COMEDY PREVIEW
David Koechner. 8 p.m. Thursday. $20. 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $25. Atlanta Improv, 56 E. Andrews Drive N.W., Atlanta. theimprovatlanta.com.
David Koechner is a classic character actor. You are certain to recognize him from various TV shows and films but you are almost as certain not to know his name.
His resume on IMDB.com lists a whopping 133 acting credits, including the sexist sportscaster Champ in the "Anchorman" films, a recurring role on NBC's "The Office" and a season in the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1995-96, the same time Will Ferrell joined the show.
Koechner also sets aside time to hit the road on occasion so he can take to the stand-up stage. His latest local appearance is at the Atlanta Improv Thursday through Saturday, 14 months after doing shows at the Punchline and Emory University.
“I’ll work anywhere,” he said in a phone interview earlier this month from his home in Los Angeles. “I’ll do five or 10 minutes in a hotel lobby, anywhere there’s an audience or where two or more people are assembled.”
That thirst for work, Koechner admitted, is driven partly by need. He isn’t Jerry Seinfeld, who is so wealthy he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants.
“I don’t have that luxury,” Koechner said. “If work comes, I generally take it. There are some clunkers on my resume. The reality is I have a mortgage and mouths to feed. The good thing is I have 10 projects lined up. Most actors in Hollywood don’t have that.”
He recently finished a Comedy Central show, a dramatic series for DirecTV and a guest role on ABC’s “The Goldbergs.” He’s also recording a voice for a Netflix animated series based on the comedy of fellow stand-up Bill Burr.
Koechner is happy there’s a huge appetite for content from a wide range of cable, Web and broadcast networks, generating more work for folks like him. He is an adherent of the thesis in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” that you need at least 10,000 hours to become truly proficient at your chosen craft.
“I’m very fortunate,” Koechner said. “I’m having a blast. There’s laughter in my house all the time. It’s a noisy place with five kids. It’s chaos! And I get to travel all over the country and meet all sorts of people. The way I look at it: Every time you do anything, you get better. Every time you get onstage, you get better.”
Not every project sticks. Last year, he tested a sketch comedy show for NBC. It didn’t get picked up. “They decided to do one with Neil Patrick Harris,” he said. “He’s probably better suited for that than I am.”
He’s now working on a possible CBS sitcom with Adam McKay, who co-wrote the “Anchorman” films. “It’s going to be set in Georgia,” he said, but he couldn’t say more about it just yet.
His stand-up show includes traditional jokes, he said, along with stories and songs. While the musical side of him isn’t obvious, he was part of a short-lived 2007 Comedy Central series, “The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show,” where he sang off-color songs as T-Bones.
