The comedian confesses he initially used the jet ski line to get out of having to explain his recent projects to industry snobs.

• Aug 28, 2018

AceShowbiz - Actor Rob Riggle came up with the premise for his new sporting comedy as a joke to brush off questions about his screen career.

The "21 Jump Street" star plays a "heightened version" of himself in Rob Riggle's "Ski Master Academy", which follows his adventures during a mid-life crisis after deciding to buy a jet ski school.

Riggle confesses he initially used the jet ski line to get out of having to explain his recent projects to industry snobs, until he started to give the idea some serious thought as a TV series.

"It totally started as a joke!" he laughed on breakfast show "Good Morning America". "In Hollywood... people are always like, 'What are you doing these days...?' and they say it with that attitude and that tone, and then you have to go into your resume... and you get tired of doing that. I'm just tired of justifying myself, so when they would ask me, I'd say, 'I'm gonna open a jet ski academy...,' and then I'd walk away.

"And then I started thinking, like, 'What if I did open a jet ski academy? That sounds like a pretty funny world.' So then I started filling it out in my mind... So I went and pitched it to Sony Crackle (streaming network bosses) and they said, 'We love it!' - which blew me away - and so they made it!"

Rob also turned the show into a family affair by having his own daughter, budding actress Abby, feature as one of his co-stars.

"My daughter, she's 14, still in school, but she's got the acting bug... so she was part of this and she got to have a scene where she got to basically tell me to go pound sand (go away), but not as nice (sic)!" he explained. "She got to use some (bad) language, actually, which I had to proof... We got it and then she goes, 'I need another take...!'

"Anyway, it was a good time."

Rob also cast one of his friends, retired American football star Brian Urlacher, as his character's nemesis, giving Jenny McCarthy's one-time boyfriend his first proper acting gig as a series regular.

Rob Riggle's "Ski Master Academy" launched online last week (ends August 24).