Brian Baumgartner and Mindy Kaling conference call

Mindy: Oh well, I was honored that they asked me to come and be an MC. I mean I do stand up comedy in addition to writing, so it was great for me to come out there and be in Scranton and the Scranton convention was so fun. So I thought great, another excuse to go back to Scranton, I’ll take it.

Brian: You know I wanted to follow up on the first part of her answer. You know, when they cast the show, the cast — well they cast me and so they really felt like the show — you know, because it takes place in Scranton that we were too hot. We were too sexy and they really wanted to bring some realism in so they were like what about Mindy? So they brought in Mindy to really kind of like average us out.

Mindy: Right, we had to offset Brian’s extreme good looks.

Brian: Yeah, yeah my hotness. Yeah.

Mindy: Because they thought of Oscar as like the Scranton Ricky Martin and so they were like how do we tone that down.

Brian: Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah.

Press: My question is for Brian. I was wondering when fans talk to you, do they think that you are as slow as Kevin is?

Brian: You know, nobody ever lets on right away that they think that. But then after awhile, if the conversation goes beyond a sentence, then I invariably will get some comment like, “You talk different.” I wanted to say, “Well yeah I guess I do.” Like I don’t really know how to respond to that in that way but I actually think I don’t know exactly what it is, but Kevin has this like everybody wants to have a beer with him thing.

So it can be a dangerous proposition at any drinking establishment because everybody wants to buy Kevin — not really me — a shot or a drink of something. So I don’t really know what that’s about. I don’t really feel like he’s boozed it up so much on the show, but there is some sort of big guy loveable oaf thing that people respond to I guess.

Press: Mindy, are you going to be writing with the spin off or are you sticking to the original Office?

Mindy: I will be sticking on the mothership for as long as I can tell. Although the spin off from what I’ve heard sounds amazing and that will be really fun for those writers.

Press: Awesome. And you said you did stand up, where in LA are you doing — are you doing it in LA at all?

Mindy: Yeah I do a lot of stand up at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, which is sort of in central Hollywood. And now I’m doing a lot of colleges. Well not right now, because it’s summer break but in the fall I’ll continue to do some colleges.

Press: Brian, webisodes were great, I loved them. I thought they were hilarious. Are we going to see more like money problems for Kevin next season, or maybe even Malone cones or is this just strictly the Webisodes?

Brian: You know, that’s probably actually more a question for Mindy. I don’t really know exactly what the writers are dreaming up right now. I mean, I think that his, well, this sort of irony of how terrible he is with money, yet he’s an accountant at Dunder Mifflin has played out a few times. Or maybe his ineptitude has played out.

But there’s been sort of this thing, sort of a running thing, about him not handling his money so well and Oscar sort of helping out. I don’t know if specifically his ice cream franchise is going to expand, but I sort of assume that this is kind of a summer excursion for him.