By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 23, 1987
NEW YORK – According to a recent teen magazine story, comedian/writer Chris Elliott idolizes actor Rob Lowe, likes the color blue and was born in 1967. What the magazine reporter didn’t know was that Elliott was putting her on.
“It was odd ’cause I don’t think Teen Beat had any idea who I was, but they asked me all the pertinent questions and did a pinup of me,” Elliott, 27, said with a chuckle. “I have this incredible 13-year-old following because of that article. After it came out, I got a lot of letters from kids saying exactly the same thing: `I’m sorry but I can’t stay up that late at night to watch the show, but I hear you’re very funny, and can I please get a picture?’ ”
The show the children are referring to is “Late Night with David Letterman,” which airs Monday through Friday at 11:30 p.m. on WMAQ-Channel 5. “FDR: A One Man Show,” Elliott’s cable special, will premiere at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on Cinemax’s “Cinemax Comedy Experiment.”
In the special, Elliott portrays 32nd president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a parody of one-man shows.
“It’s a great showcase for a talent,” he said, with mock pretentiousness. “One can never do too much for one’s art.”
Winning his fourth Emmy award with the other writers of the offbeat Letterman show this year was a nice treat, he said. But he didn’t get involved in comedy to win accolades. You could say show business is in his blood.
Growing up as the son of Bob Elliott, half of the comedy team Bob and Ray, Elliott said he learned a lot about timing by just being around his father. He always wanted to write, he said, and his desire to act came later.
“As soon as I started doing the stuff on the show, though, I realized that I really liked performing,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if I could act in a serious role because I am introverted. Also, I write my own material on the show, so that makes me feel at ease about what I do.
“I think my introvertedness is genetic. My dad is fairly similar. He’s pretty shy himself. I am terrible at a party and with people I don’t know.”
Father and son worked together in a couple of skits in the past, and Elliott said he was upstaged by his father.
“What my father has done is timeless,” he said. “I’m fairly successful now, but the true test will be 10, 20 years down the line if people remember who I am like they do with Bob and Ray. But I don’t worry about it too much ’cause I’m OK. I’m not bad.”
Elliott started on “Late Night” as a “gofer” and workedup to production assistant. When Lorne Michaels hired away several staff writers for his doomed “New Show” in 1983, Elliott got the chance to write. Elliott’s originality and irreverent attitude fit in well with the rest of the “Late Night” staff. Letterman was impressed with the young writer, who once responded to a request for a cup of coffee by saying, “Yeah, I’ll do that for you, Dave . . . when hell freezes over!”
Elliott developed a succession of memorable characters such as the Regulator Guy, the Conspiracy Guy and the Guy Under the Seats, where Elliott literally would crawl out from under the floorboards and heckle Letterman.
“I loved the man under the chair because he made absolutely no sense,” he said. “But whenever anything gets too popular, I like to kill it. People would talk to me and tell me things I should say to Dave when I was doing my routine. And while it was fun, it was getting predictable. So I stopped. You can never go back, and I want to go forward.”
His latest act is a parody of Marlon Brando. Admitting he does a “lousy Marlon impersonation,” Elliott said it’s still a fun character to do. Originally, Elliott showed up as Brando at staff meetings, never intending to be him on the air.
“I got some good laughs for what I was doing and we decided to give him a shot,” Elliott said. “To my surprise, he worked. I’ll keep him on until people like him too much.”
Because of his exposure on the late-night talk show, Elliott was given a small role in Michael Mann’s 1986 movie “Manhunter,” as well as a guest shot on “Miami Vice.” But he said he has no great desire to parlay his talents to the big screen.m not the reason people tune in to see the show and that’s fine. I just like being a part of it.”
Elliott, who writes most of his material with longtime partner Matt Wickline, said one good thing about having popularity on the Letterman show is, now he’s primarily responsible just for writing his own skits.
