He’s been George W. Bush, a wannabe cheerleader, Ted
Kazinsky, Alex Trebek and even Dr. Evil’s cohort, but tonight
Will Ferrell will try his hand at something new ““ horror.
The Saturday Night Live veteran will be performing live in
“Never Bet the Devil Your Head” at Royce Hall. After
leaving the show last May, Ferrell has shed his SNL skin and is
molting into bigger and, hopefully, better things.
But currently brewing in Ferrell’s cauldron is
tonight’s “Never Bet the Devil Your Head” reading
of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Cask of Amontillado.” Fans
shouldn’t expect a night of sketch comedy though, this show
is aiming to scare the bejeezus out of you. Yet with an actor who
can effortlessly don personas from Janet Reno to Terrence, the
homeless, nude model, you never know what you’re going to
get.
“I had a notion of dressing up like Edgar Allen Poe, but
we’ll see what Hal lets me do,” Ferrell said.
Since leaving SNL to pursue his film career, Ferrell will have
his first performance in front of a larger audience tonight.
“There really is no duplicating the energy of a live
show,” Ferrell said. “Evoking an immediate response
““ there just isn’t anything like it.”
Though film is what Ferrell is currently digging his claws into,
his love of the stage has led him to work with SNL writer Adam
McKay to put together a touring stage show within the next
year.
“It’ll be something along the lines of SNL
characters with some original work ““ maybe we can make it
slightly political and do some stuff that we can’t do on
SNL,” he said.
He and McKay have also written two scripts: “Anchor
Man,” in which Ferrell is set to star as a veteran local TV
anchor, and another film that Ferrell says Paramount has made very
clear they won’t be producing any time soon.
Among his other projects, Ferrell recently filmed “Old
School,” set to be released Feb. 21, with Vince Vaughn and
Luke Wilson on the UCLA campus. The shoot did allow Ferrell, who
studied broadcast journalism at USC, to spend some time on the
Bruin campus; he said that he actually wanted to go to UCLA but
didn’t get in.
Ferrell also said he’ll soon start filming
“Elf,” directed by Jon Favreau, which Ferrell described
as a holiday movie about a human raised by elves who find out
he’s not really an elf ““ sort of a “Tarzan”
goes to the North Pole.
“I have a bunch of things that are in development, which
in Hollywood can lead to nowhere, but hopefully will come
about,” Ferrell said.
But with more and more comedians constantly doing meatier, more
serious films in the vein of Adam Sandler in “Punch Drunk
Love,” will performing in an arts event like
“Devil” lead to more serious roles for Ferrell?
“I don’t know if I would have been sought out for
this if I hadn’t known Hal (Willner, the creator of the
show), but I would love to end up doing something like
“˜Punch-Drunk Love’ and branch out into different genres
like drama.”
But the actor’s roots remain in live sketch comedy,
getting his start in the L.A.-based improv troupe “The
Groundlings.” When asked if he misses working on SNL, he
doesn’t even hesitate.
“No, I don’t miss it, not in a bad way or anything
““ I don’t miss all the work, staying up all night.
It’s like your cramming for a final every week,”
Ferrell said. “But you think of some of the funnier sketches
at 5 a.m., but that’s part of the fun of it too. But after
seven years, I felt done with it.”
Ferrell was thought by many to be the nucleus of the show, and
with him gone, many fear SNL’s cast won’t be the
same.
“I’ve seen all three of the shows, I think
they’re still kind of finding their way,” Ferrell said
of the new cast. “But the show always is what it is ““
it’s uneven at best. The shows have ranged from what I
didn’t think was very strong, to really good.”
Tonight Ferrell will work with a different cast of performers,
ranging from Lou Reed to Harry Shearer, which sadly for him, means
he won’t be able to go trick-or-treating.
“Halloween was always a great time for me,” Ferrell
said. “I grew up in an apartment complex with a whole bunch
of units, so I would fill up an entire pillowcase full of
candy.”
But the comedian had other ideas in store for his
trick-or-treaters.
“I’m handing out pamphlets (on) how to properly use
a handgun.”