Tom Lenk

Tom Lenk is a cult actor’s cult actor. He might not be a household name, but to anybody who watched season six and seven of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," his character Andrew Wells is unforgettable. A member of The Trio – a self-styled threesome of super geeks who plot to take over Sunnydale and the world – Lenk helped to make the season’s Big Bad, or main villain, funnier than any other in a season desperate for lighter moments.

Recently, the character of Andrew has reappeared in Milwaukie publishing house Dark Horse Comics’ "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight." Meanwhile, Lenk’s been off bringing a new character, Franz, to life in the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages."

He’s also appeared in a number of other roles since "Buffy," including "Six Feet Under," "House M.D.," "Nip/Tuck" and "How I Met Your Mother" on TV, as well as the movies "Transformers," "Date Movie" and "The Number 23."

On Friday, he brings his new one-man comedy show – which he’s more than willing to discuss – to Portland’s Gerding Theater. Questions and answers have been edited.

Q: Tell me about this tour in a fun, bite-size kind of nugget.

A: Hold on. Let me get the press release.

Q: No, I only want to know what you can remember from memory.

Tom Lenk Live When: 8 p.m. Friday Where: Ellen Bye Studio, Gerding Theater at the Portland Armory, 128 N.W.11th Ave. Cost: $20 Info: www.tomlenk.com A: It’s too hard! This show is – what can I describe it as? This show is my time doing "Rock of Ages" on Broadway. It’s alternative comedy/storytelling/standup about what this six months of my life was. Taking all those things into consideration, I get bored easily, so the show isn’t just me standing and talking. There’s random props and demonstrations and audience interaction. I do some drawing of pictures. It’s very show-and-tell. It’s hard to describe, but I think it works.

I went and tested the show up in Seattle on July 3, on a whim. Got a theater in three days and just decided to do it. It was a totally awesome experience, and I made the Seattle audience fill out a survey at the end. I dictated a survey to them so I could find out what they wanted more of and what they could do without. It was really cool.

Q: Sounds like a test audience for a movie. Did you take all of their suggestions?

A: I told them, "I’m doing test market research. If you feel comfortable, let me know if you’re male or female, if you are straight or gay, and what your age is." I wanted to see what the demographic breakdown of my audience was – with three days notice in Seattle on the day before the 4th of July. I would say it was half straight people, a quarter gay ladies and a quarter gay men. It was a totally fascinating experience. A lot of people said that one of the things they loved was being forced to fill out the survey. I did take a lot of their notes to heart.

Q: Are there any musical numbers in the show?

A: There’s a big musical opener and closer, and there’s little musical bits throughout. I’ve done more cabaret – when I was in New York I would go and sing songs at places and do that type of thing. This is not really that. This is more along the lines of a hodge-podge, proptastic, song-and-dance, show-and-telly, Bob Ross-inspired, Kathy Griffin-esque type show.

Q: You’ve mentioned the Bob Ross aspect on your Twitter feed. Can we expect you to paint and talk about happy little trees?

A: Not happy little trees, but just the vibe of demonstrating the magic of art. I’ll leave it at that.

Q: In addition to Dark Horse Comics (publishers of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight") we have a whole lot of Buffy and Joss Whedon fanatics in Portland. What can we expect from the "Buffy Tales" portion of the evening?

A: This show is basically just me talking about this specific period in my life. I’ve done these other shows that were about how Buffy affected my life and all the things I found on the Internet about myself. I forgot that I’ve only performed those shows in Los Angeles. I could go do that out of town. I bet that’s more of what people WANT to see. I can only tell them my "I was just on Broadway" stories for a certain amount of time. I’m going to get a little fruity on you here (adopts a pretentious tone): As an artist, you have to do what you want and give people what they want and yet stay true to yourself. (laughs) Gross!

Q: Did you like the way you were portrayed by the writers and artists behind the comic?

A: You never have control over it, because I was never the one writing it, so I certainly did not inform that. I enjoyed it. I thought they made my nose a little big (laughs). I thought they captured the spirit of how the character was written. The writers from the show are writing the comic book.You’ve got Drew Goddard and Drew Greenberg and Jane Espenson – I think she did a couple – writing the whole thing. That’s all you could ask as a fan of the character. The lines are so funny. I have the capability to read it outloud to myself or in my head if I want to hear how Andrew would say those lines. I imagine everybody can imagine that.

Q: You also mentioned via Twitter that you were searching for a Portland venue for your show. How did you settle on the Gerding Theater at the Portland Armory?

A: This whole thing is very DIY, very grass roots.Other comedians have done it, with just sort of reaching out and seeing where there are people that want to see your show – with all this social networking stuff. I never could do my shows out of town because I was like, well, I can’t go to other places. How do I spread the word, let people know about it? I’m not a big enough, fancy thing where I’m going to be filling stadiums with Ticketmaster. Now, you can get in touch with people that would want to see a show. The way I’ve been doing my research to start this whole thing out – when I went to Seattle, I went to Google Maps and typed in "theater" and started clicking on red dots. I did the same thing in Portland. I was clicking all these dots, and I had a few options. One of the first places I went to was the Gerding Theater at the Armory.

Q: You were in "Transformers." What invaluable knowledge did you learn from director Michael Bay that you will be able to take with you into future film projects?

A: (About five seconds of silence is followed by loud laughter) I had so much fun, but it was a lot of me, wide-eyed, trying to stay out of the way and keep my mouth shut. Even when I was out of the way, sitting on a desk, I got screamed at for sitting on a desk. (Goes into angry voice) "We are guests here in this facility! Don’t sit on that desk." It blew my mind. I thought, "If only he knew how much I love it that he is yelling at me right now."

Q: So, you’re saying it was a lot like working with Joss Whedon?

A: (Chuckling) I would say it was the complete polar opposite of working with Joss. I doubt I will ever be in another Michael Bay movie.

Q: In 2008, you announced that you are gay. Has that changed your career at all?

A: It was hilarious to me because the whole thing was spawned by playing Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s boyfriend on the sit-com "Do Not Disturb" on Fox, which was sadly canceled the day before my interview. The magazine still wanted to proceed and titled the article Coming Out But Canceled, which I thought was hilarious and thematically appropriate. A classic Charlie Brown moment in my life, of which there have been many.