David Koechner was in the middle of an interview when he accidentally touched the phone to his face, hanging it up.
He called back, explained what happened and apologized. That set him off on a rant about the smart phone.
“It’s the bane of the existence of this entire country. It has ruined this country. I think if Steve Jobs had seen what would become of it, he never would have come out with it. It’s the worst. The devil has been unleashed, and there is no bag to capture it,” he says.
“Scroll, scroll, scroll. Can’t you get your dopamine some other way?”
He wasn’t done yet. He turned his attention to social media.
“I don’t know how long TikTok will be viable. How long can you look at the dumbest (stuff) in the world?”
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That sounds like a routine from a stand-up comedian. And Koechner, 61, is a stand-up comedian, as well as a popular actor. But here’s the thing: That isn’t the kind of stand-up routine he does.
“That’s social commentary. I don’t typically do social commentary. Once you step into that minefield, the next step is politics, and God forbid you should talk about that. The first second, you split the audience into two,” he says.
Koechner is best known for movies such as “Anchorman” and television shows such as “The Office.” He brings his stand-up comedy to the Funnybone at Westport for four shows July 12 and 13, and will also host a “The Office” trivia contest in character as Todd Packer on July 12.
In his stand-up shows, he will talk about what it is like to be the father of five children, ages 13-25, and other aspects of his own life.
“Relationships, love, marriage, divorce, how to have kids, manatees, auctioneers that are in the midst of a nervous breakdown, alcoholism, drinking buddies. You know, the usual,” he says.
“Of course manatees,” he says. Last summer, he brought his daughters along on a trip to Naples, Florida.
“I took my girls to see manatees and dolphins, and it did not turn out the way it was supposed to. The good news is it gave me six minutes of material,” he says.
Koechner is originally from Tipton, Missouri, which he describes as a small town on Highway 50, about 40 miles north of Lake of the Ozarks. It has one stoplight and a population of less than 3,000.
“It nearly doubled in size after the 2000 census. I called my dad and asked what happened. He said, ‘Well, Dave, they moved the city limits to include the prison.’
“As far as head count goes, those folks live in Tipton,” he says.
After high school, Koechner went to study political science in Atchison, Kansas, at what he now calls “the controversial Benedictine College” (it’s where Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker recently told women in the graduating class that they might find more fulfillment getting married and having children than having a career).
He transferred to the University of Missouri, where he also studied political science.
“After my third year of college, I realized that the only way forward is if you’re from a political family or if you’re the smartest guy in the room. I’m not from a political family, and I’m not the smartest guy in the room. I didn’t want to teach, and I didn’t want to be a lawyer,” he says.
But he was always interested in comedy. So he quit college and headed to Chicago to take classes in improvisation.
“I had success right away. I thought this is what I was meant to do,” he says.
Comedy is an either/or proposition: Either you get laughs, or you don’t. Koechner got laughs from the start, he says. And he also intuitively understood the basics of improv.
“What you’re doing is you’re creating a show, you’re creating moments immediately without a script. You’re creating a relationship between yourself and your partner.
“The most important thing to do is listen. You build on what the other person said. You have to live in the moment and respond truthfully,” he says.
Koechner was part of the legendary Second City improv troupe for several years until he was hired by “Saturday Night Live” for the 1995-96 season.
Among the characters he portrayed on “SNL” were an 18th century French fop, a dimwitted and oily guy known as T-Bone and a friend of Will Ferrell in a couple of classic skits in which Ferrell’s children refuse to get off the roof of a shed.
Later, when he started making movies, he worked with Ferrell in “Anchorman,” “Anchorman 2” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” And after working with Steve Carrell at Second City, he joined him in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and the television show “The Office,” as the offensively jocular traveling salesman Todd Packer.
“He’s like a dangerous storm,” Koechner says of Packer. “He rolls in, it’s like ‘Oh no, the world’s going to get turned upside down.’ He’s a very impactful character.”
Koechner has an astounding 200 acting credits to his name (“Apparently, I can get a job, I just can’t keep it,” he says). But even so, steady work in acting can be hard to find.
“When I had my fifth child, I thought to myself I had better never be out of work,” he says.
So he started writing and put together a stand-up comedy act. Once he had an hour’s worth of material, he took it on the road.
“I feel like I’m growing,” he says. “I don’t think I’m done. There’s more to do. I like to keep it fresh. I’ll never be done, I’ll never retire. I’ll always do this. It’s my joy. It’s the thing that keeps me up and keeps me going.”
