Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Adam Pally is not just the goofy guy in your favorite sitcoms such as Happy Endings and The Mindy Project (though he is great in those roles too, Peter Prentice forever). In the last year or so, he’s done an Off-Broadway show, Cardinal, with Veep‘s Anna Chlumsky, he’s served as a producer on Comedy Central’s The President Show, he’s now reunited with Happy Endings creator David Caspe for a new series on YouTube Premium, Champaign Ill, and that’s when he’s not handling dad duties to his three kids (under the age of seven). All this is to say, this is not a man with a lot of downtime (he’s not even caught up on Housewives, gasp!, and more on that later).
Pally, along with Sam Richardson (also of Veep and Detroiters), star as two guys who must deal with a pretty major life change when their “jobs” as crew members to their rapper BFF, and all the luxuries that came with that lifestyle, are no more. Champaign Ill proves to be, yes, hilarious and outrageous, but also poignant and grounded in the way it deals with grief and the harsh realities of, well, life. Themes of family relationships and dreams will have you thinking and feeling just as you’re LOLing throughout the first season’s 10 half-hour episodes.
When Pally stopped by the Decider offices last week for an interview that was just as insightful as it was funny, he let us in on Champaign Ill‘s accurate wardrobe and the “co-star” he couldn’t wait to get away from, as well as the “big plans” ahead for a potential Season 2 of the series, the “dopamine kick” that is Instagram, and why he’s fully Team Carole.
Let’s talk about some of the outfits because they’re pretty perfect. Was there a line of, ‘This is too much’?
Yes, of course. We wanted to be real. And that, I think, is what people are appreciating about the show in the small sampling I’ve had. While the costumes are big, if you look at those people in the real world, they’re wearing that stuff. We didn’t want to go overboard. We didn’t wanna show up looking like Tekashi 6ix9ine. We were experimenting with face tattoos and stuff like that but we felt like we landed in a realistic place of, I could see these people standing next to 2 Chainz and I wouldn’t blink twice.
Was there any of it that you really liked?
Oh yeah. I liked every part of it. I don’t think I’d wear it en masse like the characters do, but every outfit there’s at least one thing I would wear alone. For sure.
We have a stylist on the show, shoutout Jas Benjamin. She’s amazing, she’s a real hip hop stylist. She dressed Miguel, now she does Anderson Paak and that’s her real job. She did us for the show because we wanted it to feel real, so every outfit that you see was really combed over by her to get it right.
Were there other people from that world that were consultants or worked on the show in some way?
Yeah. We had a couple people in the writers’ room who had rapped professionally before, nothing of huge success. And I wasn’t the expert at all, there are real people who know it, but I love it enough to make fun of its inner workings and I think that is a true testament to how much you appreciate something. We didn’t really need consultants because everyone knew what everyone was talking about.
And as far as that snake goes…
In doing this I imagine you at some point probably thought about whose crew you would want to be a part of.
Well, I’m a Jew. So the amount of crews that open arms would be extended to is limited. You never know, of course, but I think I would have to have some sort of skill, like a producing skill to be involved in it, and I don’t have that. So I think Drake’s crew is where I would really make a beeline towards and hope I went to sleepaway camp with one of the dudes down there from his mom’s side. I think that would be my way in. That, or I’d find a comedic rap group like The Lonely Island, kind of what I’ve already done. I basically am like the real life Ronnie to Andy Samberg. I think Andy would even say that, which is sad.
Let’s talk about episode three.
My favorite.
Well, episode five is my favorite, the Instagram one.
Yeah, that was really fun. Getting to really hit the Instagram community was a joy. I’m obsessed with the Instagram community. Just the other night I got emotional on a flight, it was a redeye and I was alone. I was watching Doogang propose to Lil Kymchii and I broke down right there at the Delta terminal because it was so raw and real. I love it and I hate it and it’s all of those things. I think it’s cool to be able to go to work everyday and do the thing that we’re all already looking at on the phone.
I love things that make me laugh and cry at the same time and episode three specifically felt like a great example of what this show’s about and where it’s going.
