““I’ve been focused on comedy for so long - and it will always be my first love - but I’m at a point it was just important to me to stretch,” he says. Helms plays Joe Gargan, a cousin that Kennedy turns to for help. Meanwhile, he completed his first dramatic role with “Chappaquiddick,” about the tragic car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara) when Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) was at the wheel. Helms has already shot Lake Bell’s new film “What’s The Point?” and “Bastards.” Set for a Christmas release, the comedy is about two brothers (Helms and Owen Wilson), whose mother slept with a number of famous men in the ’70s, out to find their birth father. His production company - Pacific Electric Picture Company - also has a couple of films in the works, including one about brilliant but troubled Doug Kenney of “National Lampoon” fame. He produces and stars in “The Clapper,” which was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, opposite Tracy Morgan, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Levine and the late Alan Thicke. The actor-comedian, known for the “Hangover” franchise, has a number of movies coming out. “It was so great to get everybody together,” says Helms. Last month, he reunited with former “Daily Show” colleagues Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, John Oliver and Rob Corddry on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Of course, Colbert - who recently was crowned the new king of late-night TV by winning this season’s rating’s wars - was an alum, too. Helms was a “Daily Show” correspondent for four years before joining fellow alum Steve Carrell on NBC’s “The Office” in 2006. Then it was reported last week that Helms would star and executive produce “The Fake News With Ted Nelms,” a special for Comedy Central, described as “absurd, made-up news that closely resembles real news, delivered by an absurd, made-up guy who closely resembles Ed Helms.” The show will also be executive produced by Emmy-winning Stu Miller, a veteran of “The Daily Show.” After the premiere of “Captain Underpants” in Westwood, he and Hart jetted off to Las Vegas to present at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. Last year, Helms did a cameo as a bartender in “Kevin Hart: What Now?” - the comedian’s standup movie - as well as being a producer on the hit “Central Intelligence,” starring Hart and Dwayne Johnson. For him, Amy Schumer and Louis CK, standup is so part their identity.” While he occasionally still does standup, “it’s not something that I’m still cultivating the way Kevin does. “It was an exciting way to cut my teeth in the business and zero in on my sensibility.” Helms calls the time some of his favorite years in show business. Sometimes you’re terrible, but you’re surrounded by other comedians who were passionate about it.” “You’re just so excited to be doing what you love. “I met Kevin really early on when we were both performing at a place called the Boston Comedy Club in New York, ironically,” he remembers. “It’s pretty brutal and weeds people out pretty quickly, but you get to know who is really dialed in and serious about it.” So I dove into the clubs, the new talent showcases, any stage time I could get on,” says Helms. Helms says he had been inspired to go there because “Saturday Night Live” performers like Adam Sandler and Chris Rock as well as favorite sitcom actors like Jerry Seinfeld had broken through via standup. The first “Captain Underpants” book came out in 1997, about the same time Helms had made his way to New York City to become a comedian. So, of course, when ‘Captain Underpants’ came up it was sort of a payback to my mom.” “We were quickly reprimanded, which only made it more appealing. “My mom would not stand for it,” admits the 43-year-old Helms, who grew up in Georgia and went to Oberlin College.
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