Show Report: Craig Robinson at Caroline's

While many of us were scarfing down tofurkey or turducken this past weekend, the stars came out for Craig Robinson's shows at Caroline's. On Friday night, he was visited by Office co-stars Kate Flannery and Oscar Nunez, who were in town for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Kate sang a stirring duet with the man, who was backed by a 7-piece band.

Then, on Saturday, it was an HBO-palooza when Entourage's Jeremy Piven and Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie stopped by. Piven played drums, and the group all jammed together for a couple of songs. Robinson's set ranged from lure-you-to-the-bedroom Barry White jams like "Take Your Panties Off" to karaoke classics like "I Will Survive" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." He even wooed Office fans with a rendition of the Dunder Mifflin song from the episode "Local Ad."

After the show on Friday, I chatted with Craig briefly, who started out doing stand-up before landing his gig on The Office. He was happy his Dunder Mifflin co-workers had come out for the show and described the cast as "a family."

Robinson's own family has always been musical: "Our house was like a rehearsal studio." (His younger brother is now a member of his 7-piece band.) Although he's always loved music, he says, "Comedy chose me- I kind of had to do it." His father even persuaded him to pursue comedy as a career, saying "You know, people get paid to be that silly."

When on break from The Office, he's been extremely busy working on an number of film and TV projects including A Night at the Museum 2 and Shrek IV as well as the upcoming Family Guy spinoff The Cleveland Show. And after such a musical night, would he ever consider recording an album? "Absolutely."

-Sachi Ezura