On a chilly, drizzly November night last year, PAPERMAGvisited Jon Glaser, the star andcreator of Adult Swim's hilariously bizarre cult hit Delocated, on set atBroadway Comedy Club in Manhattan during a shoot for the show's third season(which premieres tonight at midnight). Delocatedfollows the life of "Jon" a balaclava-wearing pompous ass/stand-upcomic/reality TV show star who's in the witness protection program to avoidgetting assassinated by the Russian mob (you know, that old plotline). On thenight we stopped by the set, Glaser was shooting a scene where Kurt Braunholer (of the popular livevariety show Hot Tub) plays a warm-up comic who warms up people anywhere Jongoes, including a restaurant.

During the scene, Glaser -- a seasoned comic actor who earnedhis comedy stripes writing and performing on Late Night with Conan O'Brien -- had a difficult time not laughingduring the scene. Braunholer and the episode's director struggled to figure outwhy Glaser kept breaking, but he didn't share with them what the problem was.After the shoot wrapped, Glaser confessed, "There was an extra, this older guy,sitting behind me. There's a part where all the extras were supposed to laugh,but this guy laughed slightly longer and louder than he was supposed to. I sawthat it made the sound guy crack up, and then I just lost it, imagining howweird that was gonna look on tape."

After Delocated finished shooting Season 3, PAPERMAG caughtup with Glaser via email to discuss his years on Conan, the cavalcade of comedystars appearing on Delocated this season and his book of fictional letters thatcame out last year, My Dead Dad Is in ZZTop.

You spent many yearsas a writer and performer on Late Nightwith Conan O'Brien before creating Delocated.What's the most important lesson you learned from your experiences on Conan that you've applied to your workon Delocated?

The main lesson I learned from Conan that I applied to Delocatedwas that you should never invite AndyRichter to your apartment for dinner because he'll offer you cocaine andthen take it personally and pull a knife on you when you refuse. So Inever invited Andy over for dinner when he was working on Delocated. Ha ha! Isn't that a funny fake answer? Idon't know if I necessarily learned any lessons from working at Conan that I apply to Delocated, they're very different showsand work experiences. You certainly learn to work and writecollaboratively on a show like Conan,and that's a big part of Delocated,but I had similar experiences at some other shows/jobs, and also at SecondCity.

How much of the Delocatedis improvised?

There's plenty of fucking around during the shoot, andimprovised lines and moments end up in the show here and there. We've hada couple entire scenes end up in the show, most notably the Rihanna/Barbadosexchange between "Jon" and his son from the "Bar Mitzvah" episode inSeason 1. But most of what you see in a final show is from the scripts.

The DVD of Delocated's first two seasons just arrived instores a couple of weeks ago. Are there any DVD extras that Delocated superfans should be on thelookout for?

When I was pitching the show, I made a short demo that Isent to the network along with the pilot script, to help sell the idea of"Jon" and the show overall. We were able to put the demo on theDVD, which I'm very happy about. I thought it was great, and itdefinitely helped sell the show, so it'll be cool for fans to see that. The Paul Rudd murder scenethat is in the pilot was actually shot for the demo. We were able toincorporate it into the script and the pilot without re-shooting it, thankfullywe shot on similar cameras, and then shot new moments to bookend the scene.The idea for the Delocated underwearbillboards came from the demo, and there's an appearance by a band called Bo RaFlengo, which may or may not be the band YoLa Tengo. 

Delocated is aninspired send-up of reality shows and the demented people who populate them.Are there any reality shows in particular that you watch that inform Delocated's style?

Ice Road Truckers,especially Lisa Kelly's storyline. No, we just write what we think is funniest and/or best serves theepisode or premise.

The insane opening sequence for the new season of Delocated. 

The cast of Delocated is a who's who of NYC comedy. What guest star have youenjoyed performing with the most on the show?

Delocated is anice blend of "Who's Who" and "Who?"  As far as guest stars,Paul Rudd was great, except he kepttrying to kiss me, like Joe Namath tried to kiss that ESPN reporter, and hekeeps calling me even though I've changed my number a few times. Scott Adsit is an old friend and one ofmy favorite actors, I was happy he could do the show. Jason Sudeikis was in a really funscene that sadly got cut from this season's first episode, but that just meansit's a future DVD extra to look forward to. Kurt Braunohler plays a thoroughly, enjoyably annoying warm-upcomic in an episode this season. AmySchumer joined the cast this season as EugeneMirman's girlfriend, she's hilarious and really fun to work with. Ihated all the other guest stars. 

You published a hilarious book last year called My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top, featuringfictional letters to rock stars. What was your actual (and still living) dad'sreaction to the book's title piece, which was a bit from your live show? Had heheard that bit before the book came out?

I think he had heard the bit before. I recorded it a whileago for a very funny CD of live recordings from a great comedy show that EugeneMirman and Bobby Tisdale used tohost called "Invite Them Up." He was excited about the book, andthankfully was able to separate the fictitious parts of our strainedrelationship from the factual parts of our strained relationship. If hereads this, I'm sure it will make him cry.

Have you ever written to a rock star before?

I emailed SteveAlbini about doing a cameo in Delocated. I emailed Gibby Haynes tothank him for doing a cameo in Delocated.And I recently emailed ArcherPrewitt from The Sea and Cake to see if I could send him a copy of thebook. I think those guys qualify as rock stars.