Transcript
Speaker: Let's get dirty, let's get brief, let's get dirty briefs.
Speaker: Hi everyone, it's Alex Hooper, and I'm here to tell you about some close calls I've had in my career.
Speaker: Things that I thought were going to move the needle, were going to project me into that next threshold, and then they did it.
Speaker: When I was in college, I got cast randomly in an MTV pilot.
Speaker: And when I say randomly, I went to a casting office to try to become a mascot for the all-star game in Pittsburgh.
Speaker: I wanted to dress up like a giant baseball.
Speaker: It paid $50 an hour.
Speaker: They didn't cast me in that, but they brought me in two weeks later to audition for this MTV show.
Speaker: I had never auditioned for any television, and I was very surprised when I got it.
Speaker: I got cast in the pilot.
Speaker: We went, we filmed it.
Speaker: I thought I would never hear anything again, and then magically they picked it up.
Speaker: The whole idea of this show was that it was going to be the very first film
Speaker: intentionally intentional show created only for digital platforms like your phone.
Speaker: That was the idea.
Speaker: And we filmed 17, 20 episodes of this show.
Speaker: I was a lead character.
Speaker: It was two weeks of filming.
Speaker: I had never done anything like that.
Speaker: In fact, I got expelled from
Speaker: from Point Park University's acting department because I took on this show.
Speaker: I was already cast in a play.
Speaker: I wasn't supposed to do anything else.
Speaker: I didn't care.
Speaker: So I left and I filmed this TV show.
Speaker: I was excited.
Speaker: It was a wonderful experience.
Speaker: I learned a lot.
Speaker: That show never came out.
Speaker: It was never released.
Speaker: But because I was expelled from my university at the time,
Speaker: Pittsburgh was having a film.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: They signed a $75 million tax credit.
Speaker: So movies started flooding to Pittsburgh.
Speaker: And one of the ones that got there was Adventureland.
Speaker: Greg Mottola, the director, had just done Superbad.
Speaker: And I was like, holy crap.
Speaker: If I can get into that movie, that will be huge.
Speaker: And I did.
Speaker: I was cast as one of the part employees.
Speaker: I did the table read.
Speaker: And oh my God.
Speaker: I mean, I was surrounded by megastars.
Speaker: I mean, not megastars then, but now.
Speaker: Martin Starr, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Ryan Reynolds, all of these people.
Speaker: I'm a 21-year-old kid who just dropped out of college.
Speaker: And I'm thinking, wow, this is everything I've ever wanted.
Speaker: I filmed it.
Speaker: And then I got cut out of that movie.
Speaker: So far, I have been a lead on an MTV show that was never released.
Speaker: Now I've been cut out of a movie.
Speaker: But I was able to join the Screen Actors Guild.
Speaker: So I moved to Los Angeles.
Speaker: When I moved here, things were going okay.
Speaker: I started doing stand-up comedy a little bit later.
Speaker: When I was only two years in...
Speaker: I got a call one day while I'm at Universal Studios, my day job, and it was that I had booked a national Super Bowl commercial for Hyundai.
Speaker: I was flipping out.
Speaker: I was so happy.
Speaker: My coworkers were stoked for me.
Speaker: Two hours later, I got another call saying that I had just been cast in a TV show called Hot in Cleveland as the stoner mailman.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: I'm thinking my life is about to sky rocket.
Speaker: This is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.
Speaker: One day and I get both of these huge jobs.
Speaker: I'm gone.
Speaker: Everybody.
Speaker: Now I didn't quit my job.
Speaker: Fortunately, but I,
Speaker: I went to shoot that show and it was a week on set.
Speaker: Betty white was one of the stars.
Speaker: It was the third season premiere and they brought in Mary Tyler Moore to reunite with Betty white.
Speaker: So I'm working with Mary Tyler Moore, Betty white, Wayne Knight, Newman from Seinfeld.
Speaker: And of course, Wendy Malick, Valerie Bertinelli and Jane leaves.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: Huge, huge.
Speaker: I have no idea what I'm doing with my life.
Speaker: I am 24, I think 20, 25 years old at that point.
Speaker: And I'm thinking, this is it.
