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Rob Riggle is on a roll
Ex-'Daily Show' guy working on sitcom, making films, coming to Lebowski Fest
Louisville, KY Courier-Journal
By Tamara Ikenberg on July 6, 2009
Rob Riggle, the strapping, self-assured comedian who will be entertaining folks Friday at the Lebowski Fest, loves the Coen Brothers flick so much that he brought The Dude and his partners in sloth halfway across the world with him.
In 2001 and 2002, Riggle served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was sent to Afghanistan.
"I had enough room to take a handful of movies with me," he said. "This was back in the day before everything went digital. I had one of those little mini-DVD players. I took 'Boogie Nights,' 'The Big Lebowski' and, I think, 'Caddyshack.'"
But "Lebowski" had the biggest impact on the big guy.
"I don't know if I should be embarrassed about this or not, but after I got back from Afghanistan, and after I'd watched 'Lebowski' a hundred times, for a year the White Russian was my drink. Everywhere I went: White Russian, White Russian."
Riggle, who can be currently seen in movie theaters as a cop in the mega-hit "The Hangover," is clearly comfortable with the fest's signature cocktail.
And he just may be the perfect jokester to entertain hordes of Lebowski lovers. Riggle was born in Louisville, but lived here for only two years before his father, an insurance agent, got transferred to Overland Park, Kan.
For more than a decade, Riggle has been a comedy fixture with stints on "Saturday Night Live," "Arrested Development" and "The Office."
But he's probably best known for his 2-1/2 years as a brusquely hilarious correspondent on "The Daily Show."
One of his most memorable contributions was the series "Chasing the Dragon," in which he brought his obnoxious bull-in-a-china-shop character to China during the Olympics.
Riggle recently quit "The Daily Show" gig to be closer to his family in Los Angeles. He's developing his own half-hour sitcom for CBS, but saying goodbye to Jon Stewart and the gang, including John Oliver, with whom he shared an office, wasn't easy.
"It was pretty hard. I love 'The Daily Show.' I love Jon Stewart. I love all the correspondents," he said. "When I left, I left on really good terms. Jon and I had a really good talk about what was going on. For those 2-1/2 years I was on the show, I was living long distance. I was working out of New York, and my family was in Los Angeles, so I was commuting, and it was really becoming hard. Jon totally understood."
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