Letting Them Talk with Will Harris - Ep. 53 - Allan Havey (The Paper / Mad Men / Billions / Seinfeld / Curb Your Enthusiasm / The Office)

This time I’m letting Allan Havey talk. I was introduced to Allan way back in the days when there were two cable stations devoted to comedy: The Comedy Channel and HA! In short order, they combined to form a single entity known as – you guessed it – Comedy Central. If you were watching back then, you may remember a quirky talk show called NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, and if you do, then like myself, you presumably also remember Allan. That’s not to say that he hasn’t been continuing to work since then. In addition to being a well-respected stand-up comedian – perhaps you’ve seen one of his many appearances on Letterman, or maybe his HBO special – he’s more recently become recognized for his work as an actor. For me, it was particularly interesting watching his acting career evolve, having known him from that earlier incarnation of his career, but he’s really mixed it up a lot over the past few decades, doing both comedy and drama in relatively equal measure. Perhaps you remember him from playing Lou Avery on MAD MEN or Karl Allard on BILLIONS. Maybe his face stands out to you because you saw him on SEINFELD or CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. If you’re a Prime Video aficionado, you could’ve seen him on THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE or BOSCH. Or you could’ve seen him on GOOD LUCK CHARLIE, like my daughter did. Most recently, however, the best place to catch Allan has been on Peacock: in addition to having done a couple of episodes of THE OFFICE in  2013, he’s also part of the recurring ensemble cast of THE PAPER, playing Marv Putnam, the CEO of the company that owns The Toledo Truth Teller. In addition, Allan’s got his own YouTube channel – @allanhaveycomedy – and he’s got a continuing series of videos called “Best Stand-Up Advice.” He’s up to 43 of them so far, and the overwhelming majority of them are under three minutes in length, but they’re all worth a watch. To be honest, I could’ve spent a full hour just talking about NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, but I tried to mix things up as much as possible during the course of the conversation, and I think it’s a fun one. All right, that’s probably enough of an intro. It’s time to let Allan Havey talk.