I Heart Toby Radloff!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame closes at five-thirty and then I made my way back over to Lakewood to meet Toby. I found the place and went inside, heart beating out of my chest. I was so nervous! I was also ridiculously early and then I had a fight with myself over whether to order something then or wait til Toby got there - I ended up totally shooting myself in the foot by overanalyzing it (as per usual) and getting the smallest thing in the shop, a Red Bull. As soon as I popped the top, Toby came in. It was awesome! He gave me a hug and said, "It’s nice to meet you." I was in nerd heaven! So, Red Bull popped, I offered to buy Toby a drink and he got a $4.00 smoothie. I had three dollars in cash. There’s a five dollar limit on credit cards. So I ordered a large iced coffee too. Guess who COULD NOT sleep that night? I should have just waited for him....

We sat on the couches in the front of the place and I got out my tape recorder. Toby is so fabulous! He’s fun to talk to, too. He gives a lot of detail about himself without much prodding, which is cool. Here are some excerpts from our conversation:

J: When you were doing "American Splendor", was it odd for you when Judah Freidlander was preparing for the role? Meaning, did you help him out at all?

T: I helped him a lot. I helped him a lot. I met Judah the first time ever in the restaurant of the Stouffer Tower Hotel and from there they had him cut his hair - he had that long, black, shoulder-length hair and they cut it so it looked almost like me and they had to dye it to match mine. He watched "Killer Nerd" and "Bride of Killer Nerd" and "Townies" and some of my MTV spots so he could learn my voice and they - Sherry Springer Berman and Robert [something] set the role up for him to play me, it was almost like he was my twin brother. And for Judah it was probably one of the best-known roles he’d ever done to that point ‘cause when he was in movies he’d only be in a movie for a few minutes so it was like the longest he’d been in a movie. He’s doing a movie that’s at Sundance now but it hasn’t opened here yet. I try to catch up with any movie that Judah Friedlander’s been in. And he does a lot of stand-up, I haven’t seen his stand-up because he was supposed to have made a couple of appearances here at the Improv but he had to cancel because of film commitments. And I’m on Judah’s website mailing list and he is to let me know when he comes to town again.

J: Well, how was it helping someone prepare to play you? Was it odd for you?

T: It was at first but I got used to it.

J: That’s cool. Have you seen "Napoleon Dynamite"?

T: I’ve seen it a few times, I bought the DVD. It’s an interesting film.

J: How do you think it compares to "Revenge of the Nerds"?

T: It’s more like a real-life story, because the guy really is a nerd. I think they used a bunch of students from Brigham Young to play the students. It has the feel of a low-budget, independent film rather than a big-budget film. But it has it’s own cult following, since it’s been out for about a year now. And the cult following came about from the way Twentieth Century Fox promoted it. So "Napoleon Dynamite" is a pretty successful film. I like John Heder, the guy that played Napoleon.

J: Cool. But it’s no "Revenge of the Nerds"?

T: It’s more like a real-life "Revenge of the Nerds".

J: And how many times did you say you’ve seen "Revenge of the Nerds"?

T: A little over 40.

J: And out of that, how many times did you drive to Toledo to go see it?

T: I did that three times. I drove my car. And even after it opened in Cleveland I drove to Toledo for the sake of driving to Toledo to go see it. I like going on road trips in the car.

J: Me too.

T: Yeah, and back then I was driving a gas-guzzling Oldsmobile but gasoline was a hell of a lot cheaper back then than it is now. But now I drive a Geo Metro that gets about 35 miles to the gallon, I’m happy with it.

J: Describe your relationship with Harvey (Pekar) now that Harvey’s retired. Do you see him
still?

T: Well, Harvey and Joyce lead a pretty much private life. All the publicity from "American Splendor" is behind them, although Harvey does make occasional appearances on college campuses.

J: You do that as well, don’t you?

T: Yeah, I was at Carnegie Mellon, I was at William and Mary in Virginia. Wayne Harold, the guy that did "Townies", has been setting up some stuff for me and I’ve got another guy at Case Western Reserve that’s setting up something for me in the fall. I’m going to be showing the original 1984 "Revenge of the Nerds" and donating an original "Revenge of the Nerds" movie poster that I’ve got hanging on my wall as a prize. I’m not gonna hang it in the apartment because I want to keep the apartment spotless.

