JAIL BEARD Ryan Howard may be off to prison, but B.J. Novak is still at-large.

Photograph: Eric Williams

Heavily eyebrowed Harvard guy B.J. Novak is a man of many talents. After serving as a sort of part-time sidekick to Ashton Kutcher on MTV’s celebrity practical-joke show, Punk’d, Novak moved on to coproduce, cowrite and costar as temp-turned-corporate-shark Ryan Howard in NBC’s adaptation of the acclaimed British comedy The Office.

During the recent writers’ strike, though, Novak, 28, had plenty of time to hone his dormant stand-up chops, which he’s bringing to Carolines Thursday 5–Sunday 8. He spared a few minutes to talk with TONY while on his way to…the office, we guess.

I loved how your fellow writer/actor Paul Lieberstein [who also plays Toby on the show] live-blogged the season finale.
Oh, good. I was in the room with him. I feared that we were being alienating.

Maybe that’s not a bad thing.
That’s probably why you thought it was funny. And why we thought it was funny. But I think the people that log on to live blogs in general are 16-year-old girls who are crushed that there is not a ring on Pam’s finger.

Pam’s ring shortage isn’t the only surprise in the final episode. Your character gets hauled off to jail for fraud. Is this the end for Ryan Howard?
That is certainly not the end for Ryan Howard, but it is a huge cliff-hanger for Ryan Howard. I hope he gets his life back together, and turns into one of those people that says jail was the best thing that ever happened to them. I love when people say that about bad things. Ryan might be proved innocent. Lots of times people turn other people in for those fraud charges because they resent them personally. There’s a lot that could be going on. We’re going to spend the summer in the writers’ room figuring out where everyone goes next. And if anyone wants to come up to me after my show and give me suggestions, I’m open to that.

It’s nice that you encourage audience participation. Do you prefer stand-up to writing?
They’re different. I love stand-up because it’s direct and personal. Every idea and every side of your own personal style can come out directly as you imagined it. But writing, at least writing for The Office, gives you a lot more to work with. There’s a lot of things that I think are funny that wouldn’t really make sense for me to say onstage, but would make sense for Dwight to say to Michael. Or for Pam to say to Angela. What can I compare it to? I don’t want to use painting. Everyone uses painting. And I don’t want to compare stand-up to a cappella, either. Let’s just leave it as a hanging metaphor.

Do you have any previously untested comic gold in store for New York?
Well, there is always some new material each show. A little bit of new stuff comes in. I feel like I’m setting myself up for a “That’s what she said.”

That’s what…Damn. And what about old Novak standup classics like Wikipedia Brown?
Wikipedia Brown will probably make an appearance in New York, sure. At least at some of the shows. I should open it up so that anyone can contribute to Wikipedia Brown.

Actually, on your Wikipedia page, the link to bjnovak.com leads to nothing. What gives?
I would love to say that was some kind of metaprank, but I think I just bought the site and haven’t figured out anything special to do with it yet. Or anything at all, for that matter. Blank is in! Blank is the new black.

So it’s some kind of postmodern Internet promotional gambit?
Totally. It’s funny the things you’re confronting me with. “Internet rumors say you’re a Red Sox fan! You’ve been described as intelligent and articulate on message boards—how do you respond?” This is the least hard-hitting interview I’ve ever had. I love it. I would love to hear more vague positive rumors about myself.

That’s what they pay me for. Spill the goods, man. Why should we go see you at all?
Well, there’s a puppet bit I’ve been experimenting with. It’s lots of different things that I’ve shaped into an act over the years, but it’s kind of like opening up a trunk in the attic and finding everything. Although I guess it would be a brand-new trunk, because the material is pretty recent. I’m clearly not too good with metaphors this early in the morning.