Nick Offerman on the art of failing, tomfoolery and his visit to Harrisburg

Actor Nick Offerman is known not only for his work on stage and screen, but also for his work with tools and carpentry.

His dry wit and love for woodworking are traits he shares with some of his on-screen characters, most notably Ron Swanson from the sitcom “Parks and Recreation.”

And, in his spare time, he also writes books.

Offerman will come to Harrisburg on Oct. 15 for the kickoff of the Harrisburg Book Festival, to support his latest book, “Little Woodchucks.”

The kickoff event will be held at the Senators stadium on City Island starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $57.50, which includes a signed copy of the new book.

Co-written with Lee Buchanan, “Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery” is a collection of woodworking projects, complete with instructions, tool lists and step-by-step guidance for both young people and the adults in their lives.

“There’s a saying that we have: the lazy carpenter works the hardest,” Offerman said. “If you’re not doing your best — if you’re trying to find shortcuts or sort of time-saving gadgets — you end up working three times as long fixing the mistakes that those things caused you.”

“The subject of woodworking in general can be daunting,” Offerman said. “I think this book goes a long way towards assuaging that anxiety.”

When it comes to any project, Offerman said, “we go in understanding that we’re going to make mistakes.”

Breaking through that fear of failure, he said, is the key to success in any field.

“If you’re a human being, you’re going to mess things up, whether it’s in your relationships or at work,” he said. “That’s how we learn. That’s how we achieve greater mastery. You don’t just start anything by like shooting three pointers and just never missing. You got to learn the fundamentals, and in this case, you learn them together as a family. And it’s incredibly powerful.”

You’re coming to Harrisburg to promote your newest book, one of several that you’ve written. When you’re not working on acting, you’re crafting things, working on carpentry, things like that. Is it fair to call you America’s Daniel Day-Lewis?

“[Laughs] No, God, no. Daniel will, I think, always remain many floors above me in the in the tower of crafting thespians. I would be happy to apprentice at his shop. I’d love to work with him as an actor, but maybe I have the edge on him when it comes to tool experience. He seems to flit a little more from interest to interest, which maybe bespeaks of his greater overall talent. But I’m sort of stuck with the chisel and dovetail saw.”

Can you talk about the subtitle: “Offerman Woodshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery.” Generally, I don’t associate tomfoolery with best practices, when working with tools.

“For sure, and you’re right. Whenever we get anybody around tools or machinery in general, whether I’m at home with with my family and my farmer uncles, or if we’re at the wood shop and we’ve got adults or kids, the first thing we do is say, ‘Okay, here are all the things that can really hurt your feelings or your fingers.’ We’re going to be safety first, every time, and that’s true in the book and in the shop.

“But then at the same time, I want to encourage a sense of fun. So once you know the safety guidelines and you know what you’re doing, it’s very important to any wood shop or any family activity, to never take it too seriously, and allow yourself to to be flawed humans. No matter what we’re working on, you learn to live up to the professionalism that is required by the project.

“This is a life rule for me: you figure out how to get your work done in the best way you can. I think my life, my track record, if nothing else, speaks to the fact that that I have a very good work ethic. I do the best job I can every time, for better or worse. However it ends up being graded, I definitely gave it my best attempt.

“And so by doing that, I’ve learned then you’re freed up to have fun. If you do things half-assed, then you’re always scrambling to be like, ‘I better do a little more. I’ve procrastinated. I’m lazy. My heart’s not entirely in this.’ Then your life is miserable.

“So I think anybody flipping through the book will see that it’s a very serious book rendered with a great deal of fun.”

Can you talk about that marriage between woodworking and the performing arts? I think a lot of people would see entertainment as the opposite of working with tools.

“It’s funny, because when I actually perform … I always insist that I’m a humorist. I feel like I’m not as funny as a stand-up. I don’t write jokes like my friends, Zach Galifianakis and Sarah Silverman. They’re geniuses at writing jokes. I amuse people, but my form is more of an essay than a setup and punchline.

“I grew up in a family that felt like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ in the ’70s in Illinois. I was brought up to be self-sufficient. Me and my siblings were taught to use tools and to sew our clothing, and to cook food and grow a garden, and maintain our vehicles. We were brought up to be very self-sufficient, good citizens. The humor that I glean out of that in this day and age is how most people weren’t, which is the impetus for this book.

“I also, through no fault of my own, wanted to just be the star of things from the time I started theater school at age 18. But it took me a long time to get good enough at naturalistic acting to start getting the parts that I wanted. And while I was waiting for that to kick in, I was able to lean on my tool skills and get paid to build scenery.

“So there was a time in my early to mid-20s in Chicago that I thought I was just going to be a professional scenery carpenter, which I was pretty happy about. It’s the greatest theater community in the country, and I loved being part of making great Chicago theater.

“But then I sort of figured out how to effectively string a couple lines of dialogue together, and life had a different plan for me. It’s the kind of thing people find surprising when you can do more than one thing. But I was just brought up that way, and it’s something that is very attainable.

“And part of this book is sort of a thinly veiled screed. It’s not just ‘teach your kids to make fun stuff.’ It’s also absolutely for the parents. Most people I know don’t know how to swing a hammer, or they don’t know which screwdriver to use if their doorknob is broken. It’s really to empower everybody in a really fun way.

“Get together with your family and learn how to use these tools. It feels incredible. The projects in the book are a blast, and they’re wonderful gateway projects. But you might end up becoming a welder, or making stained glass windows, or specializing in lasagna, and all of those things are incredibly creative and delicious and edifying in ways that nothing you can order off your phone will ever be. That’s the secret to this book: it’s a secret recipe for powerful wizardry within your household.”

