Robert Smigel

Robert Smigel Biography

Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. He also co-wrote both Hotel Transylvania films and You Don't Mess with the Zohan, all starring Adam Sandler.

Early life

Smigel was born in New York City. His father is Dr. Irwin Smigel, DDS, "The Father of Cosmetic Dentistry", and the founder and president of the American Society for Dental Aesthetics. His mother is Lucia Smigel, president and CEO of Supersmile. He is Jewish and frequently went to Jewish summer camp. He attended Cornell University, studying pre-dental and graduated from New York University in 1983 with a degree in Political Science.

Smigel began developing his comedic talent at The Players Workshop in Chicago, where he studied improvisation with Josephine Forsberg. Fellow students included Bob Odenkirk. Smigel was also a member of the Chicago comedy troupe "All You Can Eat" in the early 1980s.

Career

Smigel first established himself as a writer on Saturday Night Live by joining the writing staff when Lorne Michaels returned as executive producer for the 1985-1986 season. Smigel was hired after then-SNL producers Al Franken and Tom Davis saw Smigel in a Chicago sketch show. After the 1985-1986 season proved to be a disappointment with critics, in the ratings, and with Brandon Tartikoff (who was planning to have SNL canceled by the last episode of season 11 due to its sliding ratings), Michaels fired most of the cast and writers, retained the cast and writers who were standouts during the otherwise dismal season (Smigel being one of them), and hired new ones for the 1986-1987 season. This is when Smigel began to write more memorable sketches, including one where host William Shatner urged worshipful attendees at a Star Trek convention to "get a life." Smigel rarely appeared on screen, though he was credited as a featured player in the early 1990s and played a recurring character in the Bill Swerski's Superfans sketches.

While on a writers' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987-88 season, Smigel wrote for an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Conan O'Brien called Happy Happy Good Show.

Smigel co-wrote Lookwell with Conan O'Brien for NBC. The pilot never went to series, but it has become a cult hit and has screened live at "The Other Network", a festival of un-aired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret, featuring live and taped intros by Smigel. Smigel later became the first head writer at Late Night with Conan O'Brien, where he created numerous successful comedy bits, including one where Smigel performed only the lips of public figures which were superimposed on photos of the actual people. (This technique was pioneered on the Clutch Cargo cartoon series as a cost-saving measure, and was known as Syncro-Vox.)

In 1996, Smigel wrote and performed on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show, a primetime sketch comedy program on ABC. Despite its premature end, the show provided Smigel the opportunity to debut his first cartoon, The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Upon the show's cancellation, Smigel continued developing more cartoon ideas the following summer and would begin airing them on Saturday Night Live under the TV Funhouse banner. Smigel would later claim, "My whole career came out of the impulse to do cartoons on The Dana Carvey Show."

Smigel's most famous creation, however, would be the foul-mouthed puppet Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, who mercilessly mocks celebrities and others in the style of a Borscht Belt comedian. This character debuted on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in February 1997 and would continue to make appearances on the show, as well as others, for many years to come.

Smigel continued to establish himself on Saturday Night Live by producing short animated segments under the title TV Funhouse, which usually satirizes public figures and popular culture. It spawned a TV show on Comedy Central featuring a mix of puppets, animation, and short sketches, although only eight episodes were aired (during the winter of 2000-2001). Smigel occasionally appears in films (usually alongside SNL veterans such as Adam Sandler). According to interviews, Smigel helped punch up the scripts for Little Nicky and The Wedding Singer. Smigel acted alongside fellow SNL writer Bob Odenkirk in Wayne's World 2 as a nerd backstage at an Aerosmith concert. His contributions were uncredited.

In 2000, he voiced a sage bulldog in Little Nicky. Smigel, along with Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow, wrote the script for the film You Don't Mess with the Zohan in which Smigel played Yosi, an Israeli electronics salesman. Smigel is also one of the executive producers of the film, which is a first for him despite his frequent collaborations with Sandler.

It was reported in 2006 that Smigel and Adam Sandler were working on an animated sitcom for Fox called Animals. Fox has not made any official statement regarding the show. Additionally, Smigel played a gay mailman in the Adam Sandler film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and Yari the Mechanic in the "Mister Softee" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

He voiced Ray and a parody of the Star Wars character, Emperor Palpatine, in the first episode of Robot Chicken Star Wars, as well as the monster 100 in the episode of the same name of Aqua Unit Patrol Squad on Cartoon Network's [adult swim].

Presently living in New York, he co-wrote and co-executive produced the films Hotel Transylvania (2012) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015), in which he voiced Marty, a fake version of Dracula, and Harry Three-Eye, respectively. In the fith season of the FX show , Louie, Smigel received a story credit on the episode "Cop Story", as a similar incident as to what appears in the show actually happened to him, down to the cop crying in his apartment while Smigel went out, found the missing gun and carried it home, terrified that anyone would notice. Michael Rapaport's character wasn't based on the man Smigel knew, however, since all Smigel ever told Louis C.K. about was the gun itself.

