We chatted with lead stars Sebastian Maniscalco and Omar J. Dorsey and Emmy®-nominated Creators/Writers/EPs Chuck Lorre (Two and Half Men, The Kominsky Method, and The Big Bang Theory) and Nick Bakay about the new season of the comedy series Bookie, which is now streaming on Max and has new episodes released weekly.
The darkly hilarious comedy series is set in Los Angeles, following veteran bookie Danny (Sebastian Maniscalco) as the potential legalization of sports gambling in California threatens to upend his business for good. With the partnership of best friend and former NFL player Ray (Omar J. Dorsey), side-hustling sister Lorraine (Vanessa Ferlito), and reluctantly reformed drug dealer Hector (Jorge Garcia), Danny must content with his increasingly unstable clients as he tries to settle their debts – all while making plenty of risky bets of his own.
Bookie is full of relatable mishaps, chronicling one man’s journey to adapt to an ever-evolving world as he attempts to charm and con his way to the top. Additional cast members include Andrea Anders, Maxim Swinton, and Rob Corddry. This season’s guest stars include Charlie Sheen, Ray Romano, Zach Braff, and Brad Garrett.
The Knockturnal spoke with stars Sebastian Maniscalco and Omar J. Dorsey about the series, its chaotic nature, and how the stakes were raised this season for their characters.
On approaching how to find the right balance between comedy and tension in their performances.
”You know, what I try to do is just play the scene, what exactly is on the page, because it is high stakes right? And it is sometimes dangerous positions that we’re put in, but it’s so funny, too. You know, we go into like East L.A. into this super drug dealer, human traffickers, killer’s house to collect money. But everything goes awry and looks like it’s going to be the end of Ray and Danny until Charlie Sheen shows up,” Dorsey said.
”Yeah, I think if you play the comedy, you’re dead. You play the situation, the relationship. It’s more about the relationship between the characters and out of the relationship, definitely comes the comedy. So it’s like, you’re not playing the joke here…It’s like real-life situations,” Maniscalco explained.
This season of Bookie puts Danny and Ray further down a web of complicated situations, both within the world of gambling and in their personal lives. These external pressures impact their relationships with other characters in various ways with new conflicts and alliances formed.
”Yeah, due to poor decision-making on the behalf of Danny and Ray, we find ourselves in business with people we would probably never be in business with, just because we made one decision,” Maniscalco said.
Bookie is known for its eclectic cast of guest stars that features a hilarious assortment of Hollywood’s best.
Maniscalco further elaborated, ”It opens up a Pandora’s box of a variety of different personalities that we come across, which again brings out some great comedic scenes…So yeah, and also, you know, we’re trying to deal with our personal lives.”
Next, The Knockturnal spoke to co-creators/writers/executive producers of Bookie, the minds behind the show, Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay, following the intense cliffhangers and revelations in season one, there are certainly new characters or plot twists to expect that they’re particularly excited for audiences to see.
Lorre hinted at wonderful surprises in episode two that he didn’t want to give away which Bakay agreed.
”It’s really, it’s kind of like a fever dream. They [Danny and Ray] go on a wild adventure in episode two. And there’s a sort of really fun Deus Ex Machina that gets them out of it,” Bakay explained.
Bookie not only focuses on the duo’s money issues but their family issues as well for better or much worse in this case.
Bakay stated, ”On the overriding level, they have the problems of their family situations get much more complicated and their money situations gets much more complicated. And there’s a little skullduggery with our old friend Rob Coddry that’s a lot of fun too.”
Lorre is known for his Emmy-nominated hit sitcoms that center on exploring complicated human relationships. On balancing character-driven storytelling with the Bookie‘s darker elements. He emphasized that finding the right tone was important to still keep Bookie‘s core comedic elements, but felt that there was room to go to new heights this season.
”One of the great pleasures of doing season two of the show was realizing we had so much freedom to tell the story any which was we waned. And hopefully take advantage of that freedom and cause laughter maybe? Which would be a swell outcome for a comedy,” Lorre remarked.
Season two of Bookie premiered on Max on Dec. 12. Episodes will debut weekly with the season finale set to release on Jan. 30.
