Remote Controlled: First belly laugh propelled her to stand-up comedy
By Gerald M. Gay
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.05.2008
Stand-up comic Melissa Rauch can remember the first time she made people laugh.
She was 6 years old and up past her bedtime. Rather than oblige her parents and head to sleep, she impersonated Don Knotts as Mr. Furley from the television series "Three's Company."
"If a kid could be on cocaine, that was the feeling I got," Rauch said in a phone interview last week from Los Angeles. "It was euphoric. They were laughing so hard, they forgot about my bedtime."
These days, you can find Rauch as a regular panelist on the VH1 pop culture series "Best Week Ever" and soon as a character on the Molly Shannon/Selma Blair situation comedy "Kath & Kim," debuting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on NBC.
Rauch will appear in Tucson Tuesday as part of a "Best Week Ever" comedy tour stop at Centennial Hall. The performance, also featuring VH1 regular Mike Britt, starts at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $15, with discounts available, through the Centennial Hall box office, 621-3341.
According to Rauch, the evening will happen in three parts: first some stand-up, then comic commentary on the week's biggest pop culture events, followed by a "Best Week Ever" audience participation game.
The themes will be similar to the show, which features a rotating list of comics sounding off about Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton or whoever else might be in the news that week.
We picked Rauch's brain about the tour and the relaunch of the "Best Week Ever" series on Oct. 17.
How long have you been on "Best Week Ever," and what was the audition process like?
"I've been a panelist for three years now. I was doing stand-up and there was a producer in the audience from the show. I sent in a tape and went in for an audition and luckily it went well.
"It is such a fun job. It keeps you writing and current. It is much better than me talking to myself in the mirror on what Lindsay Lohan is doing that week."
Do you get the topics ahead of time?
"Usually, we get some topics the night before. But most of the stuff has totally changed by the time you get in. The filming sessions are about two hours. It depends on how early in the week you go in. If you go in on a Tuesday, you might have five topics to talk about. On a busy week, if you go in on a Thursday, you could have nine."
Are you able to keep all of your insights funny?
"I've definitely had some clunkers that have ended up on their blooper reels. One time it took me 20 takes to say Wilmer Valderrama. I don't know what came over me.
"You also have to keep your jokes concise because the show moves so fast. You can go on a riff and speak for a good seven minutes, then realize it is totally unusable because seven minutes would be a quarter of the show."
We understand "Best Week Ever" will be relaunched Oct. 17 in a different format. What can we expect?
"(Comedian) Paul F. Tompkins is going to be taking over as host. It won't be as many of the talking-head bits that we do. It will be more sketches. Paul will toss topics to us and we will do a riff on whatever they may be. The goal is to make it more like a pop culture 'Daily Show.' It is really exciting, a new era of 'Best Week Ever.' "
What do you enjoy most about this tour?
"It is a nice change to have some company. On the television show, we are in a room by ourselves with the producers. It is fun to do a live version where we are on stage together. We get to do it as a group. It keeps us on our toes."
â— Contact reporter Gerald M. Gay at 573-4137 or ggay@azstarnet.com.
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