Growing up in Chicago, I was a theater nerd. That might be very cool on the East Coast, but in Chicago, it's really the athletes that come in No. 1 on the cool scale. Maybe musicians after that. Community theater? That's way down the list, my friend.

I was a huge theater geek growing up, and that was not the easiest thing in the world, especially growing up in Chicago, where sports are really the norm. I was always off to the theater at night, from 7 years old on. Friends there in the Midwest who could talk to you about the idiosyncrasies of 'Pippin' were few and far between.

People always ask about learning all of your lines as an actor, and it's generally the easiest part of the job.

When I started on 'Roseanne,' it was a great achievement for me at the time. But I wasn't a part of building it; I wasn't a carpenter in creating that juggernaut.