James Roday talks ‘Psych,’ directs ‘Greedy’

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James Roday is heading into his sixth season playing fake psychic Shawn Spencer on USA’s dramedy procedural, ‘Psych.’ But when he’s not solving crimes in a Vancouver passing as Santa Barbara, Roday produces theater with Red Dog Squadron. His company’s latest effort, an edgy little comedy called ‘Greedy,’ opened this week at El Centro Theatre with ‘Psych’s’ Maggie Lawson in the cast and Roday off stage in the director’s chair.

Here’s Culture Monster’s Q&A with Roday about ‘Psych’ and his director’s hat.

But lovers of Shawnisms (‘Gus, don’t act the way Eriq La Salle spells Eriq’) need not fear. ‘Psych’ returns this summer, and Roday shared that there are fantasy episodes on the writing room whiteboard: ‘A baseball episode has been on the board forever. Corbin Bernsen is on the show, how can we not do a baseball show? We’ve talked about doing a musical. And then there’s the vampire thing. We’d only go there if we had a surprising take.’

As for guest stars, Val Kilmer tops Roday’s list. ‘I never had a thing for movie stars,’ he explained. ‘I was into the guys who could transform. Sean Penn. Daniel Day-Lewis. The ones who privileged the craft. Val could play Jim Morrison and Doc Holliday and Batman. And, of course, he was in ‘Real Genius.’ It would be great if he could come on the show. I think it needs to happen.’

-- Charlotte Stoudt

“Greedy,” El Centro Theatre, 804 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. Ends Jan. 29. $20. www.reddogsquadron.com. Running time, 2 hours, 10 minutes.