Pop-Culturalist.com

Alex Bonifer is an actor, comedian, and storyteller to keep your eye on. He’s best known for his breakout role in Kevin Can F**k Himself.

The dark comedy centers around the prototypical sitcom wife, Allison McRoberts, married to her self-centered husband, Kevin. When Allison learns that the perfect future she envisioned is impossible, she makes a plan to take back control of her life. Alex shines as Neil, Kevin’s best friend and partner in crime.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Alex about getting his start at the Groundlings, Kevin Can F**k Himself, and his character’s journey from the multicam world to single-cam.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling and the arts?
Alex: Wow, that’s a deep one. It’s actually rooted in my family. My grandfather was an actor at the Pasadena Playhouse in the ’30s and ’40s. He instilled that passion in me as a youth. He was a larger-than-life personality. He would do voices and characters. Coming up with characters and thinking that acting was cool was ingrained in me. It was something that I wanted to do.

Then both my parents actually worked in the entertainment business as well. My dad worked at Disney when I was growing up and my mom works at a place called Carsey-Werner Television. She also worked at CBS Radford. She would take me to see tapings of That ’70s Show and 3rd Rock from the Sun. It was the coolest, coolest thing.

But I took a pause in my life on that front. I got very into sports. I played football in high school and that dominated my interests. But when I got to college, I got very real with myself and said, “Alex, you’re not an NFL-caliber player. Let’s shift gears with your life.” It was the summer of freshman year and my dad took me to an improv class. I was either eighteen or nineteen. He was like, “You’re going to do two things this summer: you’re going to get a job and you’re going to take an improv class” (because he was doing improv). I took a class at the iO West at eighteen. I never looked back. It was something that I loved so much, and it really reconnected me to my grandfather.

Twelve years later, I’m a member of the Groundlings’ main company. This is what I do for a living now. It’s been a long, challenging road to get here, and I truly feel like I have to pinch myself every day.

PC: You’ve credited the Groundlings for opening your eyes to the possibility of a career in this industry. What did you learn from your experience and time with the Groundlings that you’ve been able to apply to your career specifically working on a show like Kevin Can F**k Himself?
Alex: I really owe everything to the Groundlings, honestly. I spent a lot of time, probably seven years, honing the craft of improv and comedy in general before I got to the Groundlings. I joke with people that it was like I went to comedy grad school because it took me five years to get through the program to where I am now as a member of the main company.

When I started the program at the Groundlings, I was selling furniture for a living. I worked at a digital furniture company. Improv was a constant in my life, but I had worked a ton of other jobs while performing and trying to get good at this craft before I was put in a position where I was going to be seen by agents, managers, and the like. The Groundlings offers that sort of exposure.

That’s how the program at the Groundlings works. You do all the improv, then you do a writing lab, and then you do an advanced writing lab. Then you do the Sunday company. The Sunday company is the top level of the school. It’s the next step before you’re in the main company. It was during my advanced writing lab performance. It was our first show. I had just had a child or my wife was about to give birth. It was Monday night, and I had a show. It went really well. I started crying on my way to work, tears of joy and gratitude. I was like, “Wow, this is the affirmation of twelve years of work. You’re good at this. You’re ready for this.”

The confidence that I got from the Groundlings at that early-ish stage while in advanced writing lab was huge. We really got pushed to be unique and to find real characters that are fun, silly, and wacky but also real people. That’s what I brought to Neil in Kevin Can F**k Himself. I knew when I was pitched this by my team and I got the script for Season 1 that it was pitched as a multicam and you’re the multicam part of the show. I approached it that way and was a big goofball.

If you saw the first season, you’d know I had shoulder-length hair and I put on a baseball cap that was really tight-fitting and made my hair stick out. I looked like a clown. For the performance, I knew where to take it and how to take this big character and make him a real, living, breathing human. That was really important for me. That served me into the second season, which—spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the finale from Season 1—Neil gets thrust into that world.

Season 2 picks up right where we left off. The Groundlings taught me how to make funny characters but keep them real and grounded. When the lens shifts for Neil and he’s in this single-cam, he’s a real person. It wasn’t a caricature. That’s what we talk about and what we preach here at the Groundlings.