It’s sad. It’s really sad. In improv, there’s this rule called ‘if this, then what?’ which is a saying that you can apply almost anywhere. It’s the way the mind works. If we’re assuming something about someone, it’s because something has led us down that path. ‘Oh I thought you would like this because most people who like this, like this.’ It’s like I’m trying to paint a picture. And so we really wanted to do that in reference to, what would happen if you didn’t have a driver’s license and you didn’t have any money and your phone was cut off so you didn’t have anybody’s number, what would you do? How would you survive? It wouldn’t just be like, ‘Oh haha, how funny, I’ll just go back to my parents’ house.’ How would you get to your parents’ house? So we really tried to dig in on that side as well as the big opulence and fun and wish fulfillment of hip hop.
What is the First World luxury that you would have a hard time living without?
My phone. I love my phone. My phone is my life. In our house it’s like, all my kids, my wife, and then our phones. I love it. It’s a problem. I get a dopamine kick from it every time I look at Instagram.
Those little hearts popping up.
Oh my god. I have not started live broadcasting because I know that once I see those hearts I’m gonna be like, ‘Oooh! People like me!’ So I don’t wanna fucks with that. Especially with politics and everything, I’m addicted to my phone. It’s not great.
Curtis Armstrong and Allyce Beasley are great as Ronnie’s parents.
They’re so good. I think that’s the backbone of the show. Everyone’s so crazy and so big, but the heart of it is at home when you’re dealing with these real life issues. It gets really real.
And Danielle Schneider as his sister, too.
Can’t beat my Shayna.
You’re working with Happy Endings creator David Caspe again on this, so do you have a bit of a ‘no new friends’ attitude about wanting to work with people that you’ve worked with before?
It’s tough. I do feel ‘no new friends’ on some level. Especially in television where, this took us four years to go from idea to even starting production. I think it’s important to know you’re gonna be involved in those people’s lives for at least ten years in success.
It was easy after Happy Endings to know that yeah, I felt very comfortable there. But I also think that it would be dumb to not open yourself up. I’m getting older, you know? I have to be able to work with people of every age. I was just thinking the other day, I was looking at Jeff Goldblum and I was like, that guy is amazing. He was The Fly, and then he was in Jurassic Park, and now he’s like cool people’s dads. That is an amazing career, but every room he walks into he’s older than the director. I know that that’s coming. I’m the oldest one in this room. So you have to know that and to say ‘no new friends’ would be foolish. You gotta be open to working with new people and new styles and just kind of blending in. That’s part of being an actor. But when you’re producing stuff and it’s for yourself and you’re getting involved with people’s lives, it’s a luxury to be able to go sit on David and Casey’s [Wilson] couch and run lines with Casey. That’s a luxury that I have.
Between doing Cardinal Off-Broadway and producing The President Show, you’ve done some interesting stuff in the past year or so.
It’s been a crazy year.
Has there been anything that you thought, ‘I definitely want do more of this’ or ‘I definitely want to do less of this’?
No. I like doing everything. Part of the reason I wanted to do Cardinal and the reason I wanted to do [Champaign Ill] and The President Show… I don’t want to leave any stone unturned. We’re all gonna die a lot quicker than we thought we were and I don’t want to go out not getting every part of this job, because very few people get to do it. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to do what I’m good at. I love comedy and I love doing it and if people will have me in that vein I would love to be there. But I think for the work that I would make myself, I want to touch every part of it so that I can then improve and learn and become better at it. I look at someone like Mel Brooks or Steven Martin or Gene Wilder, Matthew Broderick. These people touched every part of the industry. That’s where I would love to be eventually. I feel like I’ve done some of it now, it’s just no one’s really seen it.
But where a show lives, does that matter to you?
No. It does not. I don’t think it matters. There are so many options and ways to get your shit and that is a good thing. If people like it, you’ll be able to do more of it. That doesn’t mean that the money is always continuous the way it was in old television, but there’s more to do. I hope that by the time [Champaign Ill] is all said and done, it was given a shot based on how good it was and how much it connected with the people that were watching it. I know that it’s already exceeding expectations of other things I’ve done because I looked at the view count before I got in here and it’s up to almost 300,000. That’s more than a Comedy Central episode. It’s only been out for like, 12 hours? So let’s say by the end of the week we get to 2 million views, that’s like network TV numbers. To me that’s a huge success. That 200,000 people saw the pilot already, that’s amazing [At the time this interview was published, the first episode was well over 2 million views].