How has it been since “Parks and Recreation” for your acting career? Are you still getting roles that you really find interesting? Or are they like, ‘Oh, we need a Nick Offerman type.’

“It’s actually a great question, and the answer to it is kind of ever evolving.

“I am so grateful. I already felt so lucky before ‘Parks and Rec’ because I was Mr. Megan Mullally. My wife is the goddess of comedy legends, and such a talented Broadway star. And I was getting to work pretty consistently as a dependable character actor. It was just once or twice a year I’d show up on ”ER” or something. But it was sporadic enough that I was making a living, and my health insurance, and for an actor that’s that’s winning the lottery.

“So then once ‘Parks and Rec’ happened, it changed my lucky category from ‘working actor,’ which is wild, to ‘actor with clout,’ where I’m valued for my flavor, whatever that may be. So then I’m getting to pick between stuff that I’m getting offered, which is just bananas. Yeah, it’s one in a gazillion for that to happen.

“And the crazy thing is, by and large, since ‘Parks and Rec’ started in 2009, it’s pretty much kept getting better. I got to do a season of ‘Fargo’ that stands out as an exceptional highlight. I got to do really good work on that show.

“I’ve always been able to work on things that I felt were interesting. I have this Netflix show coming out in November called ‘Death by Lightning,’ where I play [American president] Chester Arthur. It’s the story of James Garfield and his assassination. That’s an incredible role. And this movie, ‘Sovereign,’ that is available right now, is one of the most incredible pieces of art I’ve ever gotten to work on.

“Then I’m on this new David E. Kelly show that’ll come out next year. I’ve got an incredible part on this wonderful show from a great novel by Ruthie Thorpe, called ‘Margot’s Got Money Troubles.’

“It’s wild. I’m 55 and I keep thinking, every job, I’m like, ‘Wow, this is the greatest job I’ve ever had.’ And so it’s this weird, inexorable, slowly rolling snowball.

“I try to keep imposter syndrome at the door and keep my head down, and say, well, they apparently need my brand of clumsy jackass. I started where I couldn’t get cast in the chorus. And so to sit there and do scenes with Michelle Pfeiffer? I’m like, ‘Just be cool.’

If this acting thing doesn’t work out, you can always fall back on carpentry and writing books.

“You know, part of the secret to whatever level I’ve succeeded over these last, oh … sneaking up on a couple decades here, is that I can happily fall back on woodworking and writing books and theater, if my cheekbones ever go away and I quit getting cast as a cutie.

“But it’s true: that gives me a confidence and a comfort. I’ve never stressed out. I never worry about this horrible business, so full of rejection and greed and avarice and everything. But just good art.

“I’m able to somehow deflect all of the toxicity and stay in this pocket of people who hug each other and say, Ssomehow we’ve gotten the money to make this Alex Garland movie. Let’s make it with love and respect everybody and see how that goes.’

Do you have a quick list of the tools that every house should have?

“Sure. The book wonderfully has delightful, detailed pages and photographs of the toolkit suggested and required for each of the projects. And those are so much fun. They’re called knolling, when you lay out all the things you need for the recipe or for the [project]. That’s a term that I love.

“But every household should have fasteners. Hammer, nails, screw gun, screw tips, you know, screws, drywall screws, deck screws. You should have a socket set, open ended wrenches, screwdrivers. They make these great new screwdrivers that ratchet, and they have several different tips that are interchangeable.

“And in this day and age you need one of those kits that has like, 50 different screw tips. Especially with technology, they’re like, ’it’s a mini torques,’ or, like, ‘a nine sided star that’s one millimeter big.’

“Those are the big ones. Those allow you to take everything apart and put it together, by and large. A crowbar, a little a mini crowbar, called a cat’s paw. Those are really handy.

“And I recommend that you get a plank of wood and get a nice saw. You can find saws for free, wonderful old cross cut saws in junk shops. People don’t value those. And it’s actually really fun to get a little file and learn to sharpen it. You get this free saw, and you turn it into this incredibly powerful implement. It’s like when you sharpen your kitchen knives, and you’re like, ‘holy cow, cutting these tomatoes is such a pleasure with such accuracy.’ You can do that with a plank of pine, it feels like you’re a super human.

“Because that’s that’s the secret to woodworking. Learning to properly sharpen your steel, which is totally easy. Any dum-dum, even me, can do it. I’m telling you, you can spend a whole Saturday with a chisel, learning to sharpen it, and then suddenly you can carve a piece of wood like it’s ice or butter.

“And that ability, you know, it’s not going to be for everybody. But there are definitely members of your family that are going to leap to it. And maybe other kids in your family will be great at measuring. They’re going to end up being the accountants in the family, who we desperately need to take care of the sculptors.”

It has been great to talk to you. Mr. Offerman, and we’re looking forward to your visit to Harrisburg.

“Thank you for being generous with me. I have to say, I’m quite excited and a little bit daunted. I have not played a baseball stadium. I’m a man of the theater. They said ‘we have this idea for a unique, original venue.’ And I’m one to say yes to life, and go in knowing that it could be an absolute train wreck.

“But I’ve created a power ballad with which I hope to fill the ballpark. I’m bringing everything I can to make it really fun. I’m really excited, and I’m very grateful to Harrisburg for giving me the chance to bust out my first Eddie Vedder performance.”