Pete Gardner spent decades as one of the hardest-working people in comedy that you’d never heard of. Improv stages in Chicago, guest spots on TV, near-misses that would have broken most people’s resolve. Then came “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the musical comedy series where he played the lovable Darryl Whitefeather – and everything clicked.
In the 145th dinner interview, Pete shares the winding road from Scarsdale to Second City to Hollywood over salads at a café in Studio City, Los Angeles. He talks about globe-trotting with an Indiana Jones complex, training alongside Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, and a philosophy of manifestation that he half-believes and fully lives by.
He also laughed so hard at one of my jokes that he demanded I put it in the article. So I did.