Unless you're a theater nerd, you may not know who Dan Fogler is...yet. The star of this week's ping pong spectacular Balls of Fury is like a hairy teddy bear in person, with an infectious belly laugh that erupted many times during our chat at Comic-Con...and he's got a really lethal table tennis game (read on for more details)!

The 31-year-old Fogler honed his comic timing as an adolescent competitor in the Tony-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and will be seen in a gaggle of comic roles in the upcoming Good Luck Chuck, Fanboys, and Kids in America. He'll soon also lend his deep, raspy voice to a few animated characters in Horton Hears a Who and Disney's Rapunzel. But first things first; this week, Fogler stars as competitive ping pong-er Randy Daytona, the troubled hero who stumbles into an Enter the Dragon-style table tennis tournament in Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's Balls of Fury.

We spoke exclusively with Fogler in San Diego during Comic-Con, where the busy actor was promoting Balls of Fury. As we discovered in our chat, while Fogler's assessment of his own skills borders on what can be construed as athletic enlightenment ("sort of a Buddha level") his ping pong past harbors some moments of real-life danger ("I detached a man's retina"). Thankfully, that briefly awkward moment gave way to the most enjoyable interview we've done at RT -- hey, all it takes is talk of nerds, a hairy Wolverine, and "Eat your way out" candy tanks -- and so it is with our pleasure that we introduce you to the man, the mind, the movement: Dan Fogler.


Rotten Tomatoes: So, ping pong...

Dan Fogler: Yeah!

Had you played before?

DF: Yeah, I mean I played in my basement when I was a kid.

I mean, like hardcore play?

DF: No, not until the movie. And then it was all intense and hardcore.

How much training did you do?

DF: So much. I played to the point of...almost insanity. Exhaustion of the spirit. And then there was a breaking...of my soul at one point, and then there was a sort of a rising like a fiery phoenix from the ashes...



Dan Fogler at the Comic-Con press day

Of your soul?

DF: Of my soul, and of my skill, and I became a master and surpassed my masters. And now I'm sort of at a Buddha level with my skills, and it's not about either winning or losing...it's just about not playing at all. I mean, I could probably beat anybody in the world. And also I hurt somebody. I hurt somebody really bad.

In a tragic ping pong accident?

DF: Why does everyone say it like that? Yeah, in a tragic ping pong accident.

OK. You don't have to divulge too much...

DF: Uh...I detached a man's retina. I was a little kid.

Oh wait. That was real? OK. I'll scratch that from the record...

DF: No, keep it. I like it. Is that scary?

Yeah. The power you wield with a little paddle...(Changing the subject) I like your sweatband.

DF: Do you?

It makes you look very sporty.

DF: Just in case I have to run from the cops, I can always just wipe my brow. Or if I'm in a bar brawl that just breaks out...

Or if you're walking through the convention halls [at Comic-Con] and you rub up against too many sweaty nerds...there are a lot of them, I tell you. We should all have sweatbands.

DF: [Laughing] I'm a sweaty nerd!