Last week, I reviewed the premiere of Splinterheads, starring Lea Thompson, Dean Winters, Christopher McDonald, Rachael Taylor, and newcomer Thomas Middleditch. The rom-com made a comedic impression on me as a film, but I was mainly captivated by it's leading man. I was left with the feeling that this up and coming comedian, Middleditch, is destined to carve out his own niche, or ditch as the case may be, as Hollywood's newest leading funny man. Therefore, I was absolutely delighted when we met up for a chat.

Scene B Seen: So, you’re from Canada?

Thomas Middleditch: I am from Canada, British Columbia. A small town in the hills, Nelson. It’s like a hippie town, there are some hockey players, but it’s very bohemian.

SBS: Do you ski or snowboard?

TM: I used to ski and then I had problems with my knees, and then I got really into computers. Half of my life is spent on video games and tooling around on computers. I’m like a super huge nerd.

SBS: Do you create video programs?

TM: I can program, but like, my website, I made a lot of the content on it, Thomasmiddleditch.com… I won’t lie to you. A lot of my time is spent playing video games.

SBS: That’s okay. As long as you get some fresh air every once in a while.

TM: Fresh air? What’s that?

SBS: Yeah, right?! So, after highschool…

TM: I knew I always wanted to do comedy and sketch comedy… so I went to college for 2 years, but I dropped out to go to a more intense program in Toronto. I started doing improv and was part of two groups… But in Canada, I found out real quickly that it’s a totally different entertainment system [then the States].

SBS: How so?

TM: It’s hard to move up. And the things you move up with, are not necessarily all that satisfying… So then I was like, I want to go to Second City, but I got rejected to Second City in Toronto. I was like, huh- okay. So then I auditioned for the one in Chicago. I was like I will be in the epicenter. I got in, so I was in Chicago for a few years doing that and IO, formally known as Improv Olympics.

SBS: There’s a lot of improv there.

TM: Yeah! Chicago’s another one of those cities where it’s so welcoming and it’s got such a great scene, but it’s kind of like a middleman and you can reach that feeling pretty quickly. Like in three years, I was- I’m not trying to brag, but I was on some of the top teams and I was there… I had done everything I could do, touring, everything.

SBS: You capped out and decided your next move was what?

TM: Well, it’s so weird. I think life is so funny because, at that point I was sitting there, like, there’s not really any money in improv. Even Second City. They make like $70 a show. That’s them doing the main stage.

SBS: Really?

TM: Yeah… I was second guessing the whole deal. What you can do, Second City has touring companies. They have the main stage and they have these cruise ship companies, they have a contract with Norwegian Cruise Lines. You can go on there for 4 months. You do Second City like sketch review and improv games, and stuff like that. But it’s only a total of like 8 hours a week and then you have the rest of the time to yourself.

SBS: On this huge cruise ship.

TM: It’s a little maddening… it was my first encounter with some proper guidos… To sum it up, that experience was extremely surreal. A week into it, I found out Saturday Night Live was coming to Chicago to audition… So I flew out of Bermuda to do the screening/audition, then met up with them [cruise] in New York. I got back to New York and walked onto the ship and there I was, back in the crazy life again.

SBS: No way!

TM: To give you an idea of what it was like, it’s like a floating hotel slash prison. It’s cool because you can go to a nice restaurant, get these five-course meals, then you get up and walk away- you don’t pay anything. But it’s also weird because you can’t leave the boat and you have all this free time, so you end up working out a lot, like you do in prison. You just rip up and drink.

SBS: What happened with SNL?

TM: Seth Meyers and Mike Shoemaker, who’s now the producer for Jimmy Fallon, they wanted to meet up with me… They were like, ‘Cool, we just wanted to meet with you and make sure you weren’t a crazy person.’… Long story short, they kind of already have the skinny white guy demographic covered. I look a lot like Seth Meyers, you know, that kind of thing matters. But no big deal. I would love to do that, but…

SBS: Well, maybe later. SNL will always be there.

TM: But during that time and because of this commercial I had done of me and my friend rapping about Chicken McNuggets… because of these two random things, that’s when I got in touch with my manager and my then agent. They sent over some stuff… and CBS offered me a holding deal… I was like, ‘Great. I guess I’m moving to New York now.’ I really made a mountain out of a mole hill.

SBS: When was that?

