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Second City’s Niki Lindgren

Talented, funny, attractive and able to talk shop over drinks for three hours while nursing a hangover and a cold? That sounds like our kind of girl

By Trent Modglin

Niki Lindgren is a multifaceted woman. The serious side of her is writing humorous political satire that has a razor-sharp edge and makes people think about our country’s missteps. As for the other side, well, it runs through the halls of a consulting firm where she used to work dressed in a Spiderman costume.

Lindgren is one of the current stars of “Disposable Nation,” playing Thursday through Sunday nights at Second City’s E.T.C. stage. The show is a hilarious look at exactly what, and who, seems to be disposable in our country these days. You name the issue at hand, they tackle it. Everything from ravaging Mother Earth to the mistreatment of oppressed smokers to booting illegal immigrants and banishing Pluto from the solar system.

But her résumé doesn’t stop there. You can also find her on TV’s “Sports Action Team,” a largely improvised show where comedians play sports reporters and interview real-life athletes. It airs on NBC following Sunday-night football games in the fall.

A self-proclaimed military brat who grew up in England and Virginia, Lindgren gained notoriety in the business with the musical improv group Baby Wants Candy at Improv Olympic, as well as her one-woman show, “Photosynthesis of God and Man.”

She took time out of her schedule to meet me at her favorite hangout, the Old Town Ale House (where a painting of her happens to hang on the wall) to discuss making fun of society, the comedic timing of Sasha Baron Cohen, the living hell of a traveling theater company and why men who can’t make a woman laugh may not stand a chance.

Q: At what point did you realize you could make somebody laugh and that it was fun for you?
A: I don’t think I really ever consciously was like, “I’m a funny person.” Growing up, I always liked to be silly, and I loved to laugh. For me, laughter was always a big thing. I noticed in college that most of the acting parts I would play were comedic roles, and I enjoyed it so much. And “Saturday Night Live” was introduced to me at a very young age before we moved to England, so that was huge. And comedy was a huge part of my family. It was never, “Hey, I’m the funny person,” it’s just that I was always drawn to comedy. ... When I was with a traveling theater company and we were passing through Aurora, I came to see a Second City show, and I thought, “Wow, that’s exactly what I want to do.”

Q: Was it a theater company after college?
A: Yeah, it was a children’s theater company.

Q: You weren’t doing puppet shows were you?
A: (Laughs) Pretty much. We were doing “The Legend of Sleep Hollow” and “A Christmas Carol,” and it was ridiculous. It was basically six of us in a van traveling all over the U.S. We were smushed in this van with our props, with our sound system, with our costumes and our own clothes, driving all over the place from show to show. But Matt Miller, who I did the show with — he’s the casting director now over at the talent agency Tenner, Paskal and Rudnicke downtown — he was the one who introduced me to Second City, and I will be forever thankful to him. When I got home after that tour, I looked up Second City and worked for a few months to try to get enough money to move out here, and then I did and studied here, studied at Improv Olympic and the Annoyance Theater. That was my dream to work for Second City, and it happened, seven years later.

Q: Do you get a feeling that, in this business, if you’re talented enough and you’re out there long enough, someone is going to find you? Is it different than acting in a way?
A: I think so. Because I’m from a little of both worlds, I do feel that you can be very talented and good at what you do, but if you don’t have the perseverance to just stick it out, it’s not going to happen. I feel like my love for the arts is a lifelong commitment that I’ve made. I would love to have the picket fence and all that stuff, but that’s not what’s happening for me right now. You can’t force that.

Q: Most comedians seem to have someone who inspired them along the way. Did you have anybody you looked up to or connected with?
A: I think, growing up, Steve Martin was a huge influence. And Kenny Everett, a British comic. And Benny Hill, which is weird because a lot of people don’t like him in the States. But growing up in England, I really enjoyed it because it was easy to understand. John Cleese was a huge inspiration. And then as I got older, Catherine O’Hara (Home Alone, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, etc.) is my... I am in awe of her. She is amazing to me. I think a lot of people I met in the community, too, that I’ve met through the training and learning about improv and comedy. All my teachers. It’s been a growing experience, but the core of all of it was always my family. They’re just weirdos. My dad, my brother, my mom, we’re just a bunch of goofballs. It was just a very fun childhood. We didn’t have anything that was taboo to do or talk about. It was fun. I would put barrettes in my dad’s hair, and he would forget they were there and go answer the door with them in. It was so stupid, but it would leave us laughing. My mom’s very charismatic and funny. She’s this little Asian woman with an Asian accent, but she’s got so much fire inside of her that it’s fun to hear her talk about stuff. And my brother too. They’ve been great influences. ... I am also a huge fan of Sasha Baron Cohen just because of the way he can completely get into a character. He studied at the school that I always wanted to study at in Paris that is the comic’s dream. There is this one episode of his show where he’s at a wine tasting and he’s trying wine from these Southern gentlemen. And he was Borat at the time. It was so amazing, where the physical comedy was so perfectly timed. Those men had no idea what was going on, of course, and I watched it over and over. I could not believe how it was so perfectly timed sometimes, and you just have to have it. He’s so amazing at it. Everyone has their own specialty — someone might be very witty or dry or blue — because comedy comes from who you are, but he’s just really amazing. You have to have that timing because without it, it just doesn’t work.

