Nick Kroll, Comedy’s Ultimate Tool, Is Actually a Pretty Decent Guy
One of the first things to pop up in a Google search of Nick Kroll is“Nick Kroll is a douche.” In his case, it’s literal: in last summer’sanimated movieSausage Party, which also starred Seth Rogen, he was thevoice of an actual feminine-hygiene product. Over a round of OldFashioneds—rye whiskey with bitters and an orange slice, light on thesugar to evade hangovers—at the Smyth hotel, in New York’s Tribecaneighborhood, I ask if it’s typecasting. “Seth was just onHoward Sterntalking about the movie, and Howard asked him, ‘Who’s the douche anddoes he hate you for making him play one in the movie?’ Seth was verynice and said, ‘No, no, he’s a great guy!’ ” Kroll pauses, stirs hiscocktail, and reflects: “But I just managed to name-drop Seth Rogen andHoward Stern in the first 30 seconds of our conversation, which is apretty douche-y thing to do.”
Kroll has played pushy, chauvinistic, and cluelessduuudes with comedicaplomb onParks and Recreation,New Girl, and his ownKroll Show, onComedy Central, which featured sketch characters like the gigolo/mediapersonality Bobby Bottleservice, “rich dick” Aspen Bruckenheimer, andthe P.R. flack Liz G., founder of PubLIZity, who is essentially thefemale equivalent of a douche. (“You know the type: that annoying womanwho is always drinking out of a big sippy cup and carries a bag that’sway too big for her.”) In October, he made his Broadway debut, inOh,Hello, in which he and fellow comedian and Georgetown University gradJohn Mulaney play grumpy old, well, douches reflecting on their lives inNew York. And next summer Netflix will releaseBig Mouth, an animatedseries chronicling Kroll’s pubescent misdeeds, which he co-created,co-wrote, and co-produced.
So it comes as a relief to know that, in the flesh, the 38-year-oldKroll seems like a pretty decent guy. He grew up “on the tough streetsof Rye, New York. So tough we didn’t even have our own tennis courtgrowing up!” His father is Jules Kroll, founder of Kroll Associates, acorporate-investigation firm that helped the Kuwaiti government locateSaddam Hussein’s secret assets. “He taught me how to seem like anintimidating guy who is actually a very sweet and loving man,” Krollsays.
At Georgetown, Kroll majored in history and minored in art and Spanish,but his passion was sketch comedy. He entered the Funniest Act on Campuscompetition his freshman year. His opening bit: “Go onstage and say,‘God, I thought I was going to be so nervous, but I’m actually quiterelaxed,’ and then piss my pants.” (He forgot the water balloon to putin his trousers, though, and bombed.) He graduated in 2001, and his 2002New Year’s resolution was to take classes with the Upright CitizensBrigade. A few years later, at an open-mike night, he introduced himselfto Bill Murray. “This guy’s my hero,” Kroll says. “He’s a god tocomedians. He’s like what cows are to Hindus if cows had improvised thebest parts ofCaddyshack.” Kroll persuaded Murray to watch his show,and Murray actually came—again, Kroll bombed.
A decade or so later, Kroll is so established as a comedic voice of hisgeneration that he’s even made the leap to serious acting, with adramatic role this month inLoving, a film about the 1967 Supreme Courtcase that invalidated laws banning inter-racial marriage. So, if Krollhas finally graduated from douche-dom, why is he currently single? (Heand Amy Poehler split up in 2015 after two years of dating.) Maybe girlsare just drawn to douches: “Once, I met Lindsay Lohan, and she said,‘We met before,’ which we hadn’t, but I thought it was a nice thing fora famous person to say. Later in the night, she ran back and said,‘You’re Bobby Bottleservice!’ We traded numbers and I texted her asBobby for a couple weeks. That was the perfect relationship.”
Video: Nick Kroll, Emoji Translator