Speaker: I'm just going to keep on rising through the ranks.
Speaker: They cut me out of that show.
Speaker: Mostly I'm a sight gag.
Speaker: They cut all of my lines.
Speaker: It was still a great learning experience.
Speaker: It was amazing to get to meet and work with all of those people.
Speaker: I will never, ever forget that experience.
Speaker: But it was still felt like a little kick in the face for that to happen.
Speaker: And this kind of became a theme in my career.
Speaker: I remember...
Speaker: I did the first season of Roast Battle on Comedy Central.
Speaker: I was one of LA's top roast battlers.
Speaker: I was doing it a lot and they brought me in and I had an epic battle, but it was also, you know, a little messy and everything, but still we thought this is going to be brilliant TV.
Speaker: I remember being at the Standard Hotel with a bunch of friends.
Speaker: We were there just at a day party.
Speaker: And we went into the hotel room to watch the episode of Rose Battle that I was on.
Speaker: This is Comedy Central.
Speaker: This is the first time I've ever been on a network that I've been watching since I was a child.
Speaker: And I'm the stand-up comedian now.
Speaker: And I'm like, holy crap, this is huge.
Speaker: They're showing the introduction to the show.
Speaker: I have one quick line in there.
Speaker: And the rest of my battle was cut.
Speaker: That was it.
Speaker: That was all I was going to get.
Speaker: disappointing to say the least.
Speaker: They did bring me on for season two.
Speaker: I was still the, I was this point.
Speaker: I was the number one roast battler.
Speaker: So I figured I would get used and I did.
Speaker: And this was a round of 16 single elimination.
Speaker: I made it through my first battle.
Speaker: I'm so proud of what I did.
Speaker: Went to my second battle again, extremely proud of my performance.
Speaker: I'm,
Speaker: I can't help that I didn't get it that or that I didn't win that battle.
Speaker: I did everything I could.
Speaker: I went honestly a little over the top.
Speaker: Probably.
Speaker: I think my performance overshadowed how good my writing is.
Speaker: Sarah Silverman commented how good my writing was, which was an absolute dream come true.
Speaker: But I,
Speaker: they eventually gave it to the other battler.
Speaker: And when that happened, yes, I was happy to have done this performance and to be on TV, but I literally just watched thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars just go in the moment I realized I'd lost.
Speaker: I kept face.
Speaker: Of course, I didn't break character or anything like that, but
Speaker: Again, if I had made it to that next round, I knew I was ready.
Speaker: I was envisioning myself winning the whole thing.
Speaker: I had plans for all four rounds of what I was going to do.
Speaker: And I'm saddened to say that I only got through two.
Speaker: Now, like I said, I've had a lot of close calls.
Speaker: I've been cut out of a lot of different things.
Speaker: I have a new set coming out on Comedy Central Digital August 9th, and I'm very excited about it.
Speaker: I filmed it as soon as I got back from Japan, and this is my cancer set.
Speaker: This is me taking ownership of these few months that caused me so much strife.
Speaker: Two days after I filmed it, and it went great.
Speaker: I'm excited for you all to see it, August 9th.
Speaker: I got a call from Comedy Central saying, hey, there was a director in the audience.
Speaker: He loved your set.
Speaker: He wants to bring you in for another show.
Speaker: And this show, when they told me about it, I know what the show is.
Speaker: And I was like, oh, I've always wanted to do that.
Speaker: I'm perfect for that show.
Speaker: And it's going to be perfect for me and the audience that I'm trying to cultivate.
Speaker: A week later, I go in and I film it.
Speaker: It went great.
Speaker: They're all laughing.
Speaker: It's a joyful experience.
Speaker: I was very proud of what I brought to the table.
Speaker: A week later, I get an email from Comedy Central saying that Paramount, their parent company, had just fired a bunch of people.
Speaker: They scrapped a bunch of shows and this show was on the chopping block.
Speaker: I laugh to keep from crying.
Speaker: What are you supposed to do?
Speaker: How do you keep going when it feels like every time you get through that next threshold, you are brought right back down?
Speaker: I'll tell you how.
Speaker: None of these things were in my control.
Speaker: None of them.
