Actor, humorist and author Nick Offerman is known for his role as Ron Swanson on the comedy series “Parks and Recreation,” Emmy-winning work as Bill on HBO’s “The Last of Us” and many films.
He’s also a longtime woodworker and his upcoming show at Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach mixes that love with humor and music.
The show is meant to entertain while inspiring people to create.
It’s called “Big Woodchuck,” related to his recent book “Little Woodchucks” with co-author Lee Buchanan, a fellow woodworker, who joins him on stage. Two performances are scheduled on April 10 at the Sandler Center.
WHRO’s John Doucette recently spoke with Offerman via Zoom about woodworking and connecting people of all ages to making things themselves.
This interview was edited for time and clarity.
John Doucette: Thank you for speaking with us. We appreciate it.
Nick Offerman: It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Doucette: What I wanted to start with is to talk a little bit about the difference between – or the overlap – of the book and the show.
Offerman: Lee Buchanan ran my wood shop for 10 years and is just a hero in my life.
She performs some actual woodworking on stage. So it has this sort of wholesome family side to the show where you've got real woodworking and the good-hearted nature of our crafting book, sort of an anti-AI bent to the whole evening. But then I take that broccoli and I shove it into a delicious pizza that is my irreverent comedy stylings. And so I do some songs and I'm kind of a mischievous brat doing a comedy show while Lee is kind of trying to get this wholesome family material across. …
We come from families that are self-sustaining and we love making things together, and so that's where this book came from – it's us passing on the gospel of the love of making things together with other people.
Doucette: You grew up in Illinois. Your dad's a teacher. I think mom’s a nurse.
Offerman: Yeah. Both retired now, but yeah.
Doucette: But part of a farming family and your dad made you something when you were very little, right? That was one of the first things that he made for you.
Offerman: We called it the tinkle box. And it was — I was, you know, a toddler learning to stand and tinkle at the facility like a big boy — and dad built a riser box for me to stand on. …
I was at a very early age when I saw the magic of what you could make out of wood and how it could affect your life profoundly.
Doucette: What you've put forward, I think, in the book and the show is communal. It's about families making things together. It's about things that can be used for fun or practical things.
Offerman: I grew up in this family where we lean on each other and we make things together. Many hands make light work. …
My proclivity was then to become a theater actor and I had a little theater company in Chicago with a bunch of friends. And in hindsight, my theater company and then my wood shop in Los Angeles, they're all groups of people working together to make something that lends succor to others.
Doucette: Part of what you seem to be talking about in the book and in the show is people getting started doing something they may not have done before, and maybe doing it –
Offerman: – Ah, yes.
Doucette: – with a young person.
Offerman: There are a couple of projects, namely, carving an animal out of a stick, the box kite and the toast tongs, that are all elementary school level crafting.
Doucette: Thank you for the time. It was wonderful having you here. Thanks.
Offerman: I appreciate it. Have a beautiful evening.