The hilarious and witty Sue Galloway has taken on a series of roles, including playing Sue in NBC’s hit comedy 30 Rock as well as staring in the incredible solo hit POSE: The Magazine, which she wrote and starred in. Now the actress is taking her passion and talent for writing and acting in the YouTube sensation Above Average where she stars in the hilarious skits Belle and Bernice: Livin’ in the City. Galloway took a moment from her time to discuss her current and upcoming projects with TheCelebrityCafe.com.
TheCelebrityCafe: You are known mainly for your role on 30 Rock but you have a series of YouTube video’s out there which showcase your humor and your talent. Tell me about your work on Above Average.
Sue Galloway: I’m in a series called Belle and Bernice: Livin’ in the City. I created and wrote the series with Neil Casey, one of my friends, and fellow actors and improvisers. Neil and I have known each other for a long time, 10 years I guess, and we’ve performed together a bunch of times so we decided to create this series together just to try to have fun and do something that we thought would be kind of funny.
TCC: How did the idea of Belle and Bernice transpire?
SG: Neil is just this kind of amazing, really hilarious wonderful actor and improviser and I have seen and performed with and toured a bunch of times, and he always plays women in interesting ways when he performs as a woman. So, one day I was thinking, ‘Oh one day I’d love to work with Neil on something,’ because we had done something a long time ago, so I thought, ‘Oh you know it would be really funny to see him play a woman and it would be really funny if we were sisters.’
I thought we could have some sort of dynamic where he is kind of overbearing and I’m sort of this put-upon sister and I can’t recognize the external view that he is just a horrible person, so I just have to deal with him. We met one day in the lobby of the Ace Hotel, which is an awesome place to work and hang out! And we just came up with a bunch of ideas on how they would deal with each other.
TCC: It really is great too because your sister Bernice represents that annoying house guest that you just can’t seem to get to leave, and even worse, she’s family - so it makes it harder for you. Do you think that Belle will get a fire inside of her to get the strength to try and kick her out or give her a piece of her mind?
SG: I think it’s more fun in a comedy sense if she is never able to stand up for herself. You see her always having that struggle of not being able to push this giant wet blanket off of her [laughing], and it speaks a little bit about her character and can’t deal with it, but it shows it takes two to create a monster.
TCC: Do you and Belle share any similarities?
SG: I’m sure we do - it was funny when we wrote it, I focused more on what Bernice was doing and sort of letting go, that when we went to actually start shooting it and performed it I was like, oh you know I didn’t really fully think out how this character is. So on different takes I variously played it a little more like myself, a little more like the character I had in mind and I think that somewhere in between me and this huge kind of ‘push-over’ is really where I had landed.
TCC: On Above Average there are actually separate series that have hilarious skits in their own right, from the seven-minutes in heaven to the question of, “Where would you sit at the lunch table,” your team has brought in a handful of celebrities to Ellen DeGeneres to Dylan McDermott, is there anyone else that you would hope to bring into the Above Average family?
SG: It’s a great question because we just finished shooting these and we don’t know if we are going to make more. But if we were to make more, then absolutely we would love to get Jack McBrayer in, I mean, geez, if I’m going to dream big - this is me dreaming big, but like Alan Alda would be awesome and such a great, wonderful actor, but that’s just be dreaming really big. We’re completely open to having more fun people participate in that world.
TCC: Were you also a part of Ghost Tits?
SG: I did not write it, I saw it - Paul Downs and Lucia Aniello did their series [on Above Average] Paulilu Mixtape and they’re also performers that I know from the improv community in New York. I’ve worked with them on a number of things and those guys are awesome! The productions of their sketches are so amazing. I think what they’re doing for Above Average is fantastic.
They are supportive, very good friends. They’re the kind of people who are always your cheerleader and send me e-mails when one of my things comes out and they say, ‘Hey, we really liked this.’ They’re really great people.
TCC: You have previously done theater work, but do you have anything coming that fans can look forward to?
SG: Unfortunately I kind of finished up my solo show which is called POSE: The Magazine, but I perform every week with my improv team The Law Firm at 10:30 Friday night. I’m always dropping into other shows as well.
Currently I am working on writing new things, a variety of web series and a working on a new solo show too, but that’s about it- nothing in the near future expect for the improv.
TCC: Well the web series is such a great idea because so many people check things out on YouTube or HULU so it really is a great idea to target that type of audience now…
SG: Yes, absolutely and I should also mention that I just entered a pilot in the New York Television Festival of a bunch of web videos and sketches with my writing partner, who just moved to L.A Pam Murphy. We shot a bunch of things and I put them together as a pilot and they got accepted to the festival this year.
TCC: Moving on to 30 Rock – will we see your character next season?
SG: You know I never quite know what’s in store for me. I just kind of wait and see if they write something for me and if they do- I happily go in and have an awesome fun day of shooting and if not, that’s totally OK too because I understand there are a lot of characters to take care of on the show. I think you might see me once or twice, but honestly, I have no way of knowing.
TCC: Any additional thoughts?
SG: Fans can check out other series in Above Average including “The Front Desk” which was written by my husband, John Lutz, and his friend. I sat in on the taping of some of that and it was awesome. You know, I wish they would have the outtakes because it was just a really great couple of days; it was a lot of fun. My husband also came to ours when we were shooting Belle and Bernice and helped a little bit too. He has a little bit of involvement in our project so I appreciate that.
Above Average is a great thing for viewers to check out because it’s not as random as other things can by on YouTube.
Check out Sue in Belle and Bernice: Livin’ in the City in the hilarious videos below. Fans can also subscribe to the Above Average official YouTube channel where you can be sure to not miss an episode!
“The Salad”
“Popcorn”
“My the Views”
"Livin' in the City - Suspicious Minds"