David Koechner not a jerk, but has played one

Actor-comedian brings standup to Helium Comedy Club

David Koechner has played a number of over-the-top characters, from the chauvinist Champ Kind in “Anchorman” to the obnoxious Todd Packer on “The Office,” but says his characters are often “The Anti-Me.”

“You never get to act like that in life,” he says with a chuckle, adding he was at an airport with his children, buying them some snacks in a crowded waiting area, when a couple noticed he had to stand so his kids could have seats. The couple watched him intently before speaking to him.

“They said, ‘We’re gonna give you our seats because you don’t seem to be like the guy you play in ‘The Office,’” he says with a hearty laugh.

Koechner comes to Portland this week, doing five shows at Helium Comedy Club, 1510 S.E. Ninth Ave.

Kochner takes the stage at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, and at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2 and 3. Tickets are $20 general admission, $28

reserved, and must be purchased online at www.heliumcomedyclub.com.

Koechner notes his standup is mostly rooted in his family life — he’s been married to his wife, Leigh, for 17 years, and they have five children.

“My house is a symphony of chaos,” he says, and calls his routine “loud and wet,” as opposed to dry and deadpan. He also plays different characters on stage, including an auctioneer who has a mental breakdown in the middle of his chant.

“While holding the auction he blurts out embarrassing details of his life, some of which are tragic and dark,” Koechner says.

Koechner has been doing standup for the past five years, but he’s probably best known for his numerous roles in sketch comedy, movies, TV and online. An alumnus of Chicago Second City Theater as well as ImprovOlympic (now iO), he spent a year as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” and says his favorite sketch during the 1995-96 season was when he played Gerald T-Bone Tibbins, a slack-jawed executioner who teases Christopher Walken’s death row inmate about his impending doom. Tim Meadows played the warden befuddled by Tibbins’ cruelty.

“Wooo! Fire in the hole!” Tibbins screams as he tests the electrocution device on Walken. Tibbins leaves the execution room, then prank calls Meadows, pretending to be the governor pardoning Walken. “Gotcha!” he says

“My biggest takeaway from (SNL) was that I could succeed,” he says, adding he tells other performing artists, “There is nobody in your way but yourself. It’s up to you to do whatever.”

For Koechner, “whatever” has included dozens of films, voice work in animation and recurring roles on such shows as “Hannah Montana” and “The Goldbergs.” He recently played Commodore Bellacourt on the Comedy Central show “Another Period.”

“I enjoyed working with such a great cast, who are all friends,” he says.

Of his film roles, he says he really relished playing Colin, a rich sociopath who, with his wife, Violet (played by Sara Paxton), manipulates two men to play an increasingly dangerous game of dares against each other in “Cheap Thrills.”

“I got a chance to play a completely different role than I have before,” he says. “Very sinister.”