Sitting backstage at the Groundlings Theater, Mikey Day is home.
“Every accomplishment I’ve had is from the Groundlings,” says Day, a 29-year-old from Orange who’s spent a good part of the past decade as a student, writer and performer at the famed improvisational comedy troupe in Hollywood.
And with “Groundlings Space Camp,” the new main stage show that opens this weekend, Day can add director to his Groundlings credits, too.
So it’s no surprise to hear him talk of the camaraderie he feels within the well-worn walls of the theater on Melrose Avenue.
“All of the Groundlings you meet, you’re like, ‘You’re like me!’ You were that kid in high school, too!'” Day says.
Or, as Day eventually explains, that kid in elementary school, where a love for comedy and a crush on a cute girl helped the comic-to-be find a future career: as a Groundling, as an actor on TV series on MTV, Showtime and NBC, and later this fall, with Jay Leno’s new show, too.
But first, let’s find out a little more about that schoolboy love, shall we?
Class clowning
“I remember as a sixth grader, my best friend and I had a big crush on our teacher,” Day says, explaining that the girl he liked was actually a woman. “She was super cute. So we made little plays, and one of us would play our teacher, and one of us would play everyone else.
(If you’re reading this, Miss Lewis, of Panorama Elementary School circa 1990, he’s talking about you.)
Their plays, which they were allowed to do in class every few weeks, were usually inspired by people at school who they’d imagine doing all kinds of goofy stuff, Day says.
“We’d have (Miss Lewis) do karate, because it was stupid,” he says. “It involved a lot of falling down.”
It was fun, and while his teacher wasn’t a realistic crush, he did like the attention the sketches got him.
“A lot of performing is motivated by girls,” Day notes.
At El Modena High School a few years later, he stuck with it, acting in school plays and getting elected student body president because the student government performed at many school assemblies.
As a theater student at UCLA, Day started writing longer comedies, eventually putting on a trilogy called “Secure the Crown,” a surreal spoof on medieval palace intrigues.
After graduating in 2002, he did the typical would-be actor thing: head shots, a manager, and off to endless auditions.
And, like many an actor before him, he struggled for some time, doing tutoring and babysitting to pay the bills, pawning things like his DVD collection to make rent, and tapping the charity of his parents to cover an endless stream of parking tickets.
First success
An audition for a new MTV show, “Nick Cannon Presents Wild ‘n Out,” turned into his first series job in 2005, performing on a show that pitted teams of improv actors against each other in comedy games. Among the mostly African-American cast, Day stood out.
“I was the skinny white kid from Orange and now I’m rapping with (guest host) Snoop Dogg – only on this show could that happen,” Day says.
He did a turn on a Showtime comedy series called “The Underground,” and then in 2008 landed his biggest gig yet, co-starring on the NBC sitcom “Kath & Kim” with Molly Shannon, Selma Blair and John Michael Higgins.
“I was a little nervous – I mean very nervous – but everyone was so cool,” Day says of the auditions that landed the part. Then on the show, “I’d be thinking, ‘I’m doing a scene with Molly Shannon, I get to kiss Selma Blair – what is happening!?!'”
Though the series did only so-so in the ratings and with critics, and was not renewed after its first season wrapped up earlier this year, it was good experience, and a good paycheck, too. “It’s cool that if you need something you can buy it,” Day says of the way “Kath & Kim” changed his life.
Through all of that, the Groundlings remained a constant, the place he’d write sketches and perform between TV jobs, and the place where one sketch he co-created and videotaped in the alley behind the theater turned into a viral video hit.
“David Blaine Street Magic” stars Day and fellow Groundling Michael Naughton as two high-strung guys who stumble upon a David Blaine character, played by Groundling Mitch Silpa, who proceeds to freak them out with his tricks.
“Someone said you should put that online,” Day says. “I knew of YouTube, but I’d never put anything on it. And I remember calling Naughton (soon after) and I was like, ‘Dude, this has 30,000 views, is this normal?'”
To date, the original “David Blaine Street Magic” has 24.6 million views on YouTube; two sequels have a combined 18 million more and a fourth video is in the works.
“It was cool to experience that and see how a viral video works,” he says.
Always come home
Earlier this year, Day acted in a main stage show called “Groundlings, In The Study, With The Candlestick,” playing characters including a dim-witted applicant at the Cheesecake Factory, a macho gun-happy cop, a male model with runway difficulties, and a dude who gets totally freaked out at the IMAX show.
On stage, he’s as manic and unhinged as he is polite and soft-spoken in person. The show overall was funnier than the typical episode of ‘Saturday Night Live,” a destination for many former Groundlings including Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz and Kristen Wiig.
“Groundlings Space Camp” opened Friday, July 31, and represents a new gig for Day, his first main show directing assignment.
“It’s up to the director to figure out what sketches to have in the three-month run,” he says. “It’s a very creative position, which is why I like it so much, because you’re giving notes, and you have a lot of input.
“And it’s fun because they’re your friends and peers.”
Next month, he starts another new job, working on “The Jay Leno Show,” the former “Tonight Show” host’s Monday-Friday new comedy show.
“I’m going to be writing and directing my own videos, and performing in them too, and I’m super-excited about it,” Day says. “There’s a lot of buzz and I think people are very intrigued and excited about what he’s going to be doing.
“Knock on wood they’ll keep me around for a while.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com
