For a long time, John Lehr struggled to truly find his footing in showbiz. “I’m like an odd duck, I think,” he told Interviewing Hollywood. As a stand-up comedian whose material is based in storytelling, and as an actor who’d rather improvise than follow a script, Lehr explained that he found himself “in the in-between world.” This turned out to be an issue when it came to fitting in and finding work. “I’ve kind of had to forge my own way,” he continued, saying that he eventually branched out on his own to combine his acting and writing talents on both stage and screen. He added, “I love producing. It’s a big part of who I am.”
Lehr’s first solo effort in this vein was a one-man show Off-Broadway called The Lehr Curse (via Playbill), which changed the course of his career in 2004. “I just started to get a taste of the fact that I had something . specific to say to an audience,” the actor-writer-producer told Interviewing Hollywood. “[And] that it was okay for me to be out front, to be the lead.”
Howler Monkey Productions
After appearing in Nancy Hower’s mockumentary TV movie Memron in 2004, John Lehr teamed up with the writer-director to create Howler Monkey Productions. Their production company allowed the duo to write and produce their own improv-based works in film and television, including the TBS workplace comedy 10 Items or Less (2006-2009) and the 2011 Crackle series Jailbait, both of which starred Lehr himself. However, the culmination of these writing, producing, acting, and improvisational efforts was the popular, yet unfortunately short-lived Quick Draw. This Western comedy series, which ran for two seasons on Hulu beginning in 2013, saw Lehr star as a Harvard graduate-turned-sheriff named Henry Hoyle in 1875 Kansas.
“My goal all along is to do theater on TV, to do something powerful and true to a smaller audience who loves it,” Lehr told Zocalo Public Square. Having explained to DanaRoc that he was always on the look-out for fostering “real and authentic” experiences in his life and career, he noted that on a smaller show, “I can help to create the environment that I have always wanted to work in.”
He’s sharing the inside scoop
In , Nicki Swift connected with John Lehr for a interview, and we got right down to business asking the question on everyone’s minds: In a battle between commercial icons, who would win in a fight between Flo from Progressive, Allstate’s Mayhem guy, and the GEICO cavemen?
“Well, we gotta go with the cavemen!” Lehr naturally replied. “I mean, I love both of the other two – I think they’re all three pretty amazing campaigns . but I’m a caveman. I can’t go against my team!” Noting that “the other two are winners, and we’re kind of losers,” the comic went on to explain, “We’re under-appreciated, we’re metrosexual . we’re kind of depressed or beaten down. I mean, you gotta go with them!” We’re 100 percent with Lehr on this one: when in doubt, always root for the underdog.
It doesn’t always pay to meet your heroes
With a career spanning nearly three decades, John Lehr’s rubbed shoulders with some pretty famous faces. What’s his best celebrity encounter? In the early ’90s, Lehr worked as a production assistant for the MTV Video Music Awards. “I was backstage and my boss said, ‘John, just stand here and hold these video tapes. Someone will come and get them,'” he told Nicki Swift, explaining that he was “totally starstruck” by the music industry’s best – 
