My Exclusive Interview with Nick Mundy

If you know me, there are two things that I am very passionate about: Movies and Late Night Talk Shows. Nick Mundy is a part of both. You may know him from his popular sketch comedy Team Tiger Awesome, you may recognize him from his recurring hilarious guest appearances on The Screen Junkies Show hosted by our friend Hal Rudnick. If you watch a lot of online skits on Funny or Die or College Humor, you'll see him in a good handful. If you follow the Twitter of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, you'll know how much of a fan Nick is, and how much The Rock likes Nick. Even more of his presence can be seen on the TBS show Conan where he appears recurring pieces in taped skits, and one very recent live performance as "Troy Fieri." Wherever you know him from, Nick is a rising internet and Television star, with strong movie opinions and a hilarious camera presence.

I was fortunate enough to talk to Nick for a phone interview, and you'll be glad to know that he is as much fun to talk to as he seems on camera. A good portion of our conversation involved discussing movies and shooting the breeze. Here now is my exclusive interview with Nick Mundy.

Andrew: Where are you from originally?

Nick: I grew up in just north of Houston, Texas. The suburbs of Houston.

Andrew: What did your parents do for a living? I saw your dad on Screen Junkies the other day.

Nick: He's an attorney and my mother is now a professional grandma. But before, she worked various jobs in the medical industry.

Andrew: Have they always been supportive, have they been there for you? 

Nick: Oh yeah, big time. I mean I wouldn't be where I was without my folks. They supported me and my little brother for everything. If I wanted to be in the circus they would have called me a fucking idiot, but they would have supported me. You know the feeling, I got lucky in that department.

Andrew: I do know the feeling. 

Nick: Exactly.

Andrew: Where did you go to school? 

Nick: I went to a small school called University of St. Thomas in downtown Houston where I mostly played Rugby and that's about it. And the school didn't really have a film department at the time I did it. So me and one of my partners in Team Tiger Awesome who lived down the block from me, in the summers we would work on these big projects and we've been doing it now for 12-13 years together.

Andrew: Let's talk about Team Tiger Awesome. You said you started out with your buddy Clint [Gage], correct? 

Nick: Yeah, me, Clint and Michael Truly started it in February 2006. Since then we did about 150 sketches and worked with Comedy Central, Funny or Die, College Humor, a bunch of internet companies that don't exist anymore, AXE Body Wash we did a thing for them, a bunch of branded stuff. We did a lot. And then about 2 years ago, we were hired to do our first rewrite for a feature. And since then we've done a few more, we've kinda stopped doing sketches and we focus on writing and also our individual pursuits came into the forefront and that worked itself out nicely. We're still Team Tiger Awesome, we still write together but Truly hosts a lot of stuff, and acts and produces a bunch of projects. Clint directs a bunch of projects. I act a lot. We're actually shooting our first project in a while for this pilot for Comedy Central Studios with Chris Jericho. So we're really excited about that.

Andrew: How exactly did you get in contact with Comedy Central?

Nick: Well we've worked with them for a number of years and we pitched a number of different ideas and we had this idea about two buddy cops on an endless stakeout and it kind of grew from there. We have the same agents as Jericho, and they suggested him and we were like: Yes. Yes we would very much like to work with Chris Jericho. You know he's an improv guy, he does Groundlings, he's got a lot of interests. We met the guy, he's fantastic, he's a really great guy. It's gonna be a fun project, we start shooting in August.

Andrew: I wish you luck with it

Nick: Thank you buddy.

Andrew: Let's go back a little more. What made you want a career in entertainment?

Nick: I've always been into comedy. I'm a big comedy guy. In junior high, I was obsessed with The State and The Kids in the Hall. In elementary school I was obsessed with Saturday Night Live. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I was always kinda headed towards this without even knowing about it. I like making people laugh. That's my kinda thing. And now there are a lot more platforms you can use to do that......and make a little money doing it.

Andrew: (Laughs) That always helps. 

Nick: Sometimes.

Andrew: Ok, now let's talk Screen Junkies. How exactly did you get in contact with The Screen Junkies Team? 

Nick: I had a meeting with Andy [Signore] and Brett [Weiner] who was there at the time, they co-created Screen Junkies. Brett is still a friend of the family, he's onto other pursuits, but he's always stopping by. They had talked to me about hosting it. Obviously, they have the perfect host.

Andrew: Hal does do a great job. 

