris Elliott's attempt at his first novel. Here's what he would come up
with.'"
This isn't the first go round in the literature world for Elliott, 45.
Back
in
1989, he and his father Bob Elliott (half of the influential comedy team
Bob
and Ray) co-authored a "Mommie Dearest" parody titled "Daddy's Boy: A
Son's
Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father." He is currently working on
yet
another satirical tale, this one about a trip up Mount Everest with a
group
of
celebrities. Expect things to go horribly wrong - but in a funny kind of
way.
On the subject of things going horribly wrong, that's how Elliott
describes
one
of his greatest regrets: his ill-fated season as a featured player on
"Saturday
Night Live" (1994-95). It was an instance where his axiom of "everything I
do
is actually a parody of me doing it" just didn't fly.
"I did the show because deep down I always wanted to try it," he says of
his
time on "SNL." "People were always telling me it was the perfect place for
me,
but it wasn't at all. Like I said about the book, how it's a parody of me
doing
things, I just couldn't do that there. I tried to break the fourth wall,
and
it
may have worked a couple of times. But it worked so much better on
Letterman."
It was on "Late Night with David Letterman" that Elliott honed his surreal
sense of humor and first reached a national audience. The young upstart,
hired
as a gofer for $200 a week, worked his way on to the very first show by
donning
a pair of lederhosen. Most important, he made the host laugh. His strange
brew
of characters - the most famous being the Guy Under the Seats -
immediately
became a "Late Night" fixture. (Elliott also met his wife on the Letterman
set.
The couple have two teenage daughters.)
"On 'Letterman' there was this whole other level of reality," he says. "I
wasn't an actor playing a deranged staff member. I WAS a deranged staff
member."
Although he's reached mainstream audiences with films such as "There's
Something About Mary" and "Groundhog Day," as well as through his
recurring
role on "Everybody Loves Raymond," Elliott has developed and maintained
something of a cult status over the years. He seems both thrilled and
somewhat
shocked that "Get a Life" (1990-92) and "Cabin Boy" (1994) have enjoyed a
recent resurgence. The former, a Fox sitcom that starred Elliott as a
thirtysomething paper boy, is scheduled for DVD release early next year.
The
latter, a kind of Dadaist high-seas adventure comedy assailed by most
critics,
recently drew audiences in the 400 range when Elliott appeared for
screenings
in Boston and New York.
"I've always stood by 'Cabin Boy,'" he declares with a sense of pride. "It
was
weird, but it was supposed to be weird. I guess I've never understood why
it
was so vilified when it first came out."
Along with writing his Mount Everest tome, Elliott currently has a sitcom
in
an
early development stage. He has another "Scary Movie" role in the can. And
if
things ever start to slow down? Well, there's something to be said for
playing
life's oddball next-door neighbors and creepy co-workers.
"You don't have to worry about the ratings or reviews," Elliott says with
a
laugh. "You just come out and do your scene. There always seems to
be work for the weird brother-in-law."
By Chris Elliott,
Miramax/Hyperion,
368 pages, $22.95
jdaniel@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
314-340-8399
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