February 5, 1997
By CLAIRE BICKLEY
Toronto Sun, HOLLYWOOD
"I think people are sick of shows where you never see anyone actually working but they have $80,000 worth of furniture in their apartment," says Ryan Stiles, one-fourth of The Drew Carey Show's comparitively downscale quartet. Ratings don't show a fade in audience fondness for those other friends, but they do make it clear that Carey has hit a nerve. Viewers who recognize themselves in the show's clock-watching working stiffs have made it a Top 20 hit in its second season.
As assistant director of personnel at a local department store, Drew looks like an over-achiever compared to his pals. Kate (Christa Miller) had to wheedle her sales job from him and is always on the verge of screwing it up. Oswald (Diedrich Bader) is a courier and Stiles' Lewis is a janitor at a pharmaceutical company.
"I think the thing that makes the show work is that Drew's really not a threat to anybody," says Stiles. "To women he's kind of like a big teddy bear, to men he's kind of like a sportsy, jock-ey guy and to older people he's kind of like their son working to make ends meet."
Speaking of big, I'm getting a crick in my neck talking to Stiles, who stands 6- foot-6 and has excellent posture. Rising popularity hasn't changed the casual, close-knit environment on set, he says. The cast celebrated the first season by taking a Florida vacation together.
"It's the same kind of work ethic. Drew and I, both having done standup, have the attitude that if the audience believes we're having fun, they'll have fun. If it looks like it's a pain in the ass having to be there, they're not going to have fun."
For comedy followers who think Stiles looks familiar, note that he's not a Canadian -- he just played one from the ages of 10 to 29. His father, a commercial fisherman, moved the family from Seattle to Vancouver for work. "I sort of felt Canadian because I went through all my schooling there," says Stiles. How does Canadian feel? "It feels good. But as an actor, it's really hard. There are a lot of Canadian actors who would give their right leg to be in my position and have American status because they really don't take chances up there."
After dropping out of high school, Stiles spent a decade on Canada's standup circuit. It wasn't until he joined Toronto's Second City in 1986 that he expanded into acting. Having gained confidence, experience and wife Pat, who's from Toronto, he moved to Second City's Santa Monica club.
Off-stage he won parts on the series Parker Lewis Can't Lose, The Hitchhiker, and Mad About You and a role in the action movie spoof Hot Shots and its sequel. He remains a regular on the improv series Whose Line Is It Anyway? on cable's Comedy Central.
"When we get fan mail, I always get a little more because it's two shows I'm getting it from. I never tell any of them that," he says. As the inseparable Lewis and Oswald, Bader and Stiles have been known to toy with the studio audience on taping nights. "We'll be this close to kissing," says Stiles. "It's 'Are they or aren't they?' We're not, but we do it for the crowd's benefit."
He's a little bewildered by an order from ABC that each series do an anti-drug episode next month. "That's going to be hard for us because I think we're the show that drinks the most beer," he says. Then again. "I do work at DrugCo, so maybe ..."
