Carmen Christopher is one of those comedians who you’ve definitely seen before, but can’t totally be sure how you know his face. Over the past several years, he’s popped up in bit parts on shows like Shrill, I Think You Should Leave, and most notably—given his born-and-bred Chicago roots—all three seasons of The Bear.
In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Christopher talks about putting together his breakthrough, Chicago-themed stand-up special Live From the Windy City, which arrives on the Veeps streaming platform Aug. 1. He also shares stories about collaborating with alt-comedy icons including Joe Pera and Tim Robinson, why he’s no longer interested in pursuing SNL after two unsuccessful auditions, that time he almost killed David Letterman, serving as a writer on Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s The Curse and more.
When I joke early in our conversation that Carmen Christopher must have been the inspiration for Jeremy Allen White’s Carmy character on The Bear, the trained improviser immediately goes with it.
“Yeah, basically, what happened was, I was actually cast as the lead,” he says. “I’m a method actor, and I’ve got a lot of food allergies. So I was eating some of the sauce, and had this crazy allergic reaction, and my head blew up to the size of Betty Boop. The guys couldn’t keep their hands off me, so it became a distraction.”
He then jokes that he told the show’s creator Chris Storer, “Why don’t I play the pastry chef’s roommate Chester instead?”
Lionel Boyce and Carmen Christopher in The Bear.
Matt Dinerstein/FX
In reality, Christopher originally auditioned for the role of Richie (AKA “Cousin”) that ultimately went to the Emmy Award-winning Ebon Moss-Bachrach. After reading the audition scene, he said to himself, “There’s no way I’m going to get this,” and he was right. He was among many comedians who went out for the scene-stealing Chester role, who has popped up in each of the three seasons, and has tried to bring his “own thing to it”—including a well-placed reference to the Chicago-centric condiment “giardiniera” in his first appearance. “I think they kept it because it felt very Chicago,” he says before revealing that he’s already shot most of his scenes for Season 4 and expects to be in at least three episodes of that final run.
Thoughtful and relatively soft-spoken in an interview setting, Christopher has become known for playing aggressively stupid and loud characters on TV. That “dumb, goofy” persona, as he puts it, extends to the stand-up stage in his new special, in which he arrives wearing a double-breasted pinstripe suit and starts throwing money into the audience. Christopher cites one joke based on the premise that Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court as an example of something he obviously doesn’t believe, but the guy he’s “playing” on stage very much does.
Christopher thinks the idea of playing dumb in his comedy originated from his earliest days doing sketch and improv in Chicago when he would be so impressed by how smart his fellow performers were. “I actually did feel dumb when I started doing improv,” he explains, “so a way to protect myself was to play the dumb goofy guy. And it would get laughs!” That approach has led to certain limitations in the types of roles he has been able to play. “Nobody wants me to be a doctor, I don’t think,” he adds. “But it would be funny!”
He’s come a long way from telling jokes to unsuspecting New Yorkers who would have preferred he leave them alone in 2021’s COVID-era Street Special on Peacock.
“Right after I put out my last special, I was like, OK, I just gotta make sure the next one’s indoors,” he jokes.
Unlike in that special, where the point was that his live audience didn’t seem to get what made him funny, this time he genuinely wants “everyone to think it’s funny.” Not exactly a novel concept for a stand-up special, but for Christopher it counts as a new approach. “That’s why I sprinkle in some real jokes,” he says, “so that I can also shove my goofy stuff down their throats.”
Listen to the episode now and follow The Last Laugh on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts to be the first to hear new episodes when they are released every Wednesday.