TM: 2 years ago… Then I was in New York, kinda miserable. It’s a very intimidating city if you don’t have friends or a community to belong to… Then I got into UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade], other improv scenes and doing stand-up. That’s when Brant Sersen [writer/director of Splinterheads] got into me.

SBS: He discovered you at UCB, right?

TM: Yeah. When I do stand-up, I do these characters… This one night, I’m doing the most furthest removed from the character Justin Frost, you know, [Splinterheads] is like a boy meets girl movie, and I’m doing this character, a Native American action-comedy juggeler… Brant saw that and totally dug it. I had no idea… then he saw another show. He like stalked me out.

SBS: He’s your first stalker!

TM: Yeah! Then, I did some internet shorts with Seth Meyers and some of the SNL gang, ‘cause I think they thought I was still funny. So while we were shooting, I got the script of Splinterheads.

SBS: You totally pulled off that awkward kind of guy that gets the hot girl and the audience falls in love with you, did you ever think this type of role would come to you or you could do that?

TM: I don’t know. When I read the script, I was like this is a formula we’ve seen before and I wondered how we could make that different… How can you play the awkward guy, who’s a little socially inept, and put your own stamp on it? …There’s elements in Justin from characters I’ve done like, ‘Sure. I will do anything to break the silence.’ He doesn’t like those awkward moments and he gets really uncomfortable in them.

SMS: Definitely not.

TM: It’s funny that you say that actually, because, I never really thought of myself as the lead. Up until that point, I always thought of myself as the weird character guy, like the supporting guy. Like Wayne Chung, is to Justin.

SBS: He’s great, and that name just makes it awesome. He, Jason Rogel, is a newbie and so were some of the other actors, but there are some really established actors in the film as well. How was working with them?

TM: It was interesting… I enjoyed working with Lea [Thompson] for sure. She’s had experience with huge films and now she was doing something smaller. I think she just really wanted to have fun and do something cool… I picked Frankie Faison’s ear as well, ‘cause he’s had some really neat roles.

SBS: Yeah.

TM: I was so nervous for the 1st two weeks. I was having trouble getting my groove… Then when Chris [McDonald] and I shot our 1st scene… we were just riffing and I was like, here we go. I am good at this, this is what I like to do, and I relaxed a bit… He was cool in that sense, ya know. He’s a confident guy.

SBS: Did you guys partake in any of the actual carnival stuff where you shot a good part of the film?

TM: Well, when we shot that scene with me and Jason going around on that thing, that was pretty funny. You know, he’s a heavier guy, and he’s on the inside and I’m on the outside, it’s supposed to be the other way around. So with the G-forces, he’s like crushing me, that line in the movie, that’s me actually screaming. We were laughing, ‘cause it’s funny, but it hurt… I remember spinning around and being like, “Stop it! Stop it!” And I could see everyone through my blurred vision laughing, and I’m like, “Darren, the producer! Stop this ride!”

SBS: They were probably like, “This is great! Keep rolling!”

TM: Yeah, yeah.

SBS: I think setting it with the carnival as a backdrop, helped the challenge of the boy meets girl formula.

TM: Brant likes Fringe cultures.

SBS: It really counteracts the norm. It’s almost like one interaction is weirder then the next, but it somehow made it good.

TM: I remember him [Brant] saying he wanted to make something more commercial, more acceptable. So you take that archetype, but then you put it into something else. It helps change everything and make it more interesting.

SBS: Did this movie open you up to doing different types of roles that you maybe never thought of approaching before?

TM: My career is fledgling… but anything that would stretch and pull, I would love to do… I mean, many of the characters I do are tragic. I think sadness is funny… Just the awful things that happen, make the tiny victories even bigger…

SBS: You can’t have comedy without tragedy.

TM: I like that kind of stuff. My aspirations lie in sense of creating stuff, be it a television series or writing my own stuff…

SBS: What are you working on now?

TM: I’m doing lots of stuff. I shoot stuff with my friends TJ Miller and Jordan Vogt-Roberts. TJ is definitely on the up and up in terms of acting and comedy, he’s got a lot of big parts in a lot of movies coming up…

SBS: And you’re still performing?

TM: Yeah, at UCB. I’m in a group called, Baby Wants Candy at The Barrow Street Theater. One act, fully improvised, Broadway musical style. It’s really zany and fun. Oh my god! I just said zany with a straight face.

SBS: Yes, you so did! How were you as an adolescent, with girls and friends?

