by Corey Andrew
Wedge: It’s the entire starting defense of the St. Louis Rams.
Corey: Those are his Friendster friends?
Wedge: That’s 11 of them and the 12th one is the punter.
Corey: Do you guys mind if we talk about ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ for a minute? Michael, I thought your sex scene was very convincing. Do you consider yourself a method actor? How did you prepare for the scene?
Michael: What is there to prepare for? I just fucked that dude.
Corey: Just kind of a let-the-cameras-roll kind of thing?
David: It was simulated when we shot it, but the preparation was that they fucked all week.
Michael: I fucked the fucking dude from ‘Alias’ (Bradley Cooper).
Corey: Who got to keep the talking can?
David: Oh, Rog Benson. That’s a good question.
Corey: Was that Wedge?
Michael: That was David. Wedge is taking a dump.
Corey: The movie has become a cult hit. How does a movie become a cult hit?
David: It becomes a cult hit by failing when it first gets released.
Corey: So, you were hoping to reach a larger audience.
David: I was very excited that nobody went to see it when it came out. And when the grosses came in and we lost all the money on the movie, we celebrated for months.
Michael: We’re still celebrating.
Michael Showalter: I celebrated so much that I had to stop drinking alcohol.
Michael: Michael Showalter just walked in the room. Hi, Mike.
David: Hi, Mike.
Michael Showalter: Oh, hey.
Michael: Can you tell your brother to calm down? He’s been screaming during the interview.
David: Mike and Wedge are always arguing. But, yes, we’re very happy that it’s a cult classic.
Corey: Do you guys still get recognized for The State?
David: Yes.
Corey: I read there were plans for a DVD release. Have you heard any more about that?
Michael: Never gonna happen.
David: It’s coming out in the spring quarter of 2015.
Michael: What’s the real deal?
David: The real deal is they are actively trying to do it, but there are arguments back and forth every day in the bureaucracy between the distributor and MTV.
Corey: As far as the members being involved, would everyone participate in it?
David: Absolutely. We’re waiting for them to let us. We don’t own that.
Corey: If they gave you carte blanche as to what would be on the DVDs, what would you like?
Michael: The Kids in the Hall stuff is really funny. I’d put that on there. Some of the Python shit’s great. Early ‘SNL’ I’d put on there. Some of that ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ stuff is really groundbreaking, I thought.
Corey: That might be a problem.
Michael: Put ‘Sports Night’ on there.
Corey: Did you say ‘Sports Center’ or ‘Sports Night?’
Michael: ‘Sports Night.’
David: If I had my choice, I’d put the whole thing on there, as it was.
Corey: Would you like to do commentary or some stuff people haven’t seen yet?
David: There’s a lot of stuff people haven’t seen and a lot of unaired sketches. We could do commentary. There’s tons of material in and around the show that people have never seen.
Corey: You guys filmed a Stella special for Comedy Central. Will this give people a taste as to what a live Stella show is like?
Wedge: You want to know what it tastes like?
Corey: What?
Wedge: It starts with the letter P.
Corey: OK.
David: Probably pomegranate.
Corey: Should I guess?
Wedge: Just leave it at that.
Michael: Maybe a pickle.
Wedge: First letter is P, and the last letter is Y. Just leave it at that.
Corey: I was talking to Tom Lennon a couple months ago about ‘Reno 911!’ and he said he actually had a copy of The State album that was never released, but it got lost. Do you guys have one?
Michael: I don’t have one.
Michael Showalter: David has one.
David: I think I do, but I’m not sure where it is.
Corey: Would you like to see bootlegs out there, or have you heard of any chance of Warner Bros. releasing it?
David: They’re very excited about it. They just haven’t quite gotten a release date yet. They’re very, very excited about it. It’s just six years late.
Corey: That was recorded back in the mid-90s?
David: ’97, ’96 maybe?
Corey: You guys had a ‘State by State’ book that is not in print anymore. Have there been talks about putting the story of The State out in book form?
Michael: I don’t see that being a bestseller.
David: What do you think, Corey?
Corey: I would have some interest.
Wedge: Why don’t you write it?
Michael: Wedge, shut up. Were you journalism major?
Corey: I was.
Michael: What happened, you fail?
Corey: No, I graduated.
Michael: Oh, you work for a newspaper newspaper. I thought we were talking to a college newspaper.
Corey: No.
Michael: What newspaper is this?
Corey: This is The Telegraph, in Alton, Illinois.
