The A.V. Club Interview: Seth Rogan

Scott Tobias: Have you ever had to perform in a hostile or unpromising environment?

Seth Rogan: Yeah, definitely a bunch of times. I did four months in this bar in Whistler [British Columbia]. And it was just terrible. Oh my God, it was just so brutal. But I didn't really care sometimes. Sometimes, you just get in this mentality of "Fuck you, this is funny. If you don't think so, you're the asshole." I remember my first time ever doing stand-up in L.A., I went up at the Improv. All I remember is that I could hear the buzzing noise the speakers were making, the power coming through the speakers. I remember thinking as I was doing the jokes, "If I can hear that very clearly, I'm not hearing laughter." It just became deafening, this buzzing noise. I mean, it was brutal. It was really terrible. Then I remember thinking, "At least nobody important, or anyone who I really respect, saw that." And then literally right when I went off the stage, Jerry Seinfeld got up and went on. [Laughs.] So I was like, "Oh great. Seinfeld saw me bomb." On the other hand, I thought, "At least no one will be thinking of me anymore. They'll just be focusing on him."

SR: Have you always been able to scrape together a living in show business? Did you skip the part where you work a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet?

ST: Yeah, I've never really had a real job. When I was young doing stand-up, I'd get 50 bucks a week here or 100 bucks a week there. You know, sometimes for headlining one of the rooms, or MC-ing, or something like that. So yeah, I've never had like a normal job.

The A.V. Club Interview: Seth Rogan / By Scott Tobias May 31, 2007