Nick Swardson specialises in fast talk, physical silliness and crude jokes. His recurring place in Adam Sandler's comedies has given us few good evenings, though their failures cannot fairly be laid at a supporting actor's door.
Fi1m perspective
As Terry Bernadino, Nick Swardson combines roller skates with fast talk. That gives him a recognisable comic character before much explaining needs to be done. His broader taste for scatological humour is less distinctive, and the films we have reviewed give us little reason to celebrate it. Too often, the joke has stopped developing while the film is still going.
His work has not been confined to turning up for a supporting part. He acted in and co-wrote Grandma's Boy (2006), then created and starred in the sketch series Nick Swardson's Pretend Time (2010–2011). Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011) put him in the title role as well as giving him a writing credit. Those projects establish that he helps choose and shape this material, with some responsibility for deciding how far a crude premise can go.
Jack and Jill (2011), in which he plays Todd, offers little encouragement. Adam Sandler has two roles, but there are scarcely enough jokes to sustain either of them. Al Pacino provides some welcome foolishness, yet the crude humour and persistent bullying make the film wearying. We would be wary of treating its shortcomings as a verdict on Swardson's acting.
Dennis Dugan's Grown Ups 2 (2013), with Swardson playing Nick, is worse. We were bored by its repetitive bodily jokes, then irritated when the dutiful family lessons asked for our attention. Sandler and his fellow leads seem comfortable, but that ease produces little entertainment. Swardson's long association with Sandler and Happy Madison has made these broad supporting roles a recurring feature of his work.
He also has a writing credit on a 2013 sketch film, so our concern there is with the jokes. There are scattered laughs, but the sketches keep repeating grotesque premises instead of developing them. His writing credit makes the thinness of those jokes harder to put aside. We would welcome a role that made more use of his fast-talking physical foolishness and depended less on another bodily joke.
Biography
Nicholas Roger Swardson (born 9 October 1976) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter and producer. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Swardson began performing stand-up comedy at the age of 18. He is known for his recurring role as Terry Bernadino in the Comedy Central series Reno 911! (2003–2009) and for his own sketch series Nick Swardson's Pretend Time (2010–2011). He has appeared in several films produced by Happy Madison, including Grandma's Boy (2006), in which he also co-wrote the screenplay, Just Go with It (2011), Jack and Jill (2011) and Grown Ups 2 (2013). He wrote for Movie 43 (2013) and starred in and co-wrote Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011).
Other film credits include The Benchwarmers (2006), which he co-wrote, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008), 30 Minutes or Less (2011) and voice roles in Bolt (2008) and Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015).
