Utter Trash--Toby Radloff

American Nerd

An interview with Toby Radloff

By Bob Ignizio

Cleveland’s Toby Radloff has been something of a cult figure for the past two decades, first coming to public consciousness as a character in Cleveland writer Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comic book ‘American Splendor’. Through a strange series of events, those comic book appearances eventually led Toby to starring in a series of MTV segments, acting in cult horror films, and eventually coming full circle by appearing in the critically acclaimed film adaptation of ‘American Splendor’. The first thing you’re likely to notice about Toby is his distinctive manner of speech and quirky mannerisms, but once you get to talk with him you realize he’s an extremely witty and unique individual. I recently had the opportunity to chat with the self proclaimed “genuine nerd” at the Twisted Nightmare Weekend horror convention, and he was nice enough to fill me in on his unusual path to stardom.

The seeds of Toby's film career were planted when he got a job at the same Cleveland VA hospital where Harvey Pekar worked. Like almost everyone who entered Pekar's circle, Toby eventually found his way into the ‘American Splendor’ comic book. While the comic book was mainly an underground phenomenon, it did bring Harvey Pekar to the attention of ‘Late Night with David Letterman’. Toby says, “Right after Harvey’s first appearance on Letterman, MTV came to the VA hospital to do a story on him. Harvey introduced me to these MTV people. I talked about being a nerd. I consider myself a nerd; I consider myself different. I was picked on when I was younger. It was also mentioned in one of the stories that I bought a “genuine nerd” badge at a street fair, and I wore it for awhile.”

Toby’s talk with the MTV people led to him starring in a series of short vignettes for the music channel. Toby says, “The first MTV spots were released as sort of a tie-in to the theatrical release of ‘Revenge of the Nerds 2’. That was the summer of 1987.” At first the segments were shot by MTV’s own production team, but the costs of sending a film crew from New York to Cleveland became prohibitive. Fortunately, Toby met area filmmakers Wayne Allan Harold and Mark Bosco at a comic book convention. Toby says, “Harvey and I were at this Superman convention, and Wayne and Mark were there with a video camera. They filmed Harvey and I doing this interview. I got to know Wayne and Mark well, and they went on to do several more MTV spots where I was talking about things like Drive-in movies, Halloween, Christmas, body building, and stuff like that.” Eventually, about a dozen spots in all were produced.

Toby’s relationship with Wayne and Mark led him to appear in the duo’s first feature film, ‘Killer Nerd’. Toby played the titular role of Harold Kunkel. It was a bit of a change going from the MTV spots, where Toby simply had to be himself, to acting in a feature film. Toby says, “At first it was a little uncomfortable, because I had to get used to doing multiple takes of things. I had to study my lines well so I wouldn’t mess up. But the movie did get made and did well, considering the kind of movie it is. And it was successful enough to spawn a sequel, ‘Bride of Killer Nerd’. After that, I was out of show business for a several years, and Wayne and Mark went their separate ways business-wise.” Eventually Wayne got back into making films with the cult comedy ‘Townies’, and once again he called on Toby to play one of the key roles.

In ‘Townies’, Toby plays an eccentric bum named Dickie who finds a woman’s corpse in a dumpster. Toby says, “Dickie, the dumpster diver in ‘Townies’, had a little more humor and a little more wildness about himself. He was a little more aloof than Harold Kunkel was. Townies was really fun to do, I had fun doing that role. Especially when I was walking around in Kent during a street fair with a shopping cart with the dead woman’s body, which was actually a bunch of blankets wrapped in plastic. And then I’m making love with the corpse in the movie, which was actually a woman dressed up like she was a cadaver.” In a separate interview with Utter Trash, director Wayne Allan Harold said that he plans on making a sequel to ‘Townies’, so the world probably hasn’t seen the last of Dickie.

While Toby was busy playing homicidal nerds and dumpster-diving necrophiles, Hollywood had been trying to figure out a way to bring Harvey Pekar’s ‘American Splendor’ to the big screen. It finally happened this past year, when directors Bob Pulcini and Sherry Springer-Berman’s version of Pekar’s comic was released to rave reviews and respectable box office. Toby says, “Other producers who were looking at ‘American Splendor’ didn’t know how to approach it in movie form. They didn’t know whether to do it as a fiction, as a documentary, as a story, or what. What Bob and Sherry did is what they call a hybrid. It combined documentary footage of the real people with acted out scenes from the comic books. The overwhelming reviews have been spectacular, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets Oscar nominations at the end of the year.”

In the movie, Toby is played by Judah Friedlander in the scenes adapted from the comic. However, Toby also appears as himself in the documentary footage. Regarding Friedlander’s performance, Toby says, “He did an excellent job portraying me. When he first got into Cleveland we got together over dinner. He saw ‘Killer Nerd’, ‘Bride of Killer Nerd’, ‘Townies’, and some of my MTV spots. He got my mannerisms down, he got my voice right, he got my looks right, he got my walking right. The way I’m portrayed in American Splendor is excellent. It’s almost like my twin brother was on screen. And these are scenes that were set in the 1980s when I was probably a little more obnoxious than I am now, if you know what I mean.”

Toby’s next film project finds him reunited once again with Wayne Allan Harold for a movie called ‘Aberration Boulevard’. Toby says, “It’s probably about 1/3 of the way done. Wayne’s been doing it part time between chemo treatments for his lymphoma. Wayne and Harvey both had to deal with lymphoma. Harvey went through it well and Wayne’s going through it well.” Toby’s part in ‘Aberration Boulevard’ finds him once again in new territory. Toby says, “It’s different because I play a character that isn’t killing or doing anything disgusting. The most disgusting thing I do in ‘Aberation Boulevard’ is pretending I’m messing my diaper. In one scene that’s already been done, I hire a teenage prostitute, bring her up to my apartment, and have her change my diaper. And I was crying and bawling and googling like a baby in those scenes.” No doubt it will be yet another memorable Radloff performance.

Although Harvey Pekar recently retired from the VA hospital, Toby still works there. Of the quirky films that have brought him fame in some circles, he says, “I’m very comfortable with everything I’ve done, especially ‘American Splendor’. People are approaching me at work every day because they’ve seen me in the movie and liked it a lot. They liked my character a lot and they liked me a lot. They keep asking me about myself, they keep asking me about Harvey, and they keep asking me about Judah Friedlander. I had a great time doing that movie.” And to his fans, Toby says, “I’m glad you love my movies. Go see ‘American Splendor’ while it’s in the theatres, you’ll love it. Go to Lurid.com and buy ‘Townies’. Then go to Troma.com and buy ‘Killer Nerd’ and ‘Bride of Killer Nerd’ and enjoy.”