Michael: Oh, this is the big one.
Corey: Yeah, so a lot of the language will probably have to be cut.
Michael: You can’t print English?
Corey: Sometimes. I’m a little lost right now. Sorry.
Michael: Don’t be, you’re in Illinois.
Corey: It’s just a little hard to hear.
Michael: I’ll talk closer to the microphone. Is this better?
Corey: Perfect. OK, let me gather my thoughts for a second.
(pause)
David: We really threw you for a loop there, didn’t we.
Corey: A bit.
Michael: Thank god Woodward and Bernstein didn’t have this problem.
Corey: (laughs) Yeah.
David: I’ll never crack Watergate.
Michael: He understood that when I said Woodward and Bernstein.
Corey: I tend to stick to the entertainment side of things.
David: You hear of Rona Barrett?
Corey: I’m sorry?
Michael: Rona Barrett, he asked.
David: The greatest entertainment journalist who ever lived.
Corey: That might give me something to aspire to.
Michael: Yeah, she had a nice rack, too.
Corey: OK, so you guys are coming to the University of Missouri.
David: We’re very excited to come out there. We’re gonna be in the Jesse Auditorium.
Michael: Our first trip to the U of M.
Corey: How did this show come together?
Michael: We’re doing knock-off dates, because we’re all kind of busy during the week, so on Saturdays sometimes we go out and do shows.
David: We were sitting around thinking, where should we do a show? The University of Missouri-Columbia.
Corey: Very cool. They have some cool shows there sometimes.
Michael: No shit.
David: Are you gonna be there?
Corey: I would like to, yeah.
Michael: What, are you angling for a free ticket?
David: We don’t have any tickets, OK, dude.
Michael: There are a lot of people in Missouri, and everybody keeps calling. ‘Can you get us in?’ Dude, we can’t service everybody. After the show we might be able to service you, if you know what I’m talking about.
Corey: I’m willing to do pretty much what it takes to get in.
Michael: Say no more.
Corey: I’m not making Rona Barrett kind of money.
Michael: You could be by the end of the night. Play your cards right, kid.
Corey: I think I have enough material here to …
David: Get yourself fired?
Corey: I know you guys are busy, so I’ll let you go.
David: If you have any other actual questions, drop me an e-mail.
Corey: David, Michael and Michael, thank you.
All: Bye, Corey.
David Wain
David Wain wasn’t the showiest (or Showalter-est) member of The State, the sketch comedy troupe that was, at first, mostly reviled on MTV, and then—as it tends to happen—later recognized for its irreverence and brilliance.
Wain has since become one of the prolific filmmakers in the group, having directed the cult classic, “Wet Hot American Summer” (one of the funniest movies ever. Seriously.). He also co-wrote, with State alum Ken Marino, “The Ten,” a weird and wonderful set of tales based on the Ten Commandments. (You may have heard of it as the movie in which Winona Ryder gets it on with a ventriloquist’s dummy.)
Wain was less smart-assy in this interview than he was when doing so as part of Stella.
Corey: I saw ‘The Ten’ a couple of weeks ago, and I was curious who got to keep the dummy?
David Wain: The dummy was kept by the guy who made it. He would not let us keep it. He was very particular about it. It was his creation. There were two dummies; one that could get roughed up.
Corey: Like a stunt dummy. As a kid, what was the first thing you remember about the Ten Commandments.
David: I guess I saw them in temple as a kid. I thought, ‘I don’t understand those Roman numerals. Somebody is gonna have to explain them to me.’ I still don’t understand them. I know the V is like five; that’s all I know.
Corey: What did you think when you discovered what the 10 represent?
David: I figured that’s a good idea. Ten’s a good number. Ten rules to follow. Some of them are a little amorphous. Honor your father and mother. How do you know if you’re actually doing that? You get some wiggle room.
Corey: What was the writing process like when you and Ken Marino worked together?
David: It was great. Basically we live on separate coasts, and we got together for a week and forced ourselves to work 12 hours a day, every day, and emerge with a first draft. And we did. It was a fun way to bang something out. I think it gave the script some of its whimsical feel.
Corey: Was it originally done as a goof, or was it always going to be a serious motion picture?
David: I don’t think it is a serious motion picture.
Corey: A legitimate motion picture.
David: Yeah, we kind of did write it thinking, ‘Let’s write something we think is funny’ or not worrying about what an audience or a financier might think of it. That was sort of the thinking behind it. We were often surprised when we were shooting it that anyone had put any money behind it.
