TV INTERVIEW: GLENN WOOL

Escape To Victory - Around the World and Back Again

By: Team Buzzine

July 27, 2011

Vancouver native Glenn Wool relocated to London, England in 1998 and quickly became one of the UK’s most popular comics both through the success if his stand-up and through regular appearances on hit shows like Never Mind The Buzzcocks. His fame has spread globally from there, and though Glenn relocated once more to Los Angeles, he now spends different parts of the year in different parts of the globe. It is currently not quite clear whether this is part of a grand career plan or just a slightly misguided attempt to join George Clooney’s 10 Million Mile Club. Buzzine’s Nicole Rayburn sat down with Glenn in the Green Room green room at The Vanguard in Hollywood, California to talk about girls' panties, being called a ‘tit,’ and the nature of normalcy…

Nicole Rayburn: This might seem like a weird opening question, but you do seem very normal… [Laughs] How do you stay so sane?

Glenn Wool: Heroin.

No, I don’t know. Just taking it in stride really. It’s a hard question to answer. I never thought I was normal. Here I find out tonight that I’m actually…

NR: …is it a let-down or a compliment?

GW: It’s interesting. I’m normal. When did that happen? Come on, I’m wearing a funky hat, I’ve got facial hair…

NR: Dude, you’ve definitely got your own style going on. Can’t take that away…

GW: That’s not normal. I’d get in trouble in an office… if it wasn’t Friday.

NR: That’s for sure. But the good thing I keep hearing about comedy is you get to work in your own clothes, and you don’t have any of the office…

GW: It depends where you’ve woken up. [Laughs] Sometimes you just get to work in what you found.

NR: The girl’s panties next door…

GW: That’s what I wore. But today, I couldn’t find those, so I had to go with the male briefs.

NR: Okay, okay - I take it all back. Not normal.

GW: Not normal at all. Little bit of underclothing transvestitism. That’s not normal.

NR: Do you know Paul Provenza very well?

GW: Very well, yeah. For years.

NR: So when he gave you the call to come do the show, you were just like, “Whatever. Sure, buddy”?

GW: I was leading my normal life…I’d got the kids off to school, I was baking a cake, and the wife said, “Honey, Paul’s on the phone.” So I tilted my bowler hat slightly ajar, because I have a large, old-style phone, and said, “Yes, Mr. Provenza. I’d love to come and do your television program.”

NR: Did you know who else was going to be on the panel when you agreed to do the show?

GW: No, I didn’t. It’s humbling to be put in such a great lineup of comics. I was frightened in that perhaps no one would know who I was from that, in the crowd. I’d just come and sit and people would think, “Why did that gentleman get to sit in on this?”

NR: Humbling and frightened: Not two words I would have expected…

GW: No, I deserve it. Don’t get me wrong – I totally deserve it. But it’s cool, though.

NR: Is tonight like a reunion for you, with any of these comics?

GW: Yeah, this room here – the green room of The Green Room – yeah, it was great. I had a couple of wines last night, and it was great. I caught up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a very long time. But comedy is like that. I think that’s why we drink as much as we do, because we’re constantly having a reunion with somebody we haven’t seen in six months. Every time you go to a club or a festival: “HEY!”

And we’re always shipping out the next day, so it’s like the Army. [Laughs] Like in the wartime. It’s like, “Well we’ve got to do this tonight because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow…”

NR: Do you feel like there’s any pressure on The Green Room to be ‘on’? The idea of the show is to have a conversation between comics, but it is still in front of a live audience…

GW: I do feel a bit of pressure to be funny, and that’s not often the best place to come to funny from. So I was glad I came out and saw it last night and just got a sort of lay of the land, because I think I might have made a tit of myself if I hadn’t.

NR: “A tit.” That’s new for me. [Laughs] Where is that expression from?

GW: I’ve heard it described all across the globe – people have all called me a “tit.”

NR: Is there anything that you think you’re going to learn about these dudes in the conversation coming up?

GW: I’m sure I’ll find out something I didn’t know. That’s what life is like. If you listen, you learn something in every conversation. Did you hear what I just said?

NR: Yes.

GW: That was a little jokey-poo! Act like you have not been listening to what I said…

The Second Season of ‘The Green Room with Paul Provenza’ premieres new episodes on Showtime every Thursday night at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT beginning July 14, 2011.