Before Jon Favreau became one of independent film's most well-known and likable personalities, he was slingin' cartoons like they were crack cocaine on the streets of Chicago, tryin' to feed his Improv fix.
The actor, writer and filmmaker is perhaps best known for his role in "Swingers,"
the cocktail-infused indie flick that became a pop culture phenomenon, bringing
legions of Rat Pack wannabes into the nation's dance floors and martini bars
sporting lounge shirts and neo-swank catchphrases. Favreau wrote the film's screenplay,
and his well-known pairing with Vince Vaughan carried over to "Made," an auspicious directorial debut about a couple of aspiring boxers tied up in low-level mob life.
His acting career has featured supporting roles as Rudy's best friend in "Rudy," Monica's wealthy boyfriend on Friends, a dirtball stoner in "PCU," even himself in an episode of The Sopranos. The few lead parts he's taken on include a bit as Rocky Marciano in a TV biopic and a solid role as Famke Jannsen's love interest in the well-received 2000 effort "Love and Sex."
This year, Favreau directed "Elf," the Will Ferrell Christmas vehicle that raked in upwards of $170 million during the 2003 holiday season alone, stomping all over bigger budget fare like "Master and Commander" and the lackluster "Matrix Revolutions."
In his off time, he sailed into a second season as host and creator of Dinner for Five, a loosely formatted IFC talk show where actors, directors, and members of the indie film community sit down for honest, lively, spontaneous discussions about the art and business of filmmaking.
Promising no rehearsed scripts or pre-interviews, the show's improvisational format and DIY attitude harken back to Favreau's formative creative time in Chicago, where a brief visit to a friend resulted in years of training with the city's finer comedic institutions.
ChicagoFilm.com got Favreau on the phone to discuss his work on "Elf," getting a start in the Windy City, and being IFC's dinner host with the most.
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I recently saw an episode of Dinner for Five where you mentioned that you ended up moving to Chicago after stopping in town on a cross country motorcycle ride.
Yeah, I had ridden a Harley across country from New York to Sturgess (North Dakota) for a bike rally, then went to visit an old girlfriend at the time that lived in L.A. After that, I drove up to San Francisco and on my way back to New York, I stopped in Chicago and visited a buddy of mine named Brian McDermott, who I knew from high school and college.
He was trading at the time at Bear Stearns and was also taking classes with ImprovOlympic
and Second City. I went to see his shows at ImprovOlympic and the other group
that was performing at the time had Tim Meadows and Chris Farley and I think
Mike Myers may have been performing at the time.
They were playing a game called My Dream, and it blew my mind that they could take the words that I said and turn them into something really funny. It was really amazing.
Where did you end up living?
I lived in over on Clark and Diversey. I loved that neighborhood. You could walk up to Wrigley Field, the Annoyance Theater was there. At the time, I don’t think Improv Olympic really had a theater.
They were just playing at the Cubbie Bear and the Wrigleyville Tap. Now they have a home – a really nice place and they’re doing really well. It used to be Del Close would be teaching in basements and in the backs of bars – so it was really some kind of very underground thing.
Do you miss doing Improv?
Sure. I miss it, but ya know, you die a thousand deaths… unless you’re fortunate to be on a great team and you’re just doing improv and not sketch comedy. There were only a few teams that were consistently good and I was never on any of them, so we were bombing half the time. And when you bomb at the Harold you bomb hard.
Is that when you started doing more writing?
Well, we already did a lot of writing. Most comedians are drawn to Chicago by Second City and the best part of Second City is that it’s a beacon to all those talented and inspired people. And most of them don’t get in, so they form either other theater groups or other improv groups and they do their own thing.
The papers are pretty good at writing you up and drawing attention to the small theater groups and you can sort of make your way. Much more so than in L.A., that’s for sure.
As you get groups together you want to do something, be original, re-invent. You get a group together and you write a play or you do some Improv and you get the Reader to write a good review about you.
This tradition goes back to the Organic Theater, to Second City and all that - there’s always been a lot of experimental theater in Chicago. And a lot of the writing is sort of an offshoot of the improv.
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002: Jon Favreau
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