Smigel created, wrote, executive produced, and starred as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in The Jack and Triumph Show, alongside Jack McBrayer in 2015. It was announced in January 2016 that Smigel would be starring as Triumph in Triumph's Election Special 2016 on Hulu the following February.

Personal life

Smigel has a wife, Michelle, and has a child with autism. They serve on the board of New York Collaborates for Autism (NYCA), a non-profit organization founded in 2003 to address the needs of individuals and families who are living with autism.

Recurring characters on SNL

Carl Wollarski, from "Bill Swerski's Superfans"
Hank Fielding, with "The Moron's Perspective" on Weekend Update
One of the Hub's Gyros employees (aka the "You like-ah the Juice?" guys)
Avi, the "Sabra Price is Right" announcer
Bighead, in "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoons

Celebrity impressions

Alan Dershowitz (on SNL)
Woody Allen (on SNL)
Al Sharpton (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Al Franken (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
William Ginsburg (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Don McLean (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Lorne Michaels (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Pat Robertson (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Michael Gross (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Thomas Mesereau (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)
Sinbad (on SNL TV Funhouse cartoon)

Bob Dole (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Gene Shalit (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Joel Siegel (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Bob Ross (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Rip Torn (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Bill Walton (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Richard Nixon (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Sam Donaldson (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Hussein of Jordan (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Quentin Tarantino (on The Dana Carvey Show)
Ringo Starr (on The Dana Carvey Show)

Recurring characters on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
"Clutch Cargo" celebrity interviews (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don King, Bob Dole, etc.)
One of the "Nicknames for Conan" guys (aka the "Conan the Barbarian" guys)
One of the "Ameri-clan" guys (with Doug Dale, Louis CK and Dino Stamatopoulos)
Voice of "The Late Night Emergency Guest" mannequin
Gibberish Speaking Ronald Reagan on the Phone
Ira, Conan's publicist

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985-2013	Saturday Night Live	Various	Writer, producer
1988	Superman 50th Anniversary Special	The Brainwave
1991	Lookwell		Television pilot; co-writer
1993	Wayne's World 2	Concert Nerd
1993	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Also writer and producer
1995	Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies	Phillip	1 episode
1995	Billy Madison	Mr. Oblaski
1996	The Dana Carvey Show	Various	Writer
1998	Tomorrow Night	Mail Room Guy with Glasses
1998	The Wedding Singer	Andre
1999	LateLine	Pearce Dummy	Episode: "Pearce on Conan"
2000	Little Nicky	Mr. Beefy (voice)	Episode: "Pearce on Conan"
2000	ShortCuts	Clive Barnes	Episode: "Food"
2000-2001	TV Funhouse	Various (voices)	Also creator, writer, and producer
2002	Punch-Drunk Love	Walter the Dentist
2002	It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)
2003-2007	Crank Yankers	Lawer / Samir / John Tierney	Three episodes
2004	Space Ghost Coast to Coast	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Episode: "Dreams"
2005	Arrested Development	Motherboy Member	Episode: "Motherboy XXX"
2005	"Ass Like That"	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Music video
2006-2015	Night of Too Many Stars	Himself / Triumph the Insult Comic Dog	Five television specials; also writer
2007	Robot Chicken: Star Wars	Palpatine Parody / Ray (voices)
2007	I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry	Mailman
2008	You Don't Mess with the Zohan	Yosi	Also co-writer and producer
2008	Lewis Black's Root of All Evil	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Episode: "NRA vs PETA"
2009-2010	The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	3 episodes
2010	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	One Hundred	Episode: "One Hundred"
2011	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Yari	Episode: "Mister Softee"
2011	Jack and Jill		Executive producer
2011-2016	Conan	Various	11 episodes
2012	Hotel Transylvania	Fake Dracula / Marty (voices)	Also co-writer and executive producer
2012	This Is 40	Barry
2012-2015	Bob's Burgers	Security Guard	2 episodes
2014	Comedy Underground with Dave Attell	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	1 episode
2015	Park Bench with Steve Buscemi	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Episode: "Every Dog Has Its Day"
	The Jack and Triumph Show	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Also creator, writer, and executive producer
	Pixels	White House Reporter #2
	Louie		Episode: "Cop Story"; story
	The Jim Gaffigan Show	Cory	Episode: "Red Velvet If You Please"
	Hotel Transylvania 2	Marty / Harry Three-Eye / Navigator (voices)	Also co-writer and executive producer
2016	Triumph's Election Special 2016	Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (voice)	Television special; also writer
2016	Portlandia	Jarvis	Episode: "Lance Is Smart"