As a young stand-up comedian, Judd Apatow, who now reigns as Hollywood's hottest comedy creator ( The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked up, Superbad), says he always dreamed of performing at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival.
"But I wasn't good enough," the self-deprecator says. "I only became a writer/director to find a different path to Montreal."
Total blarney, but a good yarn to introduce a guy who this week will take his place among the festival's superstars as the recipient of its first Comedy Person of the Year award. (He's also in Montreal to screen his new stoner comedy Pineapple Express and to introduce a midnight arrangement tomorrow of stand-ups, called Apatow for Destruction, featuring his major star, Canadian Seth Rogen, Russell Brand ( Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Craig Robinson ( The Office).
From his office in Los Angeles, the married father of two talks about his weird, wonderful journey to become the king of geek comedy.
As a young man, did you honestly really suck at stand-up?
I started when I was 17, so I really didn't have anything to talk about - except high school and some bad sexual experiences. Now, I'm 40 so I talk about being an adult and my bad sexual experiences.
I don't think your wife would be happy to hear you say that.
It's all me. Trust me. I'm the problem.
How much of your own life inspires the movie scripts you've written, say You Don't Mess With the Zohan, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin?
Sometimes you write a movie because you understand the feeling. Unfortunately, I understood the feeling of the 40-year-old virgin. Although I wasn't 40 [when I lost my virginity] I understood his panic. I was in high school when it happened, but that doesn't mean things went well...
In Knocked Up, everything that happens in the last act in the hospital happened when my wife [Leslie Mann]and I had our last child. Our doctor left town. And we had to use a different doctor, who kept yelling at us.
How'd you make the transition from flailing stand-up comic to TV writer (on The Larry Sanders Show) to movie mogul?
It's hard to explain anything that's happened. I always wanted to make movies with the funny people I admired. Those would be Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Jack Black and people like that.
I found it difficult to get the studios to make the type of movies I wanted to make. So I went back to television, made Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared. From there, I just decided to collaborate with a lot of the writers/directors/actors from those shows. So the director of Superbad was Greg Mottola [ Undeclared] Seth [also Undeclared]and Evan Goldberg wrote Superbad . I find it easier to work with people who I'm familiar with and have a good rapport. Seth is the inspiration for much of my work. I met Seth when he was 16. He came up to me and said, 'Let's make movies that show how me and my friends talk.' We're just trying to find a way to show how a certain part of the world behaves. About folks who might be nerds, but with a heart and humanity that is similar to a lot of the people we admire.
How'd you come up with the movie title Pineapple Express?
It's a weather system and I guess at some point, they name pot after anything. The weather system is a legend in the movie because it creates the conditions for some good weed. I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounded good.
What makes a good comedian?
People don't need to be famous to be funny. If someone makes me laugh, I think, why shouldn't they be the star of the movie? I don't need the biggest star in the world. But having said that, the guys who are the real superstars - John C. Reilly, [Will]Ferrell, Adam Sandler - they're stars for a reason. They're good because they're good. They're not good because they're famous.
Montreal's Just for Laughs festival continues through Sunday ( http://www.hahaha.com).
Gayle MacDonald