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One on one with Rob Corddry

Published Friday, March 09, 2007 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

I got the chance to talk to Rob Corddry last weekend at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Nice guy. As funny offstage as he is onstage.

Corddry stars in the new FOX sitcom, The Winner, alongside fellow Boston-bred comedian Lenny Clarke (who plays his father). Corddry cited another local for his sense of humor, his Weymouth North High School friend Raye LaPlante. “He was my best friend in high school. Raye LaPlante is probably one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life and I continue to steal from him,” Corddry told me. “We did our first play together, ‘Bye Bye Birdie.’ My first. His first and last. He played Conrad Birdie. I played Albert Peterson.” That was 1989. These days, LaPlante lives in Rockland and is a regional vice president for CIBER, while both Corddry and his younger brother, Nate, are both on primetime TV. He said he remains optimistic about his brother’s show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. “They’re getting pummeled, but I think they’re going to be back because The Black Donnellys did so poorly, ironically,” Corddry said. “They’ll probably be back and hopefully they’ll catch their stride next season.”

An edited version of this post appears in today's Boston Globe.