Brian Stack
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- This article is about the performer on "Conan O'Brien". For the politician, see Brian P. Stack.
Brian Stack (born August 18, 1964) is an American writer/actor/comedian best known for his sketch comedy work on the late night talk show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
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[edit] Early life
Stack attended Catholic schools from grades 5-12, graduating from St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He earned an undergraduate degree from Indiana University, where he had worked at their radio station. He began doing improvisational comedy, or improv, in 1987 at the Ark Theater in Madison while attending graduate school at University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he earned his Master’s degree.
[edit] Comedy career
Stack also worked at an advertising agency. After finishing grad school, he moved to Chicago, where he performed at the ImprovOlympic theater (which is known today simply as I.O.), and in the group that emerged from I.O., the Upright Citizens Brigade, in their ASSSSCAT show. Stack also performed at various other improv groups, including Gambrinus King of Beer, The Goofaround Gang, and Jazz Freddy, a long-form improvisation show of which he was an original cast member. Stack worked with The Second City improv/sketch troupe for two years in their resident company, and spent two years before that on the road with their touring company.
[edit] Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Stack became a sketch writer on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997, and continues to serve as a writer, actor and editor on the show to this day. Stack plays many recurring characters on the show, most notably those clad in anachronistic or elaborate outfits, and is known for playing many characters with long beards and mustaches, such as God, Zeus, Socrates, Gandalf, The Interrupter, etc.
Among the characters he portrays on the show:
- Kilty McBagpipes, an extremely stereotypical Scottish man who dresses in a kilt and dances to bagpipe music.
- Frankenstein, a smiling, affable version of Frankenstein's Monster, used in a number of miscellaneous sketches over the years, most notably a recurring sketch called "Frankenstein Wastes A Minute of our Time", in which the monster takes a winding journey through Studio 6A, sometimes travelling backstage, through the audience, and out into the halls, egging on the camera to follow behind him, until he reaches his destination and presents something totally mundane, such as a light switch, or a mop and bucket. This occurs even when there are more interesting things nearby, as in one installment, in which he ended up in bandleader Max Weinberg's dressing room, where a dominatrix brandishing a cat o' nine tails was present, and Frankenstein simply picked up a hairbrush and grunted to the camera approvingly. [1]
- Hannigan, a hat-wearing traveling salesman in outdated clothing who bursts into the studio, addresses Conan as “little girl,” and runs through a scripted sales pitch in an attempt to sell Conan unfunny jokes and other useless paraphernalia.
- Artie Kendall, the ghost an old-fashioned lounge singer who worked in the studio decades ago when it was a radio studio, and whose song lyrics reflect antiquated bigoted views that offend Conan.
- The Interrupter, a melodramatic villain clad in a black cape, a purple ruffled shirt, and wearing long black hair and a handlebar mustache, the Interrupter constantly interrupts Conan by finishing his sentences for him, always knowing exactly what Conan is going to say, even when it's denigrating to the Interrupter himself.
- Fun-Tastic Guy An enthusiastic audience member who shows his appreciation of the upcoming guests that Conan announces by inventing various words with the suffix “tastic” to describe them, only to become silent when Conan mentions his own comedy material on the show.
- One of the Slipnutz (also known as They Might be Slipnutz), a comedy group of three men that was inconveniently booked on the same show with Slipknot, (and later with They Might be Giants). Their routine involves the three of them slipping and sliding on nuts scattered on the floor. The Slipnutz also appeared on the program to promote their greatest hits album, which included songs like "Old West Cowboys Slipping on Nuts" and "Viking Raiders Slipping on Nuts".
- Steve St. Helens a stagehand on the show whose temper rises until he erupts. This was shown a few times when Mt. St. Helens began showing activity again in early 2005.
Stack also provides the voices of numerous celebrities parodied in the faux interviews conducted by O’Brien, including Dick Cheney, Mike Tyson, and Martha Stewart.
Among the other characters Stack has created on the show are Stacy Richter, Andy Richter's Conan-obsessed little sister, who was portrayed by Stacks’ fellow Upright Citizens Brigade alumnus, Amy Poehler. Stack also created the recurring segment “Pierre Bernard’s Recliner of Rage”.
[edit] Other work
- Played “Special Agent in Charge” in the 1997 movie Spaceman. [2]
- Played “Whiskers” in Robert Smigel’s TV series, TV Funhouse in the episode “Western Day” (episode # 1.1; December 6, 2000). [3]
- Played "Howard Jorgenson" on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock in the episode "Jack Meets Dennis"
Stack provided voices for numerous characters in the video games Deer Avenger (1998) and Deer Avenger 2: Deer in the City (1999), which were written by Stack’s fellow Late Night writer/actor Brian McCann, and which co-starred McCann, Tina Fey, Jon Glaser, and Amy Poehler. [4] [5]
[edit] Awards
- As a member of Late Night’s writing staff, Stack won five Writers Guild Awards for Writing in a Comedy/Variety Series for 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. He was also nominated in 1999, 2001, and 2004.
- Stack was also nominated for an Emmy Award every year since 1998 for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program as a member of the writing team. [6]
[edit] Personal life
Stack is married to Miriam Tolan, a comedian/performer with various improv groups, such as Upright Citizens Brigade and The Goofaround Gang, and a former Daily Show correspondent. Brian and Miriam have appeared together in many improv shows as well, such as Second City and Jazz Freddy in Chicago. They have two daughters, Nora and Colette.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- conanobrien.net’s page for Brian Stack
- Brian Stack at the Internet Movie Database.
- Interviewed by Josh Fulton on Improv Resource Center.
Categories: Indiana University alumni | Living people | 1964 births | 30 Rock actors | American writers | American film actors | American comedians | University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni | People from Chicago | American sketch writers | American television actors | American voice actors | Writers Guild Award winners
