On TV or on the stage, Caeti 'Mad' for improv
April 27, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN Sun-Times Television Critic
Frank Caeti's home used to an attraction on Second City's tour of Old Town. The tour guide "would say things like, 'Chris Farley lived here. John Belushi used to live over here. Ladies and gentleman, here's Frank Caeti's apartment.'
"People were like, 'Who the f--- is that?'" Caeti says. "And then, I'd pop out and throw Twinkies at them. People like free stuff."
After five years of improvising at Second City, Caeti was recruited by Fox's "Mad TV," where he has portrayed a portly Rocky Balboa, a fake Asian parent and "Big Whitey" in a blacksploitation spoof: He distributed crazy-making grape juice in Harlem.
"Mad TV" returns with a new show at 10 p.m. Saturday on WFLD-Channel 32. Also this weekend, Caeti will take the stage at two Chicago Improv Festival shows.
For the first time in years, he's not a Chicagoan. During his first season on "Mad," Caeti, 33, commuted to Los Angeles. Last year, he and fiancee Rachael Romanski, who worked in the business office at Second City, made the big move to pretend land.
"We're very skeptical. You [feel your] soul kind of just wilting away, all of your dreams and desires," he says (or jokes; it's hard to tell).
Caeti isn't really complaining. "Mad TV" is great work, he says, and he figures it's possible he could even go the way of sketch actors like Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx and turn from "goofy yuk-'em-up guy" to serious thespian.
"We're this far away from being Telemundo, wearing bumblebee outfits," he says of improvisers. "So it's tough sometimes to take sketch actors seriously after that part of their career ends."
Caeti and Romanski haven't made all their wedding plans yet (she now runs the Second City training center in L.A.), but they're quite sure it won't take place onstage.
"I always got skeeved out by that, because that happens at Second City," he says, "where somebody's like, 'Do you guys mind if I propose to my girlfriend?'
"And then we get them up there, and they would do it, and it's always like, 'Yay.' Oh, God, that's so weird. Why would you do that to somebody? ... Now we've gotta do comedy!"
Romanski seems proud that Caeti, who grew up in Bloomingdale and in Denver, is blue collar, like many Second City actors.
"They're not fancy people," she says. "They embrace the opportunities they have to work [onstage]. But they don't think they're above cleaning toilets in between gigs."
At one point in Chicago, Caeti waited tables. Even as a TV actor, steady work isn't guaranteed, he says, so he also doesn't rule out busing dirty dishes again someday.
"You're always a step away from that. I'll be glad to do it. I hope I don't have to," he says. "You have to be prepared to ride it out, man."
Caeti improvises with ComedySportz at 8 tonight at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green. Tickets ($19) are available at (312) 733-6000; www.theaterland.com.
Then Saturday at 8, he does improv with fellow "Mad TV" cast members at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage. Tickets ($37.50) are available through Ticketmaster. Call (312) 902-1500.
BY DOUG ELFMAN Sun-Times Television Critic
Frank Caeti's home used to an attraction on Second City's tour of Old Town. The tour guide "would say things like, 'Chris Farley lived here. John Belushi used to live over here. Ladies and gentleman, here's Frank Caeti's apartment.'
"People were like, 'Who the f--- is that?'" Caeti says. "And then, I'd pop out and throw Twinkies at them. People like free stuff."
After five years of improvising at Second City, Caeti was recruited by Fox's "Mad TV," where he has portrayed a portly Rocky Balboa, a fake Asian parent and "Big Whitey" in a blacksploitation spoof: He distributed crazy-making grape juice in Harlem.
"Mad TV" returns with a new show at 10 p.m. Saturday on WFLD-Channel 32. Also this weekend, Caeti will take the stage at two Chicago Improv Festival shows.
For the first time in years, he's not a Chicagoan. During his first season on "Mad," Caeti, 33, commuted to Los Angeles. Last year, he and fiancee Rachael Romanski, who worked in the business office at Second City, made the big move to pretend land.
"We're very skeptical. You [feel your] soul kind of just wilting away, all of your dreams and desires," he says (or jokes; it's hard to tell).
Caeti isn't really complaining. "Mad TV" is great work, he says, and he figures it's possible he could even go the way of sketch actors like Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx and turn from "goofy yuk-'em-up guy" to serious thespian.
"We're this far away from being Telemundo, wearing bumblebee outfits," he says of improvisers. "So it's tough sometimes to take sketch actors seriously after that part of their career ends."
Caeti and Romanski haven't made all their wedding plans yet (she now runs the Second City training center in L.A.), but they're quite sure it won't take place onstage.
"I always got skeeved out by that, because that happens at Second City," he says, "where somebody's like, 'Do you guys mind if I propose to my girlfriend?'
"And then we get them up there, and they would do it, and it's always like, 'Yay.' Oh, God, that's so weird. Why would you do that to somebody? ... Now we've gotta do comedy!"
Romanski seems proud that Caeti, who grew up in Bloomingdale and in Denver, is blue collar, like many Second City actors.
"They're not fancy people," she says. "They embrace the opportunities they have to work [onstage]. But they don't think they're above cleaning toilets in between gigs."
At one point in Chicago, Caeti waited tables. Even as a TV actor, steady work isn't guaranteed, he says, so he also doesn't rule out busing dirty dishes again someday.
"You're always a step away from that. I'll be glad to do it. I hope I don't have to," he says. "You have to be prepared to ride it out, man."
Caeti improvises with ComedySportz at 8 tonight at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green. Tickets ($19) are available at (312) 733-6000; www.theaterland.com.
Then Saturday at 8, he does improv with fellow "Mad TV" cast members at the Park West, 322 W. Armitage. Tickets ($37.50) are available through Ticketmaster. Call (312) 902-1500.
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