It was a real eye-opener to me about what a difference Santa Claus could make in somebody’s life. They had a booth set up after the parade was over to bring people up and sit on Santa’s lap and stuff. First gig I got hired for was down in San Diego for their Christmas parade. So when I got to be old enough, I said, well, I want to see what Santa Claus is like.
Santa and Satan are pretty much the same dude. So we didn’t have Santa when we were growing up. This is your third or fourth time playing Santa Claus, isn’t it? How did that come about? Did this kind of grow out of that? I’ve got a costume fitting this afternoon and I’m working next week. When it’s good, it’s very good, and when it’s bad, it sucks. One of them is about 30 pounds and the other one’s about 10, 11, 12, something like that. They’re mutts I got from the pound, rescue dogs, little terriers. We’ve been here probably close to 30 years. Fodder for ITYSL season three, I hope? I spoke to Wiff via Zoom this week. When it’s bad, it sucks.”) He’s also in the rare position of being able to compare The Santa Claus Circuit in different cities. He currently lives in LA with his wife and two dogs, and he lives a life typical, in many ways, of any struggling actor.
He declined to share his birth name (“Everybody calls me Biff except my mom, my doctors, and the police”). Wiff says it came from his time in a song parody troupe called The Piparoos. Wiff had a face that positively screamed “this guy’s got some stories,” and in speaking to him for what turned out to be his first interview with any media, I discovered that my instincts had not been wrong. He seems to specialize in crusty outsiders, with other credits that include “Homeless Man” ( Homecoming, Desperate Housewives), “Cart Driver” ( Westworld), and “Hollywood Hobo” ( iCarly). I Think You Should Leave is actually Wiff’s third credited role as Santa Claus, after 9-1-1 and Just Roll With It. Naturally, I wanted to know more about this man. Netflixĭid I mention the actor’s name is “Biff Wiff?”
BIFF WHIFF CRACK
I crack up every time I think about some of his line reads. It’s the verisimilitude of him looking like a real mall Santa mixed with the surprise of him effortlessly handling these jarring tone shifts that becomes something sublime. He combines a face that looks like it’s lived some hard years with a voice that sounds like Droopy Dog’s beer drunk uncle, with a soupcon of stoned surf dude. It reminded me both of inarticulate action stars not quite committing to their roles, and of that “extra gear” many actors have in press tour interviews, where they can slip into flowery pretension without warning.Ī big part of the reason it all works is the actor playing Santa Claus. I won’t say anyone else’s list is right or wrong, but for me the sketch that stood out as most memorable was “Detective Crashmore,” the one in which Santa Claus is the aging star of a reactionary detective movie.Īt the risk of explaining a joke, the beauty of the sketch is that it’s strange and surreal, but also an incisive parody - a quality that probably a lot of great I Think You Should Leave sketches have, of being simultaneously far-fetched and applicable. Everyone probably has their favorite sketch from I Think You Should Leave season two.
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