The other nice thing that I’ve noticed is, because I’ve been all across the country for it recently, I’ll watch an episode on my phone, and you’ll watch it through your Twitter browser or your Instagram browser. It looks so seamless, you forget you’re watching an actual television show. And it moves so quickly because it’s got that Happy Endings fast dialogue. By the time one is done you’re like, ‘Oh my god. I just watched three of them.’ And that to me is the best kind of experience for that kind of television.
Plus [with YouTube Premium], you get Google music and Google video for free, which a lot of people don’t know. There are a lot of pluses to signing up for it that for some reason are like little secrets. I don’t understand that. Tell everybody everything. It doesn’t have to be like the McDonald’s secret menu.
I do need to check in with you about how your Bravo watching is going.
It’s going good, I’m not as caught up, I gotta say. I’m barely caught up on the Knicks, I know they’re terrible. But with three kids under seven, this show coming out, and all the stuff around a family, I don’t even know where I am right now. I do think Bethenny didn’t have a great year for me this year.
You were Team Carole.
Yeah. Carole’s a good person. She does charity and shit. The fuck did Bethenny do? She put arsenic in her margarita mix.
She helped people in Puerto Rico.
Oh, come on. She went to Puerto Rico. She’s a good business woman. I usually like Bethenny but this year I found her a bad opponent. Carole is annoying and all that stuff, but she should be off on her island. You don’t fucks with Carole.
What they were actually fighting about, I was sort of lost on.
I never know what they’re actually fighting about. What do you mean what they’re actually fighting about?
Sometimes there is something to point to.
I guess so, but often that time is remembered through five glasses of white wine and they’re all like, ‘I don’t even know!’ I always just watch it for the moment.
Speaking of moments, I loved your Colbert entrance. Was that your idea and are shows generally open to things like that?
Yes. You gotta know your audience a little. I think that the more comedic, friendly rooms…Stephen knows my work. This was my second time on so I felt a little more comfortable than the first time I went on. We had a good rapport and I had met him previously. So it was easy to talk with him.
When I have an idea it’s easy. On both places I would do really wacky shit, on Conan and Colbert, it got started because they share an executive producer and actor, Brian Stack, and he is one of the all-time great improvisers and comedic writers, just in the history of the world. He was in an improv group in college in Wisconsin with Chris Farley. So he touches greatness to me, and he is great himself. I run most of my bits by him. I do have an advocate in the room. I would be lying saying I don’t have a lot of help getting the ideas through. And then other places, you just gotta know what you’re asking, and who you’re asking. Sometimes they let you, and sometimes they don’t. A lot of times they don’t.
For your character in the show, things don’t really go as he expects or plans for them to go. But for you, have things ever gone the way that you did expect or plan for?
I try not to operate in regret that much and so I feel like that thought process often leads you to go, what if? I learned very young that when you’re in this business, most of your visualizing your career in your head and where you’re gonna go and what’s gonna happen does not come true. Every time an audition comes across your desk you’re like, ‘I’ll get this and that will lead to this’ and it doesn’t happen like that. Even if you do get one good thing there are bumps in the road, things stop and start and all that. So I really try not to what if and say, ‘Did this go well, did that go well?’
I think probably like a lot of people my age, I wish I was richer. I wish I had hit that syndication money a couple times. I wish I had some better luck with when things came out and whatever, but I’m still so lucky to even get to be sitting here talking to you about Bethenny. It’s bonkers! So my hope is that I would just be able to keep doing this and grow and do it on a bigger scale with higher stakes so that I stayed interested.
It might be early, but is there any season two talk?
Yeah, of course. I mean, I think that we’re planning on it. We have big plans. It’s fun to have a partner in YouTube because we can go anywhere, we can travel it wherever we want. I’m looking forward to everyone coming back. Jay’s single from the show called “Jet Lag” is out now on iTunes. That is really Jay Pharoah. He’s super talented. We hope to get Jay in the booth more, do more songs, do more flashbacks, and just kinda grow the way hip hop has grown, to see what’s next. Maybe get Jay on a hologram tour.
Champaign Ill is available now on YouTube Premium.
