Brian Posehn: The Big Bang Theory Spinoff

Brian Posehn was never supposed to be a hot young thing. That, it turns out, is the secret to surviving four decades in comedy. Sitting down with Tom Papa on Breaking Bread, the 58-year-old comic, writer, and actor traces how a metal-obsessed, skateboard-dabbling weird kid from Sacramento ended up as a lead in a CBS sitcom spinoff of The Big Bang Theory — a show he still can’t quite believe he’s on.

From Journalism to Jokes

Posehn’s pivot into comedy began with a failed interview. As a college journalism student hoping to become a rock writer, he interviewed the band Fishbone. They tried to be funny; he tried to be serious. The interview flopped. His professor told him that was just journalism. Posehn thought: “I don't want to do this. Like this is too hard.” Around the same time, he heard Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small and George Carlin’s Class Clown at friends’ houses on consecutive days. Seeing grown men making people laugh for a living clicked something: “I don't have to get in a suit and go do something.”