Dominic Burgess Remembers Playing Psycho Pete on ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’

Believe it or not, Mac and Charlie weren’t always the biggest psychos in their friend group. There used to be a member called Psycho Pete who screamed in babies’ faces, threatened to burn their high school down, and according to legend, cut up his family and ate them for Christmas dinner. 

We first hear mention of Psycho Pete in Season Seven of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but he doesn’t appear until Season 10, when Mac and Charlie triumphantly announce his return to Dee, Dennis and Frank while singing along to “Psycho Killer” by The Talking Heads. But much to Mac and Charlie’s disappointment, when Psycho Pete returns, they find a sedate, soft-spoken man lacking any of the psychotic qualities that earned him his nickname. Instead, the reformed Psycho Pete seems deeply embarrassed by his past and is entirely committed to living a normal life after his release from a psychiatric institution (he also didn’t actually eat his family).

Naturally, at the end of the episode, the gang gets bored of him and sends him on a train out of town. That said, I managed to catch up with Psycho Pete — or, more accurately, actor Dominic Burgess — to find out what makes Psycho Pete tick.

Do you remember how you got the part of Psycho Pete?

Wendy O’Brien is the casting director on that show, and it might’ve been three or four times that I had auditioned for her for little bits on Sunny. She first brought me in for a show called Legit, then I eventually got on Sunny.

What was the description for Pete? I mean, the whole point is that he’s entirely normal, right?

Yeah, he’s entirely benign. You know, I think I can find the original breakdown in my email. Hold on.

Here we go: “Psycho Pete, any ethnicity, a bald, overweight, middle-aged man, quiet and withdrawn and easily hurt. He’s an infamous cannibal killer who’s just been released from a mental institution after dropping by Paddy’s Pub. He finds that the ancient rumors about his atrocities just won’t die, and he gets even more morose. After the gang tries to find some way to get fun-loving Pete back in action, he reveals the boring truth: He was hospitalized for depression, not cannibalism.”

I don’t know if you know this, but Psycho Pete was mentioned prior to your appearance on the show.

He was, yeah, in the high school reunion episode. I was a fan of the show before doing it, and I think I had tracked down that episode where they’re talking about him previously.

Since you were a fan, what was it like then being on the show?

I was a little bit in awe. I probably wasn’t behaving like a normal human being would because I was just so giddy about being in Paddy’s Bar and around them. I wish I could relive it now, being much more comfortable in myself and on set because I just would’ve just been more loose and fun. 

I was at the craft services table and Kaitlin Olson would come over and be like, “How’s your day going?” and I’d be like, “Oh, I’m good. Thank you so much. Thanks for asking.” Then I’d find an excuse to run away, whereas now I’d have a conversation like a human being. I felt like I sort of shut down as a human, much like Psycho Pete.

What about the taping itself?

I remember it being fast. It took a little while set-up wise, but then it’s like two, three takes and they’re done and moving on. 

There wasn’t as much improv as I was expecting. Watching Sunny, you feel like it’s so loose and free, but a lot of it was as scripted. Toward the end of a take, they might go off the rails a little bit, and maybe they’re in the third or fourth take when they just play and explore. But as Psycho Pete, who was so sort of withdrawn and into himself, there wasn’t a lot of space for him to do something crazy.

The most fun day was at the train station when they’re all sort of dancing on the platform as they’re loading Pete up to go to the West Coast. They were all dancing and having fun on the platforms, but the other platforms weren’t shut down, so there were pedestrians and train commuters watching what was going on. Then they’d load me into the train and the train would pull away. I was just communicating with a walkie-talkie as the train pulled away, and it would take about half an hour for the train to go up, and then they’d have to reset the track and reverse it. We did that three or four times.

My final — and most important question — have you ever screamed in the face of a baby?

I haven’t, but sometimes if fans see me, they will ask, “Hey, can you do Psycho Pete and scream?” It’s always funny when you meet people in public that recognize your work because there are different ways they approach me depending on what they know me from. Some people will be like, “Hey, excuse me, are you the guy from The Magicians?” Or, I was doing a kid show called A.N.T. Farm, and the parents would approach and be like, “Hey, I’m so sorry. Are you the guy from A.N.T. Farm? Can you say hi to my daughter? Is that okay?” And then, the Sunny fans would sort of yell from across the street and be like, “Psycho Pete!”, which I always find really fun.