Written By: Jayme Face
Will Vought is a an accomplished actor and comedian who certainly made us laugh and can most recently be seen on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel!
Will Vought – Photo credit: Emily Assiran
upfrontNY: Tell us a bit about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and your role as Major Buck Brillstein?
Will Vought: I play Major Buck Brillstein who is a wannabe comedian that is hosting Midge Maisel’s first performance. She’s gotten a big gig opening for Shy Baldwin on tour. It happens to be a USO show set in 1959 and Buck is that wannabe guy. He’s a major in the army, probably has wife and kids at home that he tortures with his jokes and always dreamt of being a comedian or hosting an event. Now it’s time and not only does he get to host, but he also gets to scare parents, specifically my mother, dressing in drag, wearing a double d bra, and having his belly hang out. We got to do old forms of sketch comedy which is fun. He kind of ties everything together and that is major Buck Brillstein.
upfrontNY: Which comedians have inspired you?
Will Vought: Wow, Robin Williams. I actually was blessed to play the genie in Disney’s first iteration of Aladdin the musical. I did that for a number of years and had the good fortune of meeting Robin. He was doing a play in New York called Bengal Tiger and I got to spend about 5 minutes with him. I don’t think the world will see the likes of Robin Williams anytime soon. I also was really into Jerry Seinfeld and Dennis Leary. I was into George Carlin when I got older and looking back even farther you know Richard Prior and Lenny Bruce who is also portrayed in Mrs. Maisel. Guys today that I think are really phenomenal are Ted Alexandro. He is one of the best writers in the business. I’m close friends with Paul Reiser and Wayne Brady. Actually Shel Silverstein used to make me laugh. I had the chicken pox and this makes me sound like I grew up in this dessert waste land, you know my grandmother God rest her soul, she brought me over a record of “Where the Sidewalk Ends”. I think Shel was narrating it, but every single poem had a cadence so there was a musicality to it even though it was all spoken word. I would laugh my ass off (He can still recite the poems) It was hilarious. I was an only child, I had no friends, what are you going to do? The fact that it’s still in my head shows you how vast my social life is.
upfrontNY: Who is a comedian you haven’t met yet or worked with yet, but would love to collaborate?
Will Vought: You know I met Jerry Seinfeld once. I was coming out of a commercial audition. I had just come back from New York, it was like ten years ago and we had a little stop and chat on the street. So I guess I did meet him, but I have a lot of friends who do know him. Larry David would be incredible to just sit down and have a coffee with. Phoebe Waller Bridge, I was at Gotham Comedy Club and she came in right before I went on stage and then she went on right after me so I didn’t have a chance to really chat with her. I’ve gotten the opportunity to get to know some amazing comedians. There’s something about sitting down with other comedians.
When I was interning at Late Night with Conan O’Brien there was a very specific rule that you do not say hello to the guests and this is before I had gotten on stage and tried to do stand up. The guest on one particular night was George Carlin. I was like how can I say hi to George Carlin. I did break the rule and subsequently did not get fired. I went down after the show. I knocked on his dressing room and we talked for about 5 minutes and I told him what a fan I was and that I aspired to write and do comedy. He was very kind and very generous. There were these door tags with the guest names, George Carlin with the late night logo, and he went to the door and pulled his off, signed it and gave it to me.
upfrontNY: You have written for other comedians and hosts; how does the process differ from writing for yourself?
Will Vought: Yes. When you are writing for other people keeping your voice in mind is very important, but I think that the ideas sometimes are the same. I’ll get on the phone with another comedian and it will be a back and forth tennis match conversation, further and further down the rabbit hole. I heard a comedian once say “If only you can tell the joke that’s a great joke.” So, I draw on my own experiences. I talk about my son or I talk about working at the White House because I was an intern for the Clinton administration. It’s always different when writing for somebody else or collaborating with somebody other than yourself. Sometimes I think it’s easier to write for other people than to write for myself. I’m impressed with people like Amy Sherman Paladino and Sorkin and any show runner that is banging out scripts because that is not easy just sitting down writing.
Will Vought – Photo credit: Emily Assiran
upfrontNY: You mentioned you interned at the White House, what was that like and would you ever work there again?
Will Vought: I don’t know that the White House would have me. It was crazy, it was the second term of the Clinton Administration. He was being impeached and giving his testimony in front of Ken Starr on T.V. (He does an amazing Clinton impression, but you will have to take my word for it!) I worked in the West Wing for the Director of Communications, but there were different jobs. I remember my first day at the White House I worked at what they call the White House comment line. There are people with these little things in their ears and everybody is behind a computer, it was all volunteers and interns and it was basically a public number you could look up on the internet and you could call the White House comment line and bitch. People would call up and be like “I can’t stand the healthcare system in this country and what are you going to do about it?” and you’d have to say “Thank you so much for your call today we appreciate that, is there anything else that is bothering you?” “Yeah my mother messed up my Christmas gift.” “Okay we will be sure to take note of that. ” People would be like “I didn’t get a Christmas card from the Clintons this year.” And we would reply “Alright well we will make a note of that, is there anything else?” “Yeah they shut off my electricity for not paying the bill. What is the president going to do about it?”. “We are going to pass that on to him.” It is the White House Comment line. It is a real thing. It was surreal going to work. Going to work at the White House is surreal.
upfrontNY: You are known for your impressions, what impression is your favorite to do? And what do people ask for the most?
Will Vought: That’s hard. I don’t know if I have a favorite. There was a this character that Robin Williams would do, I was in Florida with my son and I found myself kind of talking like that. I remember that it was kind of like a slow guy, and that made me think of one of the fun ones I like doing right now, which is Kevin from The Office. I’ve been talking about, on stage, that I just don’t like paper straws. I don’t know how this came about, the idea. I understand that we are trying to save the environment and things like that, but this is not a good idea. It sounds like some bad episode of The Office and Michael Scott comes up with straws. “We’re going to start adding straws to Dunder Mifflin Paper” and even Kevin is like “Michael, I just wanted to talk to you about the paper straws because when I was a kid I tried to combine water and paper and it didn’t work very well because the paper fell apart in the water.” One of my favorites Martin Short used to do this character Jiminy Glick. (Will continued to do a variation of amazing voices and impressions, but it’s just not the same reading it!)
upfrontNY: You worked for 95.5 PLJ which recently, sadly ended. I know they brought back a lot of people who worked there over the years to say goodbye, were you able to be a part of that?
Will Vought: I did Tom Cuddy who was that Vice President for programming for WPLJ, he organized a reunion. There was a huge kind of party where anybody that ever worked for the radio station in any capacity was invited and I was absolutely there. Scott Shannon was there, Jim Kerr was there – it was 30 years of on air talent on the morning show with Scott Shannon. I was like a child, it was incredible. I just did Scott Shannon’s show. I’ve known Scott for 20 years. He gave me my start in everything and gave me the ability to come in and be a fly on the wall. That’s where I really learned and tried to do voices. I just called in randomly to the radio station when I was like 15 and Scott happened to answer the phone. I didn’t know who he was or what the deal was I was just talking to this guy who made me laugh. He would let me call in because I loved the David Letterman show and I would do like Letterman updates. It kind of started from there and then interned and I’ve known him ever since.
Head here to hear Will Vought’s interview with Scott Shannon!
upfrontNY: Is there anything else you would like to let our readers know?
Will Vought: I’m out here in New York right now working new material in the clubs so that’s what I’m doing right now. Pilot season is here so we will see what is to come!
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