You might know Frank Caliendo from his tenure on Fox's "MADtv", you might know him from his show "Frank TV" which returns to TV with a full season starting on October 21st on TBS, and you definitely should know him from FOX NFL Sunday where he's been appearing since 2001. Frank Caliendo is bringing his stand-up/theater act to the Wilbur Theater for two Valentine's Day '09 shows and tickets go on sale today.

Frank let us interrupt his breakfast at the Marriott Copley Square on Monday morning to ask about his many characters, his work methodology, sports, and what's happening with TV in this age of the internet:

Frank Caliendo Interview 10/06/08 from Tom Lewis on Vimeo.

Full audio interview and text excerpt after the jump

Full interview in audio:

An excerpt:

Bostonist: [When you're working on an impression] how do you get the character nuances down? Whether it's some kind of hand movement or how they tilt their head?

Frank Caliendo: I just see that stuff in every day life. My son must have had Bell's Palsy or something like that because I could see he had a little paralysis in his face so we took him to the doctor and he said "how did you see this?" and I said "it stares at me everyday, that's what I see". In any person I see, I break down everything they do, every movement, even when it's my son. It's a bit of a curse in that way as I can see every flaw because I can see that. My brain just does it [automatically]. I can say "that person walks odd" and someone will say "what are you talking about?" and I say "just watch them, look at how their arms come out (or something)" and they will say "I've never noticed that before". It's all I see, it's all I see.

And then [the trick when working on a character] is to find a way to make it funny, what's the situation?

Bostonist: You've been involved with networks going against the grain, Fox and TBS, how do you think TV has been changing?

Frank Caliendo: I think TV is in a bit of trouble right now. I think TV and the Internet is merging a bit. But I think that TV, with this reality TV stuff, some of it is OK but a lot of it is garbage and cheap. You can throw a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks. So you see a lot of garbage on television. I like to think of our show as a scripted show, when we added these other people I started to feel it was a bigger show and a better show. I don't watch reality programs very much.

I like scripted stuff. People ask why sitcoms are dying, and it's because people don't talk like that. It's not joke-joke-joke-joke. People don't talk the way they do on "Friends" which is the last [traditional] sitcom to have made it big. "Two and a Half Men" still works a bit. People are seeing that reality shows are funny and they are funny because of the awkwardness because real life has a lot of awkwardness in it, not jokes. Somebody gets hurt or hit in the groin and that's where someone laughs in real life. Sitcoms are quip-quip-quip and it's just not realistic.
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Frank Caliendo comes to the Wilbur Theater on Valentine's Day next year for 2 shows.

Frank TV returns to the air on TBS, October 21st.

Look for Frank on FOX NFL Sunday and keep up with Frank via his website.