Too early to mark a fall trend in sitcoms? How about the bearded, schlubby best friend?
It pops up this fall on two different NBC comedies, “A to Z,” which features College Humor Henry Zebrowski, right, and “Marry Me” where John Gemberling, left, pops up, after similar roles on Comedy Central’s “Broad City” and ABC’s “Super Fun Night.”
“I didn’t always have a beard, but I found that I ended up getting more work with the beard,” Gemberling told reporters at a Sunday session of the TV Critics Association summer press tour. “So I kept it and learned how to trim it.”
Later at the NBC party, where the two men happened to be standing together, as if they were in a beard quarantine area, said he didn’t mind getting all the schlubby roles, he said the clean cut straight guy look “usually like the personality-less role, I’ve found.”
“Think about the famous beards of history,” says Zebrowski. “Paul Bunyan, the guy from the Bounty [paper towel ads]…
“Powerful beards create a mystery,” Zebrowski says. “You don’t know what the chin looks like. I think I’ve auditioned for every part that involves having the body being described as a duffle bag that exists, so this was great that this worked, because it said “handsome” in the character description, so I felt flattered.”
Zebrowski, who also had a role in “Wolf of Wall Street,” says in “A to Z,” which stars Ben Feldman and Cristin Milioti, “honestly, this character is actually pretty put together. I wear, like, fitting clothes for the first time I’ve ever played anything. I wear a large shirt, which is nice.”
“I like to believe,” says Gemberling, who costars in “Marry Me” behind Ken Marino and Casey Wilson, “at least in my own mind, that I strive to bring something new to it. I don’t feel like I’m a lot of times that guy is like a sort of macho or sports/beer chugging kind of guy. I’m not that kind of guy. So I tend to strive to bring something different to it.”
At least he got an endorsement from “Marry Me” star Wilson.
“I’ve been watching John perform for years at The Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and kind of come up with him,” she said. “And he is the most nuanced, unique, funny, kind of performer.”