While best known for his work with The Lonely Island—from jizzing his pants to (not) being on a boat with bandmates Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer—Jorma Taccone is a versatile actor and writer who has spent the last decade carving out a name for himself as a director.
“The lines were really blurred when The Lonely Island worked together at first,” Taccone told me at this year’s SXSW. “Akiva always wanted to be a director, Andy always wanted to be on camera, and I was always in between. Saturday Night Live finally gave us these defined roles, which was a little weird in the beginning. But once I started directing the ‘MacGruber’ sketches, it wasn’t a huge jump to directing from there. But I definitely learned directing and editing from watching Akiva.”
Taccone soon turned “MacGruber” into his first feature film and has since directed several Lonely Island/SNL shorts, Brooklyn 99, Parks & Recreation, Up All Night, and his most recent feature, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which he co-directed with Schaffer. Taccone directed the pilot of the Tracy Morgan-starring The Last O.G., which airs tonight on TBS. Hit the jump for eight things he’s gleaned from working in comedy—with your best friends or otherwise.
— As Told To Andy Young