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On Rob Riggle’s Ski Master Academy, Rob Riggle is not the actor and comedian who shuttles between improv shows, stand-up gigs and supporting roles in film, TV and streaming projects. He’s “Rob Riggle,” international icon and star of the popular Ski Master film franchise that has reeled off global mega-hits like Ski No Evil, Ski You Later, Ski With Revengance and Ski Master—Assignment: Tampa Bay.
“It’s the Fast and Furious of personal watercraft,” Riggle tell Playboy of the eight-episode series that recently premiered on Sony Crackle. “I’m basically Vin Diesel—a general badass—but on the water. I’m a little bit good guy and a little bit outlaw.”
And that’s just the backstory. Rob Riggle’s Ski Master Academy is set at a fictional lakeside watercraft training academy that has a ragtag staff and a checkered safety record. (No real-world watercraft maker wanted any part of it. Jet Ski maker Kawasaki declined to lend its name to the series, which was originally called Rob Riggle’s Jet Ski Academy.) Let’s just say that Dermot Mulroney’s guest appearance on the series is, uh, brief.
The actual Rob Riggle, 48, is not a jet-setting star of an international film franchise who takes four-month vacations between projects. Riggle works. He’s in four movies this year, including the upcoming Night School with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish. He recurs on Modern Family as asshole real estate agent Gil Thorpe. He guest-judges on The Gong Show. He has a weekly podcast. He does a lot of late-night and sports-talk. He shot a sitcom pilot for Fox last week with Leah Remini and Kaitlin Olson. He stars in a weekly digital short called “Riggle’s Picks” for Fox NFL Sunday during football season. He performs improv at comedy haven UCB Theatre. He’s always working on a stand-up set.
Does Vin Diesel do all of that? No, he does not.
Ski Master Academy is enough of a Hollywood backlot series to poke fun at Tom Cruise summer blockbusters and flyover-country tax credits, but it’s mostly a knowingly ridiculous take on summer-camp farces like Meatballs and Wet Hot American Summer. In the first three episodes, there’s a mermaid, a ghost, Eliza Coupe (Future Man) as a redneck ski instructor and many exploding Jet Ski personal watercrafts.
“You keep going back and trying again because that’s what you do.”
Comedy in 2018 is a dizzying, gig-economy business where talents like Riggle, Paul Scheer, Natasha Leggero and Nicole Byer routinely work on three or four different projects in the span of a week—from 100-seat improv theaters to $100 million studio films—as writers, producers, directors and actors. Most of them have managers, agents and publicists running their Google Calendars like a switchboard. Sometimes, those projects disappear into the digital ether when a service like Seeso or Go90 shuts down, and occasionally one becomes the next Nailed It!
Ski Master Academy gave Riggle an opportunity to zero in on one project—for a few months, at least, and with a lot of creative control. “People in film and TV are always asking each other: ‘What are you working on? What are you working on?’” says the alum of SNL, The Daily Show and The Hangover. “When people would ask me what I was working on, sometimes I would say I’m thinking about opening a Jet Ski academy, and I’d play it very seriously.”
That chance to settle in and stay a while on a project explains why Riggle made *Ski Master Academy—*and also why he’s played the pilot game so many seasons, and why he hopes Fox will go forward on the off-cycle pilot he just shot. Multi-camera comedies are back in vogue—especially at Fox, which has three of them on the schedule this fall, including Tim Allen’s revived Last Man Standing—and they’re the closest thing in Hollywood to a regular day job. They’re brutal on the old ego, though. Most scripts never get made, most pilots don’t go forward and most shows never make it to a second season. But when a network show hits, it hits.
“You have to manage your expectations,” says the father of two, “but if it works, it can be great for your career and great financially. If you make a half-hour series that shoots in L.A., you get to sleep in your own bed every night. I spent four and a half months in Atlanta last year working on a couple of movies, which is a lot of time away from my family. You keep going back and trying again because that’s what you do.”
And that’s what he does. Plus “Riggle’s Picks” for Fox Sports Sunday. And maybe another season of Ski Master Academy. And probably a movie in the off-season. Who knows—maybe he’ll sleep at some point, too.