John Ross Bowie
written by Ken Carlson
"I started with UCB in 1998 at the behest of Andy Secunda," said actor John Ross Bowie, "with whom I went to college. He thought I would be good at improv, which was a medium that terrified me. I'd had one bad experience with theatre games in college that soured me on improv entirely. When I started with UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade), I was working a job at Pricewaterhousecoopers, was in the dying throes of a 9-year relationship, and my punk band had just broken up. I was in a bad place. UCB made me realize that I wanted to act, and that I had to stop being a pussy about it. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say they saved my life."
Bowie is a commercial actor from New York who moved to Los Angeles. His face has been seen by millions through the broad, synthetic medium of television. His name is known and respected by far fewer in the smaller, more intimate realm of improv. As one of a growing number of UCB alumni to buck the odds and find financial success through acting, Bowie, (pronounced like WOW, not WHOA) has created a persona, balancing hubris and insecurity, to land roles ranging from geeky to sinister. But to best encapsulate how he's accomplished so much – including getting cast in so many ads that he's lost count, (he guesses between 40 & 45.), perhaps it's best to ask a friend, colleague, and fellow UCB product, Jackie Clarke. "In addition to being smart and funny," says Jackie, "John is a stage-Jew. Which means he looks Jewish but isn't so he can perform on Jewish holidays."
I spoke to Bowie over the phone from his home in the Los Angeles area. John was in for the evening. He had just put his ten month old baby down for the night, just like plenty of other parents in different parts of the country in a typically tranquil setting. He enjoys the comfort of married life and fatherhood just like other dads. Of course, his idea of a big night out, rather than going to see a movie or live show, is to hire a sitter so he and his wife, can go out and perform before a live audience at UCB. Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of police helicopters circling overhead, which he says is a weekly occurrence.
Bowie has found the balancing act between family and acting pretty easy, as he puts it, "It's not like my career has me shooting in Tunisia for 8 months. My wife, Jamie, and I are both actors, so we juggle the baby but also have a lot of free time on our hands. Today we both had voice over auditions, which meant a lot of driving around the valley and switching cars so as to not wake the baby".
"The L.A. commercial scene," said Bowie, "really isn't more active than the New York scene – I like how we're calling it a scene, as if it's CBGB's in the late 70s. I got a couple big campaigns out here, but there are plenty of ad agencies on the East Coast and a lot of talented people there. Now the television and film production scene, that's still L.A.'s game. Suck it, "Law and Order"."
Bowie's recent work has been for appearances on CBS' "Big Bang Theory", HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm", and a couple of movies that he hopes will avoid the straight path to Blockbuster. But, it's his ad work that has been the primary source of his income going back to a Sprint ad, when he became a SAG member ten years ago this summer. He remembers laughing at the ad's concept which seemed ridiculous at the time but is so commonplace now. "A cell phone that could bring you the internet? I remember thinking, 'Who would need that?'"
For those of us on the east coast, we missed his portrayal of Breakfast for the fast food chain, Jack in the Box. "I was dressed up as a breakfast sandwich," he said. "I had Styrofoam bacon strapped to my back." The campaign featured television spots, radio, and billboard ads; one billboard he remembers across from a Home Depot with big orange letters in Spanish. While it didn't say John Ross Bowie, he considered it humbling to say the least.
His recent Progressive TV spot, part of the long-running campaign with Stephanie Courtney, was a standard experience which he walked me through briefly.
The audition process featured two callbacks, doing a little shtick, meeting with the director, ad agency personnel, and the client's marketing department. They like to know a little about your background since you're representing a product, but not as much as if you were a spokesman. If all goes well, the head of the agency calls, not the receptionist. The ad rarely takes longer than one day to shoot.
If there is one factor Bowie points to more than anything else for his success is his improv background. "Crucial. It can't be overstated. It requires subtle gestures, an understated approach."
While improvising in ads isn't entirely new, like Jonathan Winters' Hefty trash bag ads in the 70s for example, Bowie points to the current trend of ads being quieter, more like a Christopher Guest movie, not a Carrot Top screaming session.
At some auditions, Bowie has found that an agency will have half an idea, look to the actors to fill in the blanks, "Perhaps more than it should. Of course, I'm not a copy writer."
As an improviser who is used to being paired with other actors, as opposed to a stand-up who works solo, the experience of working with others is important. One of the footholds of improv and also one of the traps is the necessity to collaborate. In a small space, like an audition, if you're teamed with someone who is drowning, they'll probably take you down with them. Unfortunately, once in a while, you're paired with a bad egg or a loose cannon and there is only so much you can do. Bowie recalls a lost chance to work with documentary director, Errol Morris for an ad because of that.