Corey: It was hard to catch and write as I was watching the movie. Can you pronounce the fast food chains mentioned in there?
David: McDownalds. Bwerger King. Woundys.
Corey: Woundys?
David: Mmhmm.
Corey: OK. Have you considered yourself a coveter?
David: I’ve coveted. I’ve probably coveted my neighbor’s wife more than thy goods.
Corey: Did you rank what you thought were the more serious commandments?
David: No, we didn’t think about it like that. We didn’t really pay much attention to the proper order. In fact in the rap song at the end we have a line that says, ‘Is that really their actual order?’
Corey: It was nice to see David Yazbek did the final song. How did you end up working with him?
David: I met him at a poker game when we were first starting to work on this. I had been a fan of some of his work. I said, ‘Hey dude, why don’t you do this?’ and he said, ‘OK.’
Corey: Are you a fan of production numbers in film?
David: I’m actually not, especially in comedies. We’ve seen them before. It’s not the freshest way to end a movie. To be honest, with a movie with 10 stories like this, you had to do something that made you very aware that it was over. I feel like that was the best way to do it. We tried to give it that live-show look.
Corey: Have you heard from Diane Weist’s goons yet?
David: Not yet. We’re waiting. We’re waiting for that.
Corey: When people stand your movie next to ‘The Ten Commandments’ 25 years from now, how do you think it will compare?
David: Well, I don’t know. I’ve never seen it. If someone wants to invite me over to watch it, I would probably go. I’m a big fan of Charlton Heston, mostly from the TV show ‘The Colbys.’
Corey: Do you think this is going to be a popular film for prison movie nights?
David: I hope we can really speak to the prison population far more than that ‘Shawshank’ piece of shit.
Corey: This is two movies in a year where The State is basically reunited. Could we see a full-blown reunion?
David: Since we were on TV we were always talking about The State movie. It might happen soon.
Corey: What about ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ the musical?
David: That also is in process. That’s something we’re working on as well.
Corey: Are you being serious?
David: I’m being totally serious.
Corey: Like a stage production?
David: Yes, but it’s definitely in the earliest stages of production, so I couldn’t even give you an estimation of when it would see the light of day.
Corey: What about another Stella project?
David: Stella would reappear as well at one point.
Corey: Back when you guys were first working on the MTV show, if someone said, ‘Fifteen years from now, you’re going to be the serious director of the bunch,’ what would you have said?
David: I definitely wouldn’t have been able to predict that more than half of the 10 of us would have directed feature films by now. What’s crazy is, we’ve all become directors. I don’t think I’m the serious director of the bunch.
Corey: How do you direct someone in a smacking-of-a-kid sequence?
David: Leiv, he really smacked that kid. By the end of the day, what are you gonna say, ‘Don’t do that?’ He’s a little kid, and that’s Leiv Schreiber.
Corey: I guess when you’re making a film, the laws don’t apply. How often do people ask you if you call your home Wain Manor?
David: Not in a long time. We did used to call it that. We had a little plate on our door that said, ‘Stately Wain Manor.’
Thomas Lennon
Tom Lennon is a class act and has always been very generous with his time for me. He even got the entire cast of “Reno 911” to sign a photo for my friend Jason the cop’s 30th birthday. While I will always love Tom for his “Froggy Jamboree” sketch on MTV’s “The State,” he is best known as the mustached Lt. Dangle on “Reno.” I first interviewed Tom when I was still in college and next when “Reno 911” was about to debut on Comedy Central.
Corey: What is your character, Jim Dangle, like?
Thomas Lennon: My character Jim Dangle sees himself exactly like Steve McQueen in ‘Bullitt,’ except that he wears hot pants. I wanted to play a gay character, but not an effete gay character. I wanted to play a character who’s both openly gay and out, but whose gayness isn’t just a punch line—come in and say, ‘I just picked out window treatments.’ I didn’t want to be that guy. In his head, he’s a total tough guy, whether it comes off like that or not.
Corey: What’s the show about, in a nutshell?
Thomas: It went from being sort of half-sketch, half-sitcom hidden in a ‘COPS’ show to basically about a bunch of people who are in love with each other, who are totally dysfunctional and can’t make it work out in any way.
Corey: You’re working with Kerri Kenney again, who is quite attractive, but is also good at playing ugly.
Thomas: It’s hard to get a pretty girl to play not pretty as well as Kerri does. She plays Woman with Horrible Scoliosis really well.