Albert Tsai Talks Family Comedies and ‘9JKL’ [Exclusive Interview]

At just thirteen years old, Albert Tsai has already made his mark when it comes to great TV comedies. You’ll probably recognize Tsai from his role as Bert on Trophy Wife and as Dave on Dr. Ken. Now, Tsai stars as smart and outspoken Ian on the new CBS comedy, 9JKL.

I recently spoke with Tsai about his new role and how this experience is particularly unique.

Tsai started acting young, and from his first school play, he was hooked. “I did a school play when I was seven, in my hometown of San Jose. And I just kind of fell in love with acting and found out that it’s my passion. I really wanted to do it and make people laugh,” Tsai recalled.

And that first play was certainly a chance for him to make people laugh.

“The play was based on a series of children’s books called Flat Stanley, and I played a doctor and named Doctor Dan. He was hard of hearing so it was pretty funny. He would always get his patients’ names wrong. That was kind of like the running gag.”

For Tsai, the chance play the role of Ian on 9JKL, which also stars Mark Feurstein, David Walton, Linda Lavin, and Elliot Gould, was very exciting.

“I thought it was really funny and I loved the script. My role was also pretty interesting because in all my past series, I’ve been in family comedies on ABC, but I was part of the family. Now being outside of the family, it’s a different character perspective, so it’s an interesting experience for me,” Tsai explained.

“My character loves to hang out with Nick and Robby, Nick the doorman, and every time Josh — Mark Feurstein’s character — passes through we’ll tease him about his career or just kind of have this banter going.”

We get a sense of Ian on the pilot episode of 9JKL, and Tsai shared a little more of what we can expect from him during this first season.

“He’s kind of like a movie buff as he showed in the pilot, where he has all these industry insider tips even though he’s not actually in the industry. But he’s just a cinephile, so he knows this and that about movies, and he is quite mature for his age because he hangs out in the lobby all the time. He gets to talk to all these different kinds of people and adults passing through at different times in the day. So he knows a lot, basically. He’s quite smart,” Tsai said.

“Ian will be there as kind of a friend for Nick and Josh, and they’ll probably have a brotherly connection after a while. I think he might even be meeting some of the other Roberts family members as they come through the lobby in different episodes in the future.”

One of the things Tsai really enjoys about working on 9JKL is filming in front of an audience.

“The live tapings are really fun. Every Tuesday we’ll film our entire episode in front of a live audience that comes in. They’ll watch, and they’ll laugh, and they’ll give their reactions. So we get to play off their reactions to our jokes and kind of tweak stuff, and those always provide for some really fun moments.”

In addition to the fact that Tsai’s role is outside of the family on this new comedy, Tsai said the show as a whole is unique. “It’s got a different story — it feels like a different type of story. It’s not your typical family comedy.”

Because Tsai’s character, Ian, is a cinephile, Tsai shared a few of his own personal favorite films.

“I love the Harry Potter films — I also love the books,” Tsai said. “Also some animated films I really like, like Zootopia, that came out last year. That was a great movie. I liked it because it had an inspiring story and also great animation. I love those little hamsters in Zootopia,” he laughed.

When Tsai isn’t busy acting, something he said not many people know is that he also loves to bake, particularly around the holidays. “Cookies… muffins I’ve done before. There was this one time I did these brownie bars,” he shared. “I love baking with my mom especially.”

Be sure to catch Albert Tsai on 9JKL, airing Mondays at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

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