I kept watching this video expecting something to indicate that it was some kind of elaborate comedy sketch. But it's apparently real. Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman recently returned to his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to build a Japanese gazebo in honor of his mentor, Professor Emeritus Shozo Sato. Everything about that last sentence is awesome, right?
Offerman, who expertly plays Ron Swanson on the NBC comedy, is also a professional boat builder and has a side business as a wood craftsman. But once upon a time he was a young acting student under the tutelage of Professor Sato. Last fall, he hosted a fundraiser for U of I's Japan House, and oversaw the construction of this dope azuyama. Watch:
If you had told me he'd built it by himself -- just him, his tools and some wood -- I would have believed you. And that's how Nick Offerman built a Japanese gazebo at the University of Illinois.