Q: With your schedule, when do you think was the last time you were up at 7 a.m.?
A: It was probably just a few nights ago. These last two weeks have been crazy.

Q: Should I bump that to 9 a.m.?
A: No, I don’t think I’ve been up that late in a long time.

Q: No, no, I meant waking up, not going to bed.
A: (Laughs) Oh, when was the last time I got up by 7 a.m.? Oh, gosh. I don’t know. But I do have to say that I get up at 9 a.m. three days a week because I work out. That’s kind of the thing that drives me to get stuff done throughout the day. Even though it does seem like I’m kind of a night owl, I still do have to function during the day or else I feel like I don’t get anything done.

Q: After a late show, how long does it take to wind down to where you can fall asleep?
A: Probably about three hours, if I’m lucky. Usually, I try to fall asleep by reading, watching TV or drinking a delicious beverage. If that doesn’t work, I ask someone to punch me in the face.

Q: We men hear all the time that women are really looking for someone to make them laugh, first and foremost, but for some guys that’s hard to believe. What’s your take?
A: Well, for me, yes. One hundred percent. Humor, making me laugh, is the most important thing for a guy to have. The way I see it, if you’re hot and a personality donor, I’m not interested. If you are the ugliest person in the world and you can make me shit my pants laughing, I want your number.

Q: If I were to ask 10 people on the street to name me their favorite comedians, most of them would probably be men. Why do you think it’s tough for women to break into this business?
A: This is always a discussion I get into with people that’s very heated, so I’ll try not to get emotional with it (laughs). I do believe it is hard to get into comedy as a woman and to be taken seriously because there are articles that come out all the time that question why women aren’t funny. There was a magazine recently, I think it was Premiere magazine or something, that did the top 10 comics of the day, and there were two females in it. And it’s like, I can think of a lot of people that are very talented that are women. Even in our community, it’s very competitive for women. But the flip side that I always get from other people is that, ratio wise, the amount of white men compared to the amount of slots that are there are are equivalent to the amount of women and the amount of slots for them. So I see that point, but I also feel like it’s very hard for women to be taken seriously in comedy. But it’s changing, and it’s exciting.

Q: I had somebody from ComedySportz tell me that the best part about improv is that you can create a show for people that will never be repeated.
A: That’s true. And the funny thing is that, if it’s an amazing show, usually trying to explain it to someone else sounds like the stupidest show. But if it was a terrible show, explaining that to someone is the funniest thing to hear. If it’s horrible, it’s funny to hear. But if it’s really good, it doesn’t sound funny at all to someone who wasn’t there.

Q: Do people you meet who know what you do for a living expect you to be funny all the time?
A: For the most part, my friends that know what I do for a living are probably thankful that I have an outlet for my spazzing. If anything, it gives them a break from having to deal with me 24/7. Those that just find out what I do for a living usually say, “Say something funny...” at which point I am a deer in headlights, hoping the car won’t swerve.

Q: Do you ever run into people who just try too hard to be funny?
A: The only situation I usually run into people trying too hard to be funny is when I’m teaching an improv class. They try too hard to make everything crazy, or they go blue, or they insult someone to try to get laughs. It’s hard to watch, but by doing those things, they get it out of their system and eventually learn somewhere down the line. I was there once. My first audition in improv was in college. For some reason, I thought it would be hilarious to act like I was a bowling ball and roll myself into the auditors. No one laughed.

Q: Comedy, at it best, can be...
A: The end of war, the birth of peace, the second coming (if you believe in Jesus). Or a friendly alien invasion where humans and martians become friends (if you don't believe in Jesus).

Q: Do you think that right now, from a political and pop culture standpoint, it might be the best time to be a comedian? Isn’t it so easy to pick on George Bush and Paris Hilton?
A: It is, but in a way, it might make it harder because you don’t want to do the exact same thing everyone else is doing. I think it is easy to make people laugh, but you don’t want to get it through a cheap laugh, you know? And in writing a satirical show, I know this last process was so hard for me because I was so angry at our country. This is what I do, so I want to make it count. We get 200 people to come to see the show every night, and I want people to leave thinking about stuff, even though it was through comedy. ... I’m very passionate about our country and what we’re doing and why are we doing this and why are we involved in that, and I want people to come in and be like, “Oh, I need to think about this a little bit because it made me laugh, so I’m going to be open to think about it.” ... And this last process was hard because I was really angry, and I wanted to just shove shit down people’s throats, like, “Think about the country we’re in right now, and think about what we’re doing and what’s going on in the world, so that stuff like Britney Spears is not the first thing you read in the newspaper. You should want to read other stuff.” So I did find that writing comedically, because I was angry, it was so hard. The first process, “Immaculate Deception,” I had very emotional reactions to things that were going on in my life, and I was able to write funny stuff that was emotional and I’d been able to think about most of my life. But this time, I was very involved with what was going on in the world. But it was a lesson, to where I need to step back and chill out and find the funny in it.

