Interview with Rob Huebel
- You may know him from:
- Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man
(The contents of these destinations do not reflect the opinions of HBO.)
- HBO
When did people start to recognize you from your work?
- Rob Huebel
"Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" was a commercial that I did when I was in New York that used to run before movies. It was just me being a jackass, loud and obnoxious on my phone. That was the first thing I did that led people to stop me on the street.
- HBO
How did you get your start in acting?
- Rob Huebel
I had been performing live in New York, mostly at the Upright Citizen's Brigade theater. While I was doing that I started doing commercials, which then allowed me to quit my day job.
- HBO
What was your last day job?
- Rob Huebel
I used to write and produce on different shows. I worked for Michael Moore. I worked for Martha Stewart. I worked at the Daily Show. The very last job I had was writing and producing for a show called Subway Q & A on something called the Metro Channel [The contents of this destination does not reflect the opinions of HBO]. We would ride the subway and ask people really personal questions like, "How'd you lose your virginity?"
- HBO
Was "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" your first commercial?
- Rob Huebel
I did a million of them. I did Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, Fed Ex, Paper Mate Pens, the works. Somewhere in the middle of that we got Human Giant, which brought me out to LA and opened a lot of doors for me.
- HBO
How'd you get involved with Funny or Die Presents?
- Rob Huebel
We're friends with a lot of the guys that work there from performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade. The guys that run it are Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, and we're buddies with them too. Last season they asked if we wanted to anything, and we came up with "Hold Up," an insane bank robbery story with Tom Lennon, Malin Ackerman, Ed Helms and Weird Al Yankovic.
- HBO
How did they approach you?
- Rob Huebel
It was very casual. They said to us, "Hey, we're doing this TV show, you guys should do something for it" So we did. It's very informal over there.
- HBO
Was this season's sketch "Do You Want to See a Dead Body" also your idea?
- Rob Huebel
My friend Owen Burke, who works for Adam McKay's movie division Gary Sanchez Productions , had the idea initially, and then we brainstormed about what we could do with it. It's like a scary "Stand By Me." We asked a few people and they were all interested.
- HBO
How did you pick the celebrities?
- Rob Huebel
We wanted to get the most random assortment of people and make it seem like we were friends with them. I don't know Deepak Chopra or Warren Sapp. We just looked for the craziest mix of people-an athlete, a philosopher, a comedian.
- HBO
Why did you decide to make Ben Stiller so angry?
- Rob Huebel
That was the first one we did, so we were still figuring it out. He's so good at being this put-upon character. It's fun to make him stressed-out and overwhelmed. He's really funny when he's losing his shit.
- HBO
What about the other segment you're on, "Death Hunt?"
- Rob Huebel
That was something the four of us came up, Rob Riggle, Paul Scheer, Owen and myself. We're all old friends from New York and thought it'd be fun to do something together. We tried to come up with the most ridiculous, violent setup we could think of. We wanted to take a familiar story-they're hunters, but also being hunted-and make it cartoonishly violent.
- HBO
With all of you being friends, what is the vibe like on set?
- Rob Huebel
It's always fun when you're shooting something and they let you do whatever you want. There's no one really telling us what to do. The trick is to cram in as many jokes as you can and then see what's funny later, in editing.
- HBO
Are you guys ad-libbing during filming or is it all written down?
- Rob Huebel
For "Death Hunt," we had a pretty tight script, but during shooting we did some improvising to try to make it funnier. For "Dead Body" we had bullet points, but it was a lot looser.
- HBO
The Australian Open is going on right now, has anyone ever mentioned that you look like Andy Murray?
- Rob Huebel
I've been hearing it lately, so I think he must be blowing up or something. I don't get it too much, though. People are definitely coming up to him and saying, "You are a lucky dude, you look just like Rob Huebel." Ask Andy Murray how that's working out for him.
- HBO
Maybe you'll play him in a sketch.
- Rob Huebel
I'll f**king play him in tennis, man. I played tennis in high school. I will destroy him.