Thomas Barbusca Talks ‘The Mick’ [Exclusive Interview]

Thomas Barbusca may only be 14 years old, but he’s already got a resume that actors twice his age would kill for.

I recently spoke with him about the season finale of The Mick as well as some of his other roles on shows like Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and One Day At A Time.

If you don’t recognize him as Chip Pemberton on The Mick or his roles on shows like American Horror Story or Grey’s Anatomy, you’ll surely know him from his role as Peter Pan in Geico’s class reunion ad.

“A couple of months ago, like last year – everywhere I went it was like, ‘Hey, it’s the Peter Pan kid,” Barbusca said.

He told me that ad is actually responsible for helping him to get a role on The Mick. Both of the show’s creators – Dave and John Chenrin — had him in mind for the role of Chip. One was a fan of his work as Peter Pan and the other remembered him as Drew in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp.

The role of Drew had Barbusca playing one of the bullies at camp. One of his big scenes involved a belching contest and, if you were wondering, all of those burps were real.

“I practiced for like two months beforehand,” Barbusca recalled.

“This is going to sound disgusting, but like every single night, in my hallway, me and my friends would just go at it, and it prepared me for that scene.”

As great as Barbusca is in his biggest roles, you wouldn’t really want to hang out with any of those characters. “It’s the most fun to play angry or obnoxious for me,” he said.  “For some reason, that’s my specialty.”

And his character on The Mick definitely has some anger issues. The first season just wrapped, but Barbusca says viewers are in for more “psychotic moments” from Chip.

“We’ve seen it like three times this season. We’re probably going to see it five more times next season,” Barbusca revealed.

It’s not like Chip doesn’t have a reason to be angry. In the season finale, viewers saw his parents return only to abandon him again.

Barbusca said he thinks Chip really wanted to get his parents back. “He’s been waiting for them the whole time,” he noted.  “Ever since his dad left, he’s been trying to be the man of the house, and he’s really not.”

As dysfunctional as the Pembertons may seem on screen, Barbusca says everyone is like a family on set.

His favorite episode from the first season was “The Wolf,” because he got to bond with Olson, who he was already a huge fan of hers from Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

“I’ve always wanted to work with her,” he admitted. “Me and my dad would watch [It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia] together. That’s such a ridiculously funny show.”

Barbusca said he also enjoyed training to fight with Sophia Black-D’Elia for the big showdown on “The Master” – a scene that he said left him sore for seven weeks.

“We had three days of training for that – really high intensity. It was just three days of us throwing each other around the room, and the stunt guys were just critiquing everything we were doing.” he said.

“If the punch was a little bit off, they had to fix it for safety reasons and just make sure it was 100 percent before we actually got down to doing it.”

The Mick is just one of the two great comedies Barbusca was a part of this year. He also had a small role on the Netflix comedy, One Day At A Time. “It’s awesome, it’s super humbling, and I’m just really lucky to be where I am.”

Be sure to catch Thomas Barbusca on The Mick when it returns next Fall to Fox.

*Featured image credit: April Mills

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