Head of the Fun Patrol: Matt Iseman

MATT ISEMAN HAS been many things in his lifetime. As a seasoned comedian, he has faced every type of crowd, from the various corners of America to cracking wise for the troops in destinations like Afghanistan and Kosovo.

He can also add "TV personality" to his list of accomplishments as he is host of the Versus Network's "Sports Soup" (Tue. & Thu., 10 p.m.) — which recounts wacky sports stories with smart-aleck commentary — and a co-host on the Style Network's "Clean House" (Wed., 10 p.m.), where his afternoons have been defined by what he can dig up and tear out from some of the filthiest homes in America.

But before Iseman jumped into entertainment he was a Princeton grad with an MD who, in the midst of his residency, unexpectedly left a life in medicine in order to pursue comedy.

Iseman, who performed at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse recently, talked to Express about his evolution from med school to the school of yuk-yuks.

EXPRESS: How often do you get to do stand-up?
ISEMAN: It's really been cut back because of the TV shows. It's the Catch-22. I moved out [to Los Angeles] doing stand-up; it's my first love. I got hooked on it when I was in med school in New York City, but now I'm on the TV shows, which is taking up all my time so I can't get out and do stand-up as much. It's a little nicer now having some exposure on TV so when I do go out it's a little more of an event for me and hopefully for the fans who come out. One of the great things in stand-up is when people come to see you [specifically], as opposed to just going to the club to get drunk and hopefully laugh. So it's been a lot of fun now that "Clean House" and "Sports Soup" have been going, when I go out and do the stand-up. It's kind of like a reunion, except none of us really knows each other. I've always loved stand-up, the immediacy of being onstage, I can't do any music at all so it's as close as I'll ever get to being a rock star. When a show's really rocking and people are laughing, you really feel like the head of the fun patrol.

EXPRESS: You switched from medicine to comedy. What prompted that?
ISEMAN: I finished med school, I got my MD and I was doing residency out in Colorado. I had that feeling when I was going into work, that pit in my stomach, and I just realized my heart wasn't in this, I wasn't passionate. There are a lot of things you can kinda do halfway, but I didn't think that being a doctor was one of them so I decided I wanted to take time off and do something completely different. I had done stand-up a couple times in New York and I was doing residency in Colorado and I just decided to pack up, go out to L.A. for a year, just do stand-up, and clear my head. I got out there and I was so much happier doing it and I was lucky enough to get into some commercials and stuff and start supporting myself pretty quickly. I never really looked back and I love going into work every night, which is probably one of the great things I get to say that a lot of people really can't.

EXPRESS: So you're still clearing your head?
ISEMAN: Exactly. At some point I should grow up and realize, "What was I thinking?"
                           
EXPRESS: When they called you up for "Clean House," where you're the go-to fix-it guy, were you apprehensive about going into it and seeing these messy, disgusting homes?
ISEMAN: No. You know, I had seven roommates in college, so that was taken care of. Having done medicine, seeing people's bodies filled with maggots, you've pretty much seen everything — which doesn't mean we don't see stuff that is absolutely filthy and disgusting and makes me choke on my own vomit. You've kind of gotten to the point now too where I feel like we've seen just about everything. We've found people's sex toys; we've found rats in jars with the lid on. Like, who put the lid on when the rat was in there and didn't throw it away? Surreal stuff. You're almost daring a family, saying, "How are you going to shock me?" We found 35 pounds of cat feces in someone's house under a stairwell; the cat had been dead for two years. It boggles your mind to see how people live. And that's one of the fascinating elements of the show. How did it get to this?

EXPRESS: Has it had an effect on any of your own cleaning habits?
ISEMAN: Absolutely. One of the things was I was kind of a nostalgic pack rat. I hang on to everything and I would walk into somebody's house and I would say, "Wow, you've had your collection of movie tickets since you were 12 years old." I went home and I had the same thing — and rats too. If I see a rat in a jar, I no longer put the lid on, I throw it out.

Photo courtesy Matt Iseman