Q: One of my issues is that I think we’ve become soft as a society and are too easily offended. Where do you draw the line in terms of political correctness in comedy?
A: I think I don’t really realize it until after I’ve done it. That whole thing that happened with Michael Richards, I feel like when you’re performing, you’ve got to know your boundaries. If that was something that was part of his act, then you need to fix your act because that was really disruptive. The nice thing about Second City is that you write stuff, and you do it in a set and the director can say, “Whoa, that’s really raw.” I didn’t see it in our other show, “Immaculate Deception,” where I played a preacher and I was singing a song that was severely racist and anti-gay. And I said any bad and derogatory word that you could say toward those two groups, and it was because I can’t handle the fundamentalist Christian mission right now. So I played a fundamentalist Christian.

Q: It can’t be easy, but is that almost a fun way to get out your frustrations with society?
A: I wouldn’t say it’s fun, because the first time I did it, I puked. And then the next four times I performed it I puked. It was hard for me, but I was so passionate about it, and it was funny but also very in your face. I don’t think it’s necessarily the right way to do it, I don’t know if it’s the wrong way to do it, but it worked at the time for that show. I don’t know if there’s any rhyme or reason to what works or not, but I do think that whatever your material is, you have to protect and have the integrity to perform it, because sometimes the audience will be with you and sometimes they won’t. I guess that’s kind of the thrill of being in comedy and improv is that, “Oh, they hate me,” or “Oh, they like me and they hear what I’m saying,” or they’re like, “Wow, what the f--k are you saying?” you know? So at least at Second City, you have a director that can tell you that you need to fix something. Sometimes the scene doesn’t stay.

Q: What kind of a rush is it, especially with your pure improv stuff, to be able to have no plan but still be able to make an audience laugh at a moment’s notice?
A: I think now, it’s fun. To make someone laugh, there really is nothing like it. I really do believe, to hear laughter, is so healing and wonderful. Improvising, we all have our nights, and we have our nights where we’re not on. And I think it really is like we have our own craziness going on in our head. And there are nights that we think we’re going down and the audience hates me tonight, but also a lot of times it’s just in our heads. We’re doing what we know how to do. It’s kind of like riding a bike. This is what we’ve learned how to do and we enjoy doing it, so hopefully other people enjoy seeing us do it. But I think it’s also the discoveries you make with the people you’re improvising with, what they say, that’s even more fun. I did maybe five to 10 nights of stand-up in my life when I first moved to Chicago, and I was horrifying.

Q: Horrified or horrifying?
A: (Laughs) Both. But I think it really had to do with the fact that I feed off of people, and I like to see what they come up with and what I can give them.

Q: With what you do for a living, is there anything that someone can do to embarrass you at all anymore?
A: Oh, I think so. I can think of some things, but it’s not like I’m going to tell you what they are (laughs). No, I think it’s very possible. And I have to say that interviews terrify me because I want to be able to represent everyone the way that I see them. I do think, “Oh god, what am I going to say, and does this sound stupid?” But I can still be embarrassed. It just takes a little more. Usually when I embarrass myself, though, it’s me embarrassing myself, not other people embarrassing me. Making dumb decisions. I don’t think you can really come out and try to embarrass me.

Q: Could you ever see yourself in a 9-to-5 office job in marketing or law or consulting wearing a business suit?
A: I think just hearing you say that made my neck like (she winces and looks as if she just got a cold chill)... No, I couldn’t do it. I loved working at a consulting firm because it helped me do what I wanted to do. But if I had to do just that, I probably would... I couldn’t handle it. That’s not saying what they do isn’t good, it’s just my personality. I couldn’t handle it.

Q: I remember at the end of “Shawshank Redemption” when Red is describing Andy’s escape from jail and says, “Some birds weren’t mean to be caged; their feathers are just too bright.”
A: Oh, yeah. That’s a great quote. I have a hard time adapting, but the nice thing about that consulting job is I would dress up in a Spiderman costume and run through the halls, and they’d just be like, “Ohhh, Niki.” They were very open and kind to let me do what I do. ... I was very lucky to have a place like that. I was very good about getting my work done, but it was paying for what I love to do, and that means more to me than anything.

Q: Do you break out the costume anymore?
A: I still have it, yes, but I don’t pull it out. It was actually the thing I wore when I turned 28 or so, right when Spiderman movie came out. I loved that movie so I had a Spiderman birthday.

Q: If you had the choice between a career in comedy and acting that was short and fantastic or long-lived and consistent, which would you choose?
A: I would say long-lived and consistent. The perfect example of that is Catherine O’Hara, whose work is nothing but integrity and brilliance but maybe hasn’t been seen as much as others. She really has had a consistent career doing things that make money but also doing things that have nothing but talent. She’s an amazing actress and comedian and has been doing it since before I started. ... I don’t care if I’m big and famous. I just would love to be able to pay rent and do all the things that I love to do while performing. To have a stable life while performing.

Q: And have that white picket fence you talked about earlier?
A: (Laughs) That would be amazing if I could have both. But I’m kind of thinking that might not happen. It always seems like two completely split worlds, but I know that they can become one world at some point. One of these days. But I love what I do, so why not do it during this time of my life, you know?

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