Despite the annual round of grousing, most people who go to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner have a pretty good time. You’ve got celebrities to the left of you, elected officials to the right—it’s fun, even if they are all jokers in the end.

But the event amounts to a special ring of Hell for actors like Timothy Simons, best known for playing the amoral presidential toady Jonah Ryan on HBO’s Veep. The half-hour comedy is so popular inside the Beltway that everyone from the bartenders to the senators thinks he’s their best friend.

This year, Funny or Die and Vanity Fair peeked in on Simons as he warmed up emotionally for Washington’s big night. Watch the video to find out how he handles all the unreasonable requests, unfunny Jonah jokes, and uninvited overtures from unidentifiable old white guys.