Jamie Kaler is an accomplished actor, writer and stand-up comic, and has had recurring roles on Will & Grace, The King of Queens, Significant Others and the Seth Green animated show Robot Chicken. His recent film credits include The Family Stone, Underclassmen and Spanglish.

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Jamie's Blog, Week Four

Nia Vardalos (My Big fat Greek Wedding) guest stars in this week’s episode and plays the newest woman in Andy’s life. And now that we all know Bobby was on the plane, we see how PJ has to deal with a major announcement concerning his relationship with the smoking hot nanny, Elsa. Hmmm, that sounds messy. Meanwhile, Brando is busily pursuing a different career path, while Kenny revels in his position as the show’s Casanova.

As for me, I get to take an Improv class with Andy and it has been a wonderful week of shooting. Mike McDonald from Mad TV is hilarious as our improv teacher. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the form of improv, it’s like “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”. That’s the show where the actors take suggestions and create scenes. And for me it’s how I started in this business. I always get questions from fans as to how my career began and although no two actors take the same path to Hollywood, here is how mine goes…

I just got out of the navy and had very little idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I got a job bartending in San Diego at the Pacific Beach Brewhouse and spent my days playing beach volleyball and drinking beer. It was the only time I ever had a tan. My pasty skin finally gave in to the constant barrage of the sun’s rays and actually formed a base. I lived on the beach and each day seamlessly blended into the next. I answered an ad in the paper to audition for an improv troupe. I don’t know why. I’d never really acted before, but I knew from that first rehearsal that I had found what really motivated me. You would do something and people laughed…or they wouldn’t. It was that simple. And I wanted to get really good at the craft of "funny". It was intoxicating and I couldn’t get enough. We weren’t being paid a penny and I couldn’t have been happier.

I ended up forming a group called I.T. (Improvisational Therapy) with my friends Gerhart Welling, Murray Stanley, Gary Bryant, Jeff Kilbride, and Mike Siscoe and we did shows in the back of the brewery using bags of grain and kegs as our props on a hand built little platform that I made from wood from home depot.

It was a blast. We eventually got a little press and became regulars at the San Diego Improv. And I was off and running. A couple of local commercials, an episode of “Renegade”, and I set my sights on Los Angeles to become a professional actor.

I became an overnight sensation (which only took ten more years). During those years, I continued to grow as a performer doing sketch and stand-up. But I always remember my first couple of years in San Diego. There was such an innocence and purity to it.