Cole Escola: Help! I'm Stuck!

Photo courtesy of Catscradle.com

Cole Escola

The characters comedian Cole Escola plays are at once wildly inventive and instantly familiar: Some are women; many are demented variations on a person who corners you at an office party to talk about the South Beach Diet. Take, for instance, Ellen, the suburban mom he plays in a fake commercial that begins with him proselytizing about the nutritional value of orange juice and ends with him sinking deeper and deeper into the world of dog-fighting. There’s also the “goblin commuter from Hoboken” and a character he has described as “an author who had one book in the eighties that was really big, about eating right for your star sign.” Escola, who grew up in a trailer park in Oregon, moved to New York after high school, where he paid rent by performing at children’s birthday parties. With recurring spots on Difficult People and At Home with Amy Sedaris, he no longer needs to perform at children’s parties, but his unhinged gender-bending performances very much display the spirit of someone who once played Clifford the Big Red Dog at a party for Mary-Louise Parker’s son. His sketch comedy show, Help! I’m Stuck!, is currently on a five-city tour. —Sarah Edwards