Actor behind 'parenta-life coach' commercial character shares Kansas connection - WIBW

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(WIBW) - - Bill Glass’ path to pitchman passed thru the University of Kansas.

The man who teaches us not to become our parents as Dr. Rick in the Progressive Insurance ads ended up in Kansas because of his parents.

“I told my parents you can give me the money you’re going to spend on college and I can go to LA now, or I can go to college and come home and I’m going to try this anyway. They’re like - you go to college!” he said in an interview with 13 NEWS.

Glass spent five years at KU, leaving just shy of a journalism degree. He said he decided on journalism because he saw a connection to his love for improvisational comedy.

“In the early 90s, ESPN was sort of comedy sportscasting, for lack of a better way to describe it,” Glass said. “I thought I love being the class clown....You can have fun and be a journalist according to ESPN, so I’m going to go try and do that. It was away from home - I had to be away from home - and a good journalism program, so I was a Jayhawk.”

Growing up in suburban Chicago, Glass had a front row seat to some of the best.

“I got bit by the bug when I saw (Chris) Farley and Tim Meadows on the main stage of Second City main stage,” he said. “I knew I was going to come back to Chicago and try improv after college. It just depended if I had the guts to pursue it as far as I apparently have now.”

Glass took classes at Second City, and got his stage time at the now-closed IO Theatre. There, he met another budding comedian with Kansas ties, K-State’s Eric Stonestreet, who even tweeted the Dr. Rick ads should get Glass his own sitcom.

“(Stonestreet) always had ‘it’ Just knowing the business and being extremely talented,” Glass said. “He helped me do my first mailing to commercial agents. A Wildcat helping out a Jayhawk a little bit was very refreshing.”

Glass has held steady work in commercials and various sitcoms. But it’s his role in the Progressive commercial series for which the recently-turned-50-year old is finding perhaps his greatest success.

“It’s been a fun, little bit of a surreal roller coaster,” he said.

Which is true, even if no one notices him on the streets: Dr. Rick’s mustache isn’t real, allowing the clean-shaven Glass (he says his lack of facial hair is in his ‘marital contract’) to continue operating in relative anonymity.

“I haven’t been recognized for 20 years, so if we keep going without me being recognized, I’m totally fine with that. I’ll be okay,” he said.

Glass says technology makes now a great time for young people chasing their dreams. His advice is to go for it.

“Don’t overthink it. Don’t wonder if it’s good enough or bad enough. The bad stuff teaches you how to do the good stuff, so just shoot and do,” he said.

As for whether he’ll take a page from his parents when it comes to his two sons’ futures, he says, for now, he’s content to let the teens do their own thing.

“If they come to me and say they don’t want to go to college, we’ll talk about it,” he said. “They’ll have to have a plan. They’ll have to show me the road map they want to take.”

He’s not worried about sounding like his parents in the future because he says he already does.

mel - because the point is, are you going to start sounding like your parents, dr rick?

“I think that’s why this campaign resonates with people,” he said. “Progressive has hit a really fun nerve. We all do it whether we like it or not!”

Glass said the campaign has two new ads out, and he’s hopeful for more, saying he loves his job.

KC BBQ or Chicago-style pizza? Dr. Rick or Flo? Comedy or drama? Watch our either/or Q&A below:

WATCH: Extended interview with Bill Glass:

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Actor behind 'parenta-life coach' commercial character shares Kansas connection - WIBW
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