J: And describe a typical appearance for you.

T: I basically talk about myself, I show a movie like "Townies" or "American Splendor", and when it’s over with I do a Q&A. At the Case Western one I gave iPods away. The student senate or student union or whatever got the iPods and asked me to give them away as door prizes.

J: Wow, I bet that was fun.

T: Yeah, I ended up giving away about 20 iPods. Now if only I could get an iPod for myself.

J: True!

T: Yeah. Well, anyway, "American Splendor" did well. I’ve known Harvey for 25 years almost. He started writing about me in the early 80's. I first appeared in "American Splendor #9" - it came out in about 1983 or 84 - and I was on the cover, talking about lentils and lent, which appeared in the movie, and inside I talked about a few other things and it led to my driving to Toledo, I told Harvey I saw an ad for "Revenge of the Nerds" and I wanted to go see it so bad but I was worried that it would not open in Cleveland.

J: And he and Joyce went with you at one point, didn’t they?

T: No, that was set up for the film. They did not go with me when I saw "Revenge of the Nerds". That was dramatized for the film.

J: Oh, my goodness. Now I’m embarrassed.

T: But I drove myself, I told Harvey about it. And that comment that Harvey made about the ethnic ghetto, Harvey mentioned that tongue-in-cheek to me but in the film his character expressed it in anger.

J: How long did it take to film?

T: About two months. They started shooting right after 9/11.

J: Wow. Did that change the atmosphere on the set at all?

T: A little. The contracts were signed before 9/11 happened, then 9/11 happened and they put a clause on the contracts saying that if there was a terrorist attack, that they were not responsible or something like that. And at the time there was a lot of fear that someone would crash airplanes into nuclear power plants or that al-Queda would somehow get ahold of an atomic bomb. But already almost four years have passed since 9/11 and Homeland Security is doing a really good job preventing another 9/11 from happening. They really made flying safer. I’ve done more flying since 9/11 than I did before it. I feel very safe flying.

J: Me too. When was the last time somebody recognized you on the street?

T: Couple days ago.

J: Does that happen a lot?

T: Off and on. It’s like, I could go to a state fair or I could go to a Wal-mart or something, no one would recognize me. That’s because I was in an independent film. Basically, "American Splendor" reached the right kind of audience. The people who have seen the film saw it because they have an interest in me or in Harvey Pekar. I’m just glad it wasn’t the kind of film that opened in 3,500 theatres at once. Then there’d be all kinds of people wanting to talk to me.

J: Does it.... bother you... that people want... to talk to you?

T: Sometimes. But it only really bothers me if I’m in the middle of doing something and someone approaches me with an immature attitude. Like, I have gotten a couple of crank calls as a result of my being in the film. But the crank calls they’re... like, I had one guy, he was trying to talk the way I talk in the movie, with a more mechanical-like voice. And he was making comments about "Star Wars: Episode III". And "Star Wars", I’m not really into that or Star Trek or sci-fi in general. I’m more into fiction, I’m not a sci-fi nerd or a horror-nerd or anything like that. I’m a creative nerd.

J: How would you define a nerd?

T: Someone who’s different. Someone whose ideas are different. Someone who gets picked on a lot because they don’t agree with your ideas. But you’re still proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished. That’s a nerd.

J: So would you.... nevermind. I was gonna ask you something but I won’t.

T: Go ahead.

J: Well... I ... I was gonna ask... would you consider me a nerd? Because I’m out here on my own?

T: In a way, yeah. There are woman nerds. There are woman nerds. You’d be considered a nerd because you’re out there collecting stories about people you meet in your travels.

J: You know what, that’s awesome. I’m proud to be considered a nerd by you, Toby.

T: Yeah, that’s why I feel comfortable about telling the truth about myself.

J: How long did it take for you to get to that point?

T: Not too long, really, ‘cause I’m the kind of person who’s honest. I like who I am and I tell the truth about myself.