LOS ANGELES — Dylan McDermott calls it his “reinvention.”

What the Connecticut native was looking to change was the steady stream of dramatic roles he’s been playing since he made his film debut more than three decades ago in “Hamburger Hill.” Since then, his credits have ranged from a super-serious lawyer in “The Practice” to a man flirting with madness in the first season of “American Horror Story.”

The path to his reinventing himself has taken him to the starring role in the Fox comedy “LA to Vegas.” His Captain Dave is a man who was born with no filter, an ego the size of a 747 and a philosophy on life that is one strong headwind from being loony.

Each week, Captain Dave flies travelers to and from Las Vegas, where they often come home with empty pockets and an earful of Dave’s words of wisdom (the term is used very loosely here).

McDermott going from the serious career he’s spent decades cultivating and being part of a raucous network comedy is like Tom Brady opting to leave the NFL to try his hand at the Ice Capades. Things might work out, but it’s all based on a big gamble. It was a gamble McDermott, 56, knew he had to take.

“I was at a time in my career where … I couldn’t do another drama. You know what I mean? I had played it out. So I knew I needed to reinvent myself, and this is it,” McDermott says. “I think that no one really thought of me for this role, because no one ever thinks of me as funny.”

To be fair, even the “LA to Vegas” executive producers were a little surprised McDermott was such a perfect fit for the show. The actors they needed had to look like he was once the All-American boy who was not only the high school quarterback but also the prom king.

It wasn’t enough for the actor to look like that was his past. The key was finding someone who could make the viewer believe that although his prime was long past, he refused to let it go.

“I wanted there to be, like, a tragic element to him also. The first thought was bravado and cocky and kind of a bro. And then the more interesting element of the character was, ‘But what’s underneath that? Where’s the vulnerability, and where’s kind of the sadness behind that?’” says series creator and executive producer Lon Zimmet. “And Dylan plays that perfectly. He can nail the jokes and the big bravado of it, but also get to the humanity behind it of a guy who, at the end of the day, is sort of lonely and searching and aspiring to something more behind all of that.

“And Dylan just nailed it.”

The first thing McDermott did to start nailing the role was to grow a mustache for Captain Dave. That came out of what he had observed during all his time in airports, where the majority of pilots sported mustaches. McDermott sees the facial hair as a representation of the heroics the pilots feel while doing their jobs.

Facial hair or not, there were never any doubts in McDermott’s mind he would be able to handle the role. When he was a young man, McDermott — who’s a big fan of absurdist comedy from Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett — did some stand-up in New York. It wasn’t until he was cast in the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis 2012 comedy “The Campaign” that a larger audience got to see his funny side.

The balance might shift now that he’s starring in “LA to Vegas,” but McDermott most often gets asked about the dramatic roles he’s played, especially “American Horror Story.” McDermott was meeting with TV critics to talk about his new comedy only a few hours after his “American Horror Story” co-star, Connie Britton, had been doing interviews for her new FOX drama “9-1-1.” McDermott’s happy he and Britton had a moment to chat between the interviews because they have been friends for a long time. They were so good on “American Horror Story,” McDermott has heard talk of trying to find a way to bring them back to the anthology horror series.

If that were to happen, McDermott would be willing to shift gears again and go back to drama because he would love to see what happened after that first season. For now, he’s all about comedy, as Fox ordered 15 episodes for the first season. Doing “The Campaign” gave him the confidence to move out of his dramatic comfort zone. And he’s glad he made the move because the work environment is so different from any dramatic project he had done.

“I notice with the crew. When we’re all laughing, the crew is laughing. Everybody’s having a better time. This is a great way to go to work, I have to say,” McDermott says. “After doing so much dark stuff for so long, you get to laugh all day long. … So I’m so happy. They feed me. They pay me. I get to laugh. I mean, this is the best.”

And as far as any boundaries when it comes to playing Captain Dave, McDermott can’t resist showing his comic skills by saying, “The sky’s the limit.”