Judah Friedlander in "I Hate Valentine's Day," IFC Films, 2009

It was a little disarming to see you in the movie without your trademark look.

I like doing that for films. When I do a show like "30 Rock" -- which is eight months out of the year, five days a week -- I gotta be looking like me, for the most part. Otherwise, I'll go insane. When I did "American Splendor," I completely changed my look and the way I talked and walked for about a month. Nia wanted me to do that, and I thought it was right for the character, too. I'm playing a blue-collar, Irish-American guy who lives in Brooklyn, and the everyday look I have... it's not quite the right look for him.

Movie roles aside, are you ever concerned that your regular guise might pigeonhole you for future projects?

I think I've proven with my career that I can play a wide variety of characters. Yet, I still get typecast as the crazy slob guy. That's how it always works. 99.9% of the time, they just want to stereotype you. I turned down a couple movie roles this summer and this past year because they wanted me to basically play the same role that I'm doing on "30 Rock."

How many trucker hats do you own?

I don't know, math is not one of my strong points. Neither is organization. You can literally walk into my apartment and sit on a hat, you can step on a hat, you can probably open up the refrigerator and find a hat tucked under some rotten food. I have a lot of hats. For "30 Rock," the hat situation got even more out of control because we decided my character should be wearing a hat, not just for every episode, but every day within an episode. They're just all over the place.

I've never been good at business, marketing, networking and self-promotion. My web presence is not very strong, and my stand-up presence is not very strong. I think more people still know me as "The Hug Guy" from the Dave Matthews Band video "Everyday" than they do as a stand-up.

Comedy clubs always have those expensive drink minimums. Will the recession end this madness?

Even if there wasn't a recession, they really need to get rid of some of that stuff. I still love and play comedy clubs all the time. Many of them [don't have] a two-drink minimum anymore, it's a two-item minimum. You can get a soda and an order of French fries, and that's enough, which is better than having to get two drinks. I don't like performing for drunk audiences. But yes, comedy clubs are overpriced, and I think they lose a lot of their audience. Comedy should be for everybody, so the shows should be inexpensive. The cover charges are often too high, and they shouldn't be jacking up the drink prices.

Does it actually work when midtown Manhattan club promoters ask people, "Do you like comedy?"

That's my favorite question in New York City! Do you like air? Do you like laughter? It just makes no sense, that question. Unfortunately, almost all the comedy clubs pay these street teams to go to Times Square to sell tickets on the streets. They're basically going after the tourists, and I think it's hurting the stand-up comedy club business. You go to a show and not only are they 95% tourists, they're 80% non-English-speaking-as-a-first-language tourists.

Comedy Cellar is probably the best in the country. It's the most inexpensive club in the city, with the best comedians and venue. You get the most for your money, and it has a great sound system.

I grew up a Mickey Rourke fan. "Diner" had a huge impact on me, comedically and as far as dialogue goes. Working with him was definitely intimidating at first. He's probably the best physical actor I've ever worked with. The first scene I'm in, it's the first time you see Mickey in the film. You don't see his face, his back's to the camera, and you don't see my face. I'm cut off from the shoulders up.

I come in, he's sitting in the chair, he's just had a match, I pay him a [small] amount of money, he complains, and I tell him about the next event coming up. The camera only sees his back, and he's still interesting. That blew me away: "This is pretty fucking impressive, when you can command the screen without your face and without dialogue." I learned a shitload working with him and Darren Aronofsky, even though I only worked on the film for two days. It was the complete opposite acting style from "30 Rock" or "I Hate Valentine's Day." Both of those are heavily scripted comedies where you really have to hit your mark, and in "The Wrestler," there were no marks. The only mistake you could make was to know your lines perfectly and never flub. I felt like I was in a documentary.

“I Hate Valentine’s Day” opens in limited release on July 3rd.

[Additional photos: "I Hate Valentine's Day," IFC Films, 2009; "30 Rock," NBC, 2006; "The Wrestler," Fox Searchlight, 2008]

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