By Tammy Scileppi
When comic Barry Rothbart heard that his career had gone to the dogs, it was actually good news.
The Queens-born comedian scored a role in an upcoming network sitcom called “Downward Dog” coming to ABC next month.
The show centers on an opinionated canine named Martin, whose internal monologue (voiced by series co-creator and executive producer Samm Hodges) narrates the day-to-day struggles and adventures of his owner, a young woman named Nan, played by Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated Allison Tolman (“Fargo”).
Rothbart plays Kevin — Nan’s self-obsessed boss — in the Pittsburgh-set show, which also features Lucas Neff (“Raising Hope”) playing Nan’s ex-boyfriend Jason, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“Love”) as Jenn, Nan’s best friend and co-worker.
Though the conventional wisdom in showbiz is that children and animals are a pain to work with, Rothbart has no problem working with Martin, played by an uncannily talented rescue named Ned.
“Martin was incredibly easy to work with, especially because of his life-like human eyes,” Rothbart said. “He seriously has some real guy’s eyes in his head — it’s unreal. It makes it so much easier to act with him. He could have any emotion you needed from him.”
Working on a dog-centered show also had some fun behind-the-scenes perks for Rothbart.
“The most interesting moments involved days where we had puppies on set,” he said. “There were times when they were needed for various reasons and I found myself, a few times, completely covered in puppies. Not in a scene or on camera — just to be able to cover myself with puppies.”
Growing up on the “mean streets” of Forest Hills during the 1980s and ’90s, the actor spent most of his summers at local day camps, joking that he was “that pudgy, T-shirt-wearing kid in the pool that the other campers liked to make fun of.”
He remembered cracking silly jokes to make his friends and family chuckle, and his second-grade stage debut at PS 174, belting out “My Darling Clementine.”
He took part in a few plays at Forest Hills High School, but soon got distracted by hockey and girls.
It wasn’t until after college that Rothbart returned to the stage, this time as a stand-up comic.
“Originally, I went into comedy because I wanted to be famous, seriously. I was like, ‘normal life is sort of boring and it seems like fun to be famous,’” Rothbart recalled. “I thought, ‘How can I become famous? Maybe I’ll do stand up?’ And then it kind of took off from there. Then as I started to realize it takes way more than just wanting to do comedy to become famous, I started enjoying the creative stuff a bit more. But it’s still all to get famous. That’s the big goal. And be super-rich,” he joked.
Though it was tough making ends meet for years, Rothbart said doing stand-up was therapeutic. He admitted that it helped him deal with some leftover emotional shrapnel from his past, and allowed him to work through his 20-something angst.
Living in Astoria for many years earlier in his career, the budding star worked his butt off trying to get small acting parts, while doing comedy gigs in Queens and Manhattan. Thanks to his tenacious spirit, outgoing, charisma and good looks — and his agent — he got several TV spots in commercials for Taco Bell, Honda, T-Mobile, and other big brands, and expanded the scope of his comedy career.
By 2004, the comic knew he had found his niche. He went from entertaining audiences in comedy clubs like The Creek and the Cave in Long Island City, to getting laughs at marquee venues hotspots like Caroline’s, the Improv, and the UCB Theatre in Manhattan, and even headlining at clubs in L.A. Rothbart said he especially likes non-club venues like UCB, and the PIT in Manhattan, as well as Littlefield, and Union Hall in Brooklyn.
“I have performed all over NYC, literally,” he added. “The comedy scene is so vast and spread out that there’s nearly a show on every corner.”
Between 2010 and 2013, Rothbart was a stand-up guest on the “Tonight,” “Conan,” and “The Late Late Show.” He was named a Best of the Fest performer at the 2011 Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Fest, and was again honored at the festival in 2013, as one of Variety Magazine’s Top 10 Comics to Watch.
But Rothbart is perhaps best known for his role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), as Peter DeBlasio, a broker working for Jordan Belfort (Leo DiCaprio).
How he was able to go from a chubby kid cracking jokes in Forest Hills to an actor working with a legendary director and then a network TV star is a bit of a mystery to him, Rothbart admitted.
“I don’t think I know what works about me. I also don’t think I know what doesn’t work about me. I think if I knew either, it would be scary,” said the curly-haired, blue-eyed charmer. “But I do know that just staying in the game without quitting has gotten me a lot. It’s probably being somewhat delusional to keep trying after so much failure.”
Though he’s been living in L.A. for a while with his new wife Grace and their own dog Tyra, Rothbart said he’s bi-coastal, and still has family and friends in Queens and other parts of the city, so he visits whenever he can.
“L.A. is a place where you can relax and stretch out, much more than in NYC,” he said. “But NYC, and Queens especially, have an electricity that L.A. doesn’t have.”
Growing up in the World’s Borough, made Rothbart a man of the world before he even knew it.
“I think the best part of living in Queens is the diversity,” he said. “I took the multitude of diverse cultures for granted my whole life, because when you’re a kid you just think ‘that’s how the world is.’ Then you grow up and travel, and you’re like, ‘Oh no, most places have only one kind of person and that’s it.’ Being around so many types of people, like people with different careers, shapes and sizes, incomes, levels of sanity, made for a lot of comedic inspiration.”
In his spare time, the actor and writer has also been working on a kung fu comedy TV series called “Master of Fury,” and an action comedy film about Scientology.
He also recently co-wrote Comedy Central’s web series “300 Sunnyside” (though not the one in Queens), in which he also stars. The off-beat story centers on a group of six roommates whose stagnant existence gets highly charged when too many petty, meaningless quarrels erupt.
And it seems his creative juices have been flowing non-stop because he’s currently developing his own show with ABC, and said he’s also doing “a lot more cool stuff that I can’t brag about yet, so stay tuned for that.”
Based on a web series, “Downward Dog” made history back in January as the first network comedy to have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, which gave Rothbart a taste of the glitz he’s in for as a network TV star.
“Sundance was incredible. We screened the first four episodes and it went incredibly well,” Rothbart said. “They were received with more fanfare than I ever could have hoped for. And, while I didn’t meet anyone cool, I did sit in front of Kevin Bacon on the flight in, but was too nervous to say hi.”
After a special sneak peek on Wednesday, May 17, at 9:30 p.m., following the season finale of “Modern Family,” ABC’s “Downward Dog” will move to its regular time period, Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. beginning May 23.