PC: At the end of Season 1, your character does an unthinkable act and is brought into the real world and has to come to terms with his actions. What was your initial reaction when you read that final script for Season 1? How early on did the writers and showrunners clue you in about Neil’s journey?
Alex: They kept it a secret. I remember when I turned the page for Episode 108 and saw I was in the kitchen. I was like, “Wait, what am I doing in this kitchen?” I was feeling everything that hopefully, the viewers felt. My heart was pounding. Why is he there? What is he doing in the closet? It’s just him and Allison. I thought that Neil was going to die. I was like, “Oh boy, here’s where the journey stops for Neil.” The way that our script is written, the multicam scenes are in italics. The single-cam is not. So when I saw Neil not italicized, I was like, “Oh my God. Oh my God.” It was so exciting.

I later found out from Valerie Armstrong and Craig DiGregorio, the creator and showrunner respectively, that Neil was supposed to die! They decided to keep Neil around, and I’m glad that they did. I think the viewers will be glad that they did too because he goes on a real journey in Season 2.

PC: How did you prepare for that scene in particular? You took audiences on such an emotional ride within the closing moments of Season 1 where they’re laughing with you one moment and then they’re a bit confused about how they should be reacting.
Alex: My preparation for Neil was very similar for both multicam and single-cam. Neil in his multicam scenes is a very intense guy. He has this intensity to him. But he’s intense about helping Kevin with whatever it is. He’s very serious about everything that he does. It’s all very stupid in Season 1. In that final scene, he’s still very serious. It’s just now he’s committing a very violent act because it’s the same level of emotion. It’s paired with strangling someone.

Neil’s worldview is filtered through Kevin. Everything always comes back to his feelings and emotions and his loyalty to Kevin. When Kevin laughs at one of his jokes, it’s the best thing to him. When Kevin puts him down, he gets really sad. If someone threatens Kevin, like Allison was attempting to do, he saw that and went red. The work and preparation wasn’t too different because Neil is an intense guy.

PC: What can you tease about his journey in Season 2?
Alex: For the first time, you see him look inward. Guys like Neil and Kevin never look inward because they don’t have to. They are who they are and you have to deal with it. To them, there’s no better place. Everything is very insular in terms of their thoughts and feelings. When Neil has to deal with the ramifications for the first time and suffer real-world consequences, it really messes with his worldview. He starts to question things and his relationships with people, namely Kevin. He has to come to terms with the fact that it’s an abusive relationship.

PC: This is the longest that you’ve lived with a character. Has anything surprised you about this experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway for you?
Alex: I didn’t realize I like hot dogs as much as I did. [laughs] For the first season, I got a little carried away. Neil has this hero shirt. We got clearance from what became my favorite restaurant when we were filming in Boston. Our costume designer Carol was like, “We got clearance from this restaurant.” It’s a real place called George’s Coney Island Hot Dogs in Worcester. I still have a couple of shirts that I’ll wear around.

I thought it was going to be a one-time thing. I’d drive around Worcester and see where Neil went to high school and eat a hot dog. It was so good that I made the trip. In the two seasons, I’ve probably made the trip 40 times. I’ve slimmed down a bit, and I credit that to the void of hot dogs that I’ve refrained from eating.

PC: If you could share parting words with the fans and your character, what would it be?
Alex: Thanks for joining us on this ride. It’s a show that changed the trajectory of my life forever. It really does mean so much when people reach out on social media or after a Groundlings show. I’m so grateful that it spoke to them and that it means so much to them because it’s meant so much to me.

In terms of Neil, he changed a lot. The show helped me change a lot. It helped me grow in a lot of different ways as an actor and performer. While we all hoped that it would’ve gone on for five more seasons, I think it has a very, very important place in the zeitgeist because it’s an important message and story. If you haven’t watched it, it’s an easy binge.

PC: What’s left on your bucket list?
Alex: I’ve written two features. I want to continue to tell stories and to make people laugh. I don’t know what will happen with these features and the other things that I continue to write. All I know is I lead from a place of wanting to brighten people’s days.

I’m currently in the main company show at the Groundlings, which is running on Fridays and Saturdays through September 17. It’s a wild, raucous, fun ride of sketch comedy and improv. I’m going to continue to do that.

Maybe I’ll get to do another drama like this in the mix. I just want to continue to spread that joy and those laughs.

To keep up with Alex, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Kevin Can F**k Himself on AMC.

Photo Credit: Collin Stark