Joel McHale, the hunky, charming leader of the study group of misfits featured on NBC’s “Community” on Thursday nights, has another job: Dad to sons Eddie and Isaac.

With a booming career that includes long hours on the set of “Community,” his weekly gig satirizing pop culture and current events on E!'s "The Soup," and a third job as a stand-up comic that requires him to be a traveling dad, McHale is away from his wife and kids more than he likes.  Add a movie this fall and “it’s brutal,” McHale said during a conference with 10 mom bloggers from across the country. “I wouldn’t recommend it…. For a while I felt a little bit like George Clooney in “Up in the Air.”

It’s “hard to be away’ from the boys, but “luckily, work is about 10 minutes away so my wife brings the boys to the set periodically when she can.” They were there for the filming of the episode that airs on Nov. 11, and includes a subplot about a puppy parade. “They loved that.”

While the kids are still small, they join him on trips that last longer than a night or two. When he’s traveling alone, McHale keeps in touch via his iPhone and its FaceTime video calling feature. Then, when he gets home “I try to be with them as much as I can and that’s all I can promise to them. My wife is a super mom so I’m very blessed to have her in my life and their lives.”

Ultimately, though, he has the same wish most traveling moms have: to have a teleporter so it’s easier to be in two places at once.