In the Showtime series, “I’m Dying Up Here,” actor Andrew Santino is Bill Hobbs, a caustic and cynical comic who is determined to climb to the top of the entertainment heap — at just about any cost. As stand-up comic Andrew Santino, he is far from being Hobbs. One critic has described the Chicago born-and-raised Santino as having a “dry-yet-jovial wit” on stage.

Santino agrees with the characterization. “Yeah, I would say that is fairly accurate,” said Santino, during a recent chat from his Los Angeles home. “I like to *&^% on everything equally,” he said, laughing, describing himself as half Irish and half Italian and someone who grew up in a “warm family that loved to tell jokes and lighthearted stories.”