Nick: Oh my god, it's fantastic watching him do it. I've learned so much from it, because I didn't have a lot. I was going to audition for it, but then i got really fucking sick (even though Andy thinks I backed out of it. He's a liar.) All the ideas I've always had for it are there in some way to be the side aspect to Andy and to Hal. I've been a fan of Hal's since before I met him. He's just a really fucking good dude. So Hal got the job, as he should have, and a couple months later Andy was like "Well let's do something" and we did the Die Hard thing, How to Fix Die Hard 5. And we had no idea what we were doing, it was just kinda this bit. And it turned out to be really popular at the time. I mean if you look at the views now compared to then, it would be like the lowest rated. We did that and then we did the Razzies one a couple weeks after that, and that was fun. We always had a great relationship, we were just talking about stuff. Then we did The Rock video, and that was awesome. I'll do anything for those guys. I was excited for that opportunity. I really appreciate that Hal could have done it, it's Hal's show. And that's the thing. Hal's like the most gracious guy I know. You can tell he's from improv, because he's a great improv actor, and he's always sharing, he's always collaborating, he's always passing things on and he could have done it and had fun. Or Andy could have done it, they could send anyone. But I was very fortunate that they sent me, and it meant a lot, and it was a great thing, and it really did a lot for me. Since then, we've done a lot more "How to Hix It" videos and those have taken off to my surprise. I thought I was just a heel from wrestling, but they like 'em. I mean well....three fourths of the people like 'em. There's a lot of assholes out there.

Andrew: I do love what you have to say about Blood Squibs. 

Nick: Yeah! I don't take myself seriously, Movies are hard. These guys are working their asses off. But, I think that what people appreciate is, I think my points are valid. I'm just trying to present it in an entertaining manner. I'm a big pro-wrestling guy. So I like putting it out there in a humorous manner. I get it. It's been fun. I've been doing it since. There are plans to do more. So we'll see how that turns out. But it's been great. I'm very grateful to be working with them.

Andrew: I'm sure I'd get in a lot of trouble if I did't ask you about Dwayne Johnson. 

Nick: Yes.

Andrew: Obviously you're a big fan of The Rock. How did that come about? 

Nick: I was a big wrestling fan, and I still probably am. If you ask my girlfriend, I spend a good amount of time watching WWE Network. He wasn't my favorite wrestler, I've always been more partial to Mick Foley, Stone Cold, or Ric Flair. But I always thought he was entertaining, I thought he was a better bad guy. But I saw Fast Five and I was obsessed with it, because The Rock was so fucking good. I mean he's ridiculous and amazing. I've always been a fan, i've been saying for years. Cause, i'm writing my own stuff, I have a feature that he would be great for, I wrote it for him. Someone said it the other day, he has this odd variety. He has a combination of the best qualities of Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has the heart of Sylvester Stallone, the wit and talent of Bruce Willis, and the body and charisma of Schwarzenegger. And I think, he's a great actor. I think he will get nominated for an Oscar. I don't think he'll ever win, he'll get nominated.

Andrew: That's a pretty bold statement. 

Nick: I think he will. I think he will. And his performance, I wasn't bullshitting about Pain and Gain. I think it was one of the best performances I've seen in years. I still love that movie.

Andrew: I loved how edgy he was in Pain and Gain. 

Nick: Totally. I think he was great. He's like he's not scared of anything which is nice. I think he's gonna do some weird stuff down the line.

Andrew: You plan on going to talk to him again when you do the Hercules junket, right?

Nick: That's the rumor. I don't know what we're doing. That kinda came outta nowhere. He tweeted that video, and then we started talking that weekend. Well, talking as in four tweets. That was surreal. that was like "What the fuck is going on?" And I've heard from rumors that he's a fan of that video. So, I don't know what we're doing, i'm sorry to be vague. There's a couple cool things we could do, at very minimum, i'm gonna talk to him.

Andrew: I look forward to seeing that. 

Nick: Well, you might see something on Twitter in the next few days about what we're trying to do. So keep an eye out on Twitter or Facebook.

Andrew: I will. Now here's my million dollar question I ask everyone: Who played the better Willy Wonka: Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp?

Nick: I never saw the second one.

Andrew: Good choice. 

Nick: Tim Burton is very overrated.

Andrew: Thank you!

Nick: I'm not saying he's bad, i'm just saying he's overrated. Like, I love Beetlejuice. First two Batman's are pretty good. Not my favorite, but I get it. That Big Fish movie was good, but I just might have been depressed that year. I mean, I just wanna see Johnny Depp wear Khaki shorts one day. And like a polo shirt. Play an accountant.

