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ACCORDING TO JIM From bestselling books and his own TV show to the crowds packing his current North American tour, Northwest Indiana native Jim Gaffigan is riding his hilarious brand of self-effacing humor to the top of the comedy scene. by J.P. ANdersoN photography by erIC LeVIN Jim GaffiGan may claim he's "not interesting," but don't lis- ten to him: His nuanced take on navigating the trials of everyday life as a food-obsessed father and husband has made him one of the past decade's undisputed kings of comedy. In the past couple years alone, the Elgin-born, Indiana-raised comic has sold out Madison Square Garden; performed for Pope Francis and an audi- ence of more than a million in Philadelphia; released his second New York Times bestseller, Food: A Love Story, and his fourth com- edy special, Obsessed; and, with wife Jeannie, created The Jim Gaffigan Show for TV Land—all while raising five kids in Manhattan. With the show's second season just wrapped, we caught up with Gaffigan in an exclusive interview in the midst of his national tour to talk about being "unsexy," his passion for deep dish and Italian beef, and just what it means to be from the Midwest. You're starring, you're writing, you're running The Jim Gaffigan Show with your wife Jeannie—how are you bal- ancing it all? We're doing a really horrible job... [Seriously,] My wife has been my writing partner for like 15–20 years now, and it seems like it would be a horrible thing to do something like [a TV show] with your spouse or partner, but it's our passion. If we didn't have kids it would be no problem, but the fact that we have five kids really makes us kind of sit and go "Are we lunatics for doing this?" But it's also good for the kids to see us engaged in something we're passionate about. How has the show evolved since it started last year? Jeannie and I started with this idea that initially was at NBC, and then it went to CBS, we did two rounds, and going through that network process means the show we're doing right now has really grown so much away from what initially was the networks' idea of what they wanted. Even when people hear "comedian, father, five kids," they think the show is going to be like Full House, and it's not. The network wanted it to be like that; we never wanted it to be like that. We ended up gearing it more towards interesting, compelling stories that we wanted to do. Because, you know, I love television, and I wanted to make sure it was a show that I would want to watch. We live in a world that is so much about being your best self, and almost hiding your flaws, but your show is almost the opposite of that: You're putting all of the flaws of this character front and center. What inspired that? My comedy is very self-effacing, and I think that we live in a day and age where people's Facebook posts and Instagram posts almost emulate a star's existence, when the reality is that we're mostly dealing with frustration and hardship. So I think it's a nice break to look at some of the dark sides of ourselves. In the episode "Ugly," you're reading for the part of a "balding, pasty, repulsive troll of a man," and everyone's response is "Oh totally, you could totally do that," even your wife. What does it take to write about a character based on yourself that lives in that kind of place? Part of me thinks we exist in this world where the entertainment industry is so fancy. People do a movie, and then they're escorted into a room and they drink Champagne with, you know, George Clooney, when the reality is it's just constant navigating the humiliation of life, which, you find that whether you're a pipe fitter or a DJ; yeah, it seems pretty glamorous but—and the whole "Ugly" episode I think is just, we live in a very superficial culture and for every Kim Kardashian moment there's a lot of awkward- ness for everyone else. Is it liberating to own that? I've lived with it for a while, as a character actor. Like as a comedian, you go on stage and the audience tells you exactly how you come across. I mean, I played football in high school and some in college, but I get cast as "nerdy guy." You get michiganavemag.com 111