TM: I was very shy growing up. At social functions, I remember hanging out for hours on end with my head buried in my Mom’s dress. When I was by myself, I was pretty vocal and weird, and played GI Joe pretty crazy. Then in middle school, my drama teacher, Ken Wilson, got me into my 1st play… and I was like, ‘I’m funny,’ and kids were like, ‘You’re funny,’ but then later would tease me… Slowly and surely I got my confidence and the kids that were teasing me, kept me around ‘cause I was the funny kid.

SBS: Is it hard to translate from dealing with social situations with comedy to being real with people?

TM: I don’t think so. To me these days, it’s like a relief. As much as I love doing bits with people, if that can’t come to a natural conclusion, and be able to talk about whatever, it becomes a problem… That’s like a signifier, to be like that’s cool, there’s something more.

SBS: Right.

TM: At some point you master confidence… When you find your home and your thing to do, and especially when it’s on stage… like if I didn’t do that or have that 'thing', I would probably still be that shy kid. You know what I mean?

SBS: Yeah.

TM: That’s why when I first in New York, I was like, ‘Man, I suck.’ ‘cause I didn’t have that 'thing' and as soon as that happened, it was like ‘Titty-City!’

[Laughter]

Perhaps Middleditch isn't that far off from the Justin Frost character in Splinterheads after all. Both of them were in search of their 'thing'. The difference, however, is that while Justin realized that his 'thing' was to have no 'thing at all', Middleditch seems to have found his groove. To which I believe, is only the beginning to a solid career.

You can catch Middleditch performing with Baby Wants Candy at The Barrow Street Theater every Saturday at 10:30pm... "When I'm in town, it's a regular gig, but naturally, when I'm out of town- I'm out of town."

As a rule of thumb, I do not go out in NYC on the weekends, especially not to the movies. However, I was willing to elbow my way through the crowds at Regal Cinema Union Square this Friday night to view the New York City Premiere of Splinterheads.

Motivators:a stellar cast including; Lea Thompson, Christopher McDonald, my fave bad boy Dean Winters, Rachel Taylor, and the much buzzed about newcomer- Thomas Middleditch, a frosty Diet Coke, and an after-party at Carnival at Bowlmor Lanes.

The flick deets: Splinterheads introduces Thomas Middleditch as Justin Frost, a twenty-something slacker who has decided that his “thing” is that he has no “thing” at all. When a small-time carnival rolls into town, he meets Galaxy (Rachael Taylor), a gorgeous con artist who has more “things” going for her than anyone he has ever met. Galaxy takes Justin on a geocaching adventure, a GPS based activity that is part hike and part treasure hunt, and he quickly falls for her. Complicating matters are his mom’s (Lea Thompson) floundering relationship with a lovesick local cop (Christopher McDonald) and Galaxy’s insanely jealous boyfriend Reggie (Dean Winters). In order to win her over he’s going to need to step up his game, and maybe even figure out what his “thing” really is.

Move over Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Seth Rogan. There are some new boys in town that are smashing your schtick. Well, you guys rock as well, but Middleditch, Jason Rogel- who plays Middleditch's best friend, "Wayne Chung", and director/writer Brant Sersen, have brought quirky "man-child" comedies to a whole new level.

The Sersen formula: Take your "sympathetic characters who are sort of out-of-sync with the world", and place them in an unusual subculture. Sersen explains, "A world that coexists within a dominant one will have its own beliefs, rules, and laws. From a comedic viewpoint, the possibilities are limitless because you’re in such uncharted territory. Anything can happen, and anything goes."

That makes sense, especially coming from a man who's first feature, Blackballed, takes place amidst the subculture of paintballing.

Splinterheads, produced by Atlantic Pictures, definitely delivers laughter with up to snuff performances by Thomson, Winters, and McDonald, scene stealers from Lennon Parham, Jason Mantzoukas, Rogel, Pamela Shaw, and Edmund Lyndeck (the 116 year old great grandpa), and a breakout performance by Middleditch, who Sersen discovered at NYC's Upright Citizens Brigade (which is "home to all things comedy in New York City and Los Angeles").

Click HERE for showtimes

*Stills courtesy of Atlantic Pictures

*image 1: Thomas Middleditch as Justin Frost

*image 2: Christopher McDonald as Sgt. Bruce Mancuso

*image 3: Rachel Taylor as Galaxy and Dean Winters as Reggie

*image 4: Jason Mantzoukas as The Amazing Steve and Lennon Parham as Wyoming