Speaker: I did everything I could to get myself into those situations.
Speaker: I impressed the people that mattered and they brought me in to film these things.
Speaker: It's not my fault that that MTV show sucked shit.
Speaker: And trust me, I saw it.
Speaker: It sucked shit.
Speaker: I'm nobody should have ever watched it.
Speaker: I did a good job in it.
Speaker: And I've had other people that watched it that were part of that experience.
Speaker: Tell me the same thing.
Speaker: Adventureland.
Speaker: People get cut out of movies all the time.
Speaker: There's hundreds of people in that movies.
Speaker: I can't expect my little part to have to make it in there.
Speaker: Same thing with hot in Cleveland.
Speaker: It's a 22 minute sitcom.
Speaker: Things are going to get cut.
Speaker: And my lines weren't all that important to the broad story they were trying to tell.
Speaker: Roast battle?
Speaker: Well, they filmed five battles.
Speaker: They only showed three of them.
Speaker: I wasn't the only one on the chopping block.
Speaker: The next one that I'm not going to say the name of, same thing.
Speaker: I did it.
Speaker: I impressed people.
Speaker: I filmed it.
Speaker: And then the greater powers that be said, well, we want to save a few dollars.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: This could feel personal.
Speaker: Sometimes it does.
Speaker: Sometimes I'm like, oh, as soon as they cast Alex Hooper in something, it's going to fail.
Speaker: That's not the attitude that I need to have because I didn't do anything to cause these situations.
Speaker: And sometimes I wonder, how do I keep going?
Speaker: Because what is my other option?
Speaker: To quit and become a coal miner?
Speaker: I don't want to do that.
Speaker: And the environment doesn't want me to do that either.
Speaker: I need to tell myself daily that things are going to work out.
Speaker: People have enjoyed what I do for many, many years.
Speaker: And just because I've been cut out of some things that I thought were major opportunities in my life, doesn't mean I didn't do a good job.
Speaker: AGT, the second time I did it, man, was I stoked.
Speaker: And you know what that was?
Speaker: COVID season.
Speaker: I got to do it, but it didn't have the impact that that first appearance had because there was no audience.
Speaker: And stand-up comedy with no audience, awful, terrible.
Speaker: Homeless people wandering the street talking to themselves.
Speaker: That's what you're doing.
Speaker: Even my second performance in the 2020 season, I am extremely proud of what I did there.
Speaker: And it's my least viewed performance on that show because nobody was watching that season.
Speaker: It just wasn't exciting.
Speaker: Without an audience, all of these talents just went unnoticed.
Speaker: And again, I got myself in the situation.
Speaker: It's very difficult to get on that show.
Speaker: But I did it.
Speaker: I did it.
Speaker: And then...
Speaker: Whatever.
Speaker: The people that saw it liked it.
Speaker: I can be happy about that.
Speaker: Howie Mandel loved it.
Speaker: Simon Cowell loved it.
Speaker: Sofia Vergara enjoyed it, but she pretended like she didn't the second time because she needed to, because somebody had to be a villain against me as I was being a heel for them.
Speaker: Who knows how many things I'll be cut out of in my career, but I'll tell you this.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: All that matters is that I keep on going.
Speaker: And that's the same for you.
Speaker: Terrible things are going to happen.
Speaker: You're going to have exciting opportunities all of the time.
Speaker: And then they're going to just dissipate, fizzle away like a can of flat soda in the back of your refrigerator.
Speaker: What are you going to do?
Speaker: No, you just figure out a different way.
Speaker: You keep on trying.
Speaker: Life's going to have a lot more disappointments than you'll get wins.
Speaker: That's just the way it works out.
Speaker: But the wins are what keep you going.
Speaker: Every win is worth hundreds of losses.
Speaker: They're not losses, just things you didn't get.
Speaker: But look, we're coming up on that 15-minute mark.
Speaker: So whatever is bothering you today, don't let it.
Speaker: Because something magical is about to happen to you.
Speaker: And even if you get cut out of it, you did the right thing to get yourself there.
Speaker: So go do it.
Speaker: Get that job.
Speaker: Hug your friends.
Speaker: God, I love you all so much.
Speaker: Bye. 15.