"He (Morris) doesn't typically work with actors," said Bowie. "He works with real people."
For this investment bank spot, both guys in suits for the audition, the other actor immediately pulled out a cell phone and started blabbering about buying a third world country. Morris covered his eyes. "Dude, you are blowing this for both of us," Bowie thought at the time as a great opportunity evaporated right before his eyes, "and there it goes..."
"John was the coach of my first (and only) Harold team, Last Day of School," said Neil Campbell comedy writer, performer, and Artistic Director at UCB. "He really guided us from being a raw and inconsistent team to being a confident and consistently strong one. We're still the only Harold team at UCBTLA to be promoted off of Harold Night and given our own weekly show. As both a coach and an improviser, he's smart, specific, and able to communicate complicated ideas in a clear, simple, and truthful way."
If you're a fan of sweeping generalization – and, aren't we all? – the roots of the typical stand-up comic are found in the smart aleck class clown who sat in the back of the class, whereas the improv performer was in the marching band or stage crew. While both seek a sense of belonging and wander into their respective club looking for something missing in their lives, much as many have in standard theatre or church, the stand-up chooses the singular, more lonely path; the place where Jonathan Katz describes the motivation as, "not getting the shit beaten out of you night after night."
Whereas improv hinges on more of a group identity. Name identity comes only when the improviser is able to step out on their own in spotlighted roles like Rob Cordrry on the Daily Show. What does that mean for those who have honed a career, like Bowie, in improv. Maybe it's best illustrated in his own words from his one-man show when he, a former member of a punk band who is haplessly drifting through his day job in the corporate world and meets someone else in his office who actually shares some common musical interests, desperately reaches out to him in conversation, 'Will you be my friend?' "I only performed it about ten times," Bowie recalls, "Igot a manager off it, and stopped doing it. I'll do another one at some point, but it's not as fun for me as real collaboration. Could I sound like more of a pretentious hippie gasbag?"
At UCB New York, Bowie made a name for himself as a member of Naked Babies, a sketch troupe, along with Rob Corddry, Brian Huskey and Seth Morris. While the group hasn't performed regularly in years, Bowie says they still get together to improvise. "We just make each other laugh consistently, I think that's the only secret to keeping a sketch group together. Or a marriage."
Bowie is also a self-proclaimed movie nut which helped him succeed in another popular UCB show, Feature Feature. Movies were forced on him at an early age by his father. He admits the subtle messages from Casablanca were lost on him as a six year old, but he enjoyed them none the less. While the show wasn't as long-running as others, like The Swarm, it had crowds lining the street coming in to see it and was, as Bowie put it, an amazing experience. Every Saturday night for a couple of years, he'd don a suit and tie, put on a killer show, drink like a 20-something, and perform with his future wife.
At the center of the UCB culture is classes through the theatre and Harold group jam sessions outside of it. The names of improv teachers or coaches there are bandied about like action figures or baseball cards [You got Delaney for Level Three? Awesome!].
Some of them work with peers as equals, others work with beginners, much like T-ball instructors, forced to endure endless scenes without wincing too much. Where Bowie may be best known within the UCB community is as a teacher; a far cry from his initial experience as a 22 year-old high school teacher. At that time, he looked younger than some of the kids and was unprepared to handle the failing system that surrounded him. With UCB, his patience and experience have helped him build a reputation, and i'Õs a practice he enjoys.
" I love it," Bowie said. "I perform better when I'm teaching. If I'm part of the experience, talking it through all week, I'll put on a better show."
"John is probably one of my first improv crushes from UCB NYC," says writer and actor, Jackie Clarke. "He's smart without being a show-off. Audiences immediately respond to him because he's as comfortable talking about Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" as he is amateur pornography."
UCB had been in New York about two years when Bowie started taking classes with another young actor, Rob Corddry. Bowie recalls seeing fellow actors try stuff that was ill advised then; ballsy, not like anything else. Since then, like everything else, it has changed dramatically.
Has it become too cultish? Too mainstream? What's clear is that its impact has been enormous, producing cast members for SNL, movies and so on. The theatre in New York and L.A. is a constant source for casting agents and directors. As Bowie points out, "These are not flukes," and regarding the basic idea of improv, making stuff up without a net, "It's still a wonderful place to fail."
Ken Carlson is editor of the comedians magazine and a regular contributor to The Hartford Courant.
For more on John, visit JohnRossBowie.com or see his reel on Vimeo.com.