Dan St. Germain Talks Kid’s Shows, Loitering and His Upcoming Comedy Central Special [INTERVIEW]

Dan St. Germain is a regular on ‘Best Week Ever’ on VH1 (yes, it’s back again) and has appeared on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ and ‘John Oliver’s NY Standup Show.’ He’s developing a script for Comedy Central called 'Hell Hole' and a web series for Comedy Central Studios about night shift security guards.

He’s also done children’s television. We’ll touch on that experience in great detail, don't worry.

Dan took some time while loitering at a Starbucks to talk with us about his past acting gigs, his love of math and his upcoming half hour special on Comedy Central on May 17th at 12am EST.

You busy right now?

Sorry, if you can’t hear me, I’m hanging out in a Starbucks because I’m between meetings.

Where did people hang out before Starbucks?

I’ve put hundreds of baristas through college just by hanging out.

Are you a person who feels the need to buy something to hang out?

I’ve got to buy something. Anywhere. Even if I walk into a bar to use the bathroom I’ll throw a dollar on the bar; it’s good karma. Yesterday, I asked the guy behind the counter at a pizza place for directions and he goes '45 blocks up, why don’t you buy a slice,' in this pissed off voice. I asked him if I was in a Spike Lee movie.

Every once in a while, if I’m on a super important call and need privacy, I’ll go walk the aisles at Duane Reade, like a crazy person.

Your bio says you were on ‘The Electric Company.’ The kid’s show?

Yes. It was my first real acting job; I was Referee Jeffery. It was my first job and it was probably the second most stressful job of my career. The two most stressful gigs came back-to-back in my career. I did ‘The Electric Company’ and then I did ‘World of Jenks’ right after.

I got the role on ‘The Electric Company’ on a Friday and we we’re filming on a Monday. They gave me about fifteen pages of dialogue, which I’m fine with, but it was pages of math equations that I had to memorize. I’m terrible at math. I’m worse at memorizing math. I was sweating the entire time. I met up with the woman I was dating at the time and I was drenched with sweat and so stressed she said ‘you look terrible’ and I said ‘I know, this kid’s show is killing me!’

Would you do another kid’s show?

Of course! I’m not freaking Ryan Gosling over here.

Would you ever write a kid’s show?

No, that takes a special type of talent. I can’t even talk to kids, how can I write stuff for them?

Comedy Central

You’ve got a few writing projects in the works and you’re also a successful stand-up. Do you prefer one to the other?

I like both equally. I like writing a little more if it’s a personal project I’m working on – as opposed to writing for someone else. I do like the freedom it gives me to fail at either because if I write something awful I’ll go ‘well, I’m really a stand-up’ and if I bomb doing stand-up I’ll go ‘well, I’m really a writer.’ It’s self-preservation.

Isn't that comedy at its essence? Making light of your personal issues in a public forum.

Oh totally. I think it was Chris Rock who said ‘comedy is just you making fun of yourself before anyone else has the chance to.’ I was picked on considerably as a kid, but things have been looking up the past few years. It’s like that Talking Heads song ‘this is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife, how did I get here?!?’ I often feel like I tricked people into thinking I’m more than I am.

Do you have that mentality of ‘well this will all end very soon’ like every other comic working now?

Of course. I get a job or deal and go ‘ughhhh I’m going to f*ck this up’ and I don’t get the job and I’m like ‘ughhhh don’t they know I’m the best at this?!?’

You did a movie with Metta World Peace?

You’re bringing up the weirdest sh*t on my bio. I wasn’t in a scene with him but I believe Eve, the female rapper, was in the scene. Screech from ‘Saved By the Bell’ was in the scene. He seemed nice. It was fun.