Before getting a gig as a cast member on Mr. Show With Bob and David or becoming Pete Hornberger, Liz Lemon’s right-hand man on 30 Rock, Scott Adsit studied improv at Columbia College Chicago and Second City. In the early 90s he spent his days wandering around Roscoe Village with comedy writer Dino Stamatopoulos (Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Moral Orel, Community) and a guitar in tow. The pair would find al fresco restaurants and pretend they worked there, then offer to play original tunes to diners until management eventually kicked them out. They’d then return to Stamatopoulos’s apartment—which Adsit remembers containing only a mattress, Simpsons toys from Burger King, and a bag of potatoes in the fridge—and write. The duo stuck together and moved to LA, where they turned their love for bits into fruitful careers.
In 1998 he moved to LA to make a TV show he cowrote with Stamatopoulos, Stephen Colbert, Robert Smigel, and Michael Stoyanov called Sometimes Live. It starred the five of them, along with Tina Fey, as a group of comedy writers working on a TV show that was kind of like Saturday Night Live (sound familiar?). The pilot didn’t get picked up—though the cast read the script for a live edition of the podcast Skull Juice last year—and so Adsit picked up any acting jobs he could.
Thu 3/30, 10:30 PM The Annoyance Theatre 851 W. Belmont cif20.org $15
Mama’s Boy With Scott Adsit Fri 3/31, 9 PM Stage 773 1225 W. Belmont cif20.0rg $20