Andrew: I went into Transcendence thinking maybe we're finally gonna get something normal.

Nick: Oh yeah! I heard that movie sucked!

Andrew: It was basically if you took Jarvis from Iron Man and put him on a screen that's it.

Nick: That might be Avengers 2.

Andrew: Now that's intriguing, i'd love to see that. 

Nick: I mean Paul Bettany is playing Vision. Ultron comes from an artificial intelligence. And I think that's how it's gonna go. I think Jarvis is gonna turn into corrupted Ultron. You can even search for it, there's even a deleted scene or animatic where they have Jarvis saying to Iron Man "You don't need all those guys" like dropping a hint.

Andrew: I can't believe I missed that. 

Nick: That's what I think is gonna happen.

Andrew: Now, Conan O'Brien is my absolute idol. How exactly did you get into contact with him? 

Nick: I have a buddy named Scott Gairdner who for about a year and a half was a writer there. So me and Scott through Team Tiger Awesome have a really great group of friends who are all really talented. One of my friends out in L.A. is the creator of Halt and Catch Fire on AMC. A buddy of mine is the creator of the show Undateable. Scott was a writer at Conan, he now has his own animated show with Rob Lowe coming out called Moonbeam City which is gonna be fucking amazing. All of my friends, we have different levels of success, but we're all just really good friends that take care of each other. We just have a lot of fun, just talk about non-sense for hours on end. But Scott was in a bunch of our stuff, I was in a bunch of his stuff. He was at Funny or Die before Conan and I did a sketch with him called Brozen Brogurt about bros eating there own type of special frozen yogurt. And that was fun, that was really cool. It was a good experience. And then a couple months later he asked me to be the lead of this Gold 4 Gold sketch. It was fun. It was cool being the lead of it. I got to shoot it on the stage. That was crazy. That sketch blew up! Everyone loved it. Everyone on the staff loved it. Conan loved it, Andy [Richter] liked it a lot. So we did like 4 or 5 more of those, and they were all really popular. I did a couple other sketches. Now the other writers bring me in for different parts when I'm right for it, and they seem to like me. So i've done about 8 or 9 sketches there. Which is so surreal. The last one, doing it live, that was like a dream of mine. As soon as I heard, I was like "Yeah, I want to do that." And interacting with Conan and Andy was huge. That was insane.


Andrew: I loved the Troy Fieri sketch last week, it definitely had that kind of quirk to it where you can see how vibrant the personality is, but then so casually says "No relation" 

Nick: He's the best. I didn't know too much about Guy Fieri, but he seems like a ridiculous person.

Andrew: He makes a good barbecue sauce. 

Nick: Really? I read his menu for his New York restaurant and it makes Chili's look subtle.

Andrew: One last question. What advice do you have for people who want to explore a similar career to yours? 

Nick: Work. Don't stop working. I've lost friends, girlfriends, years. Have a life. Explore. Read. Watch. Wish I did that more. Have a life, but work. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be sacrifice. Work and make stuff. Work and make stuff. You just have to work. Everyone probably has a day job, then you gotta put in another 6-8 hours after that. You gotta be working on a couple things at a time. Because everyone's trying to do it. Now with technology, it makes everything cheaper, and everyone thinks they're a writer. Everyone thinks they're a comedian or actor. It's great, it's awesome to have more avenues, but there's just so much more of it. So you have to work and you have to stand out. And the best west to do it is to keep working, cause the stuff you do isn't gonna be good, but if you keep doing it you get better.

Andrew: That hit home with me. 

Nick: Well yeah. There's always gonna be the story about a guy who got a great break and got onto a CW show. And you can't be jealous of that guy, you gotta be happy for him. You don't want to be the asshole. Los Angeles gets a bad wrap for having assholes. And it might. I know a lot of great comedians. But usually the people who are bitching about L.A. are the assholes that no one likes. I mean, I've gotten breaks, I've gotten lucky. Sometimes I think I have my career because I'm a big loud guy who can break through shit.

Andrew: (laughs)

Nick: It helps! Everyone's different. Everyone's got their own thing. But there's thousands of people just like us trying to do the same thing. And some have had more success than me, some have had less. But no matter what, you just gotta keep working. Hal works his ass off. He does a bunch of stuff. He's constantly working. Andy over at Screen Junkies, constantly working. My two partners, constantly working. My friends on TV shows, constantly working. Just gotta keep working.

Andrew: Thank you Nick,  I very much appreciate you taking the time to talk. 

Nick: Anytime man.