In case you missed the news, Biff Wiff, a character actor and professional Santa Claus probably best known from his Detective Crashmore and Shirt Brother sketches on I Think You Should Leave, died last month after battling cancer for a few years prior. Wiff, born Gary Crotty (though he told me no one called him that except for his mother and the police) got his name while performing in a song parody troupe in San Diego. Yes, he was what you would call "a character."
He would go on to memorable cameos in Dave, Everything Everywhere, and Brooklyn 99, but in 2021 he was just becoming a phenomenon. I was obsessed with the Detective Crashmore sketch and so I reached out, Biff said yes pretty quickly, and it turned out that this was his first ever interview about his acting career. I've interviewed tons of people over the course of my career, including childhood heroes (Jack Black, Joe Montana) and half the cast of this season of White Lotus. Biff still stands out as one of the most enjoyable talks I've ever had. I didn't even remember I still had the audio until I was looking for a different file the other day and saw this one. Now that it feels like a genuine historical artifact, I couldn't just keep it to myself.
Relistening to it put a big smile on my face, and I hope it puts one on yours. Biff wasn't just a brilliant actor, a funny guy, and a total character, I also got the sense that he was a genuinely sweet person. Hearing him ask about ME at the end of the interview, and seem like he did it because he was genuinely curious, touched me deeply. I can't pretend to have known him well enough to say "that was Biff," but it certainly sums up the impression he left on me. What a cool guy. RIP, Biff Wiff.
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