Ben Garant is best known as Deputy Travis Junior on the Comedy Central hit series Reno 911. But Garant was also a founding member of The State, a comedy troupe which went on to great cult fame on MTV in the early 1990s. Another guise he wears is one of the premier comedy scriptwriters and rewriters in Hollywood with many movies he worked on being released this year.
Just recently the first hilarious season of Reno 911 was released on DVD. I got a chance to talk with Garant about that, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and getting out of speeding tickets.
Buy the first season of Reno 911 on DVD
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its good to talk to you because you dont do as much press as someone like Tom [Lennon].
Ben Garant: Yeah he does the circuit. Hes Mr. Showbiz and Im more of a behind the scenes guy. But we all have pretty much an equal part in Reno.
DRE: How was it watching the first season for the commentary?
BG: We vaguely remembered a lot of it but it was pretty fun. We were sitting down and watching it with the cast. The cast hadnt seen it nearly as many thousands of times as we had. They still laugh at the jokes because it didnt beat them over the head for six months due to editing.
DRE: At what point during the first season did you realize it was going to stay on the air?
BG: We usually do weird little cult shows. While we were doing Viva Variety it was cracking us up but we knew that since it was a parody of a Belgian variety show that it wasnt going to be for anyone but us. But as soon as we started doing this it felt like a show that everyone would get so we had a good feeling about it.
DRE: Is Tom always passing out boxes and boxes Snickers bars?
BG: Yes we get lots of Snickers because hes the Snickers pimp. For Halloween he gives kids complete boxes of Snickers. They worship him because of that.
DRE: Is all the dialogue still improvised?
BG: Yes we never write a script. We have kind of a loose idea of what we are going to do. We know we are going to pull up to a bunch of Ku Klux Klan guys and then at the end one of them is going to catch on fire but we dont know whats going to happen in-between. We hired a really funny guy to be in the KKK but we didnt rehearse with him because its always better when we dont know whats going to happen until we get there. It keeps us on our toes and I think its more fun for the guest stars. We know we need three KKK outfits, a cross, a couple of mullets and a stunt guy who can catch on fire other than that we dont know whats going to happen. When we try to write dialogue it sounds scripted and really different from the rest of show.
DRE: Do you, Kerri and Tom play off one another better than you do to everyone else?
BG: Weve all gotten better at it. Tom, Kerri and I have a shorthand. We kind of know what the other person is going to do which helps on set. But its also interesting because we never worked with Carlos [Alazraqui], Niecy [Nash], Wendi [McLendon-Covey] or Cedric [Yarbrough] before this and they really surprised us. Tom surprises me sometimes but I really never know what Carlos is going to do on set. When I think hes going to charge in, he runs away. I know that Tom and Kerri have each others back but I dont know if everyone else has ours, which makes for more fear on set. When you put a gun with blanks in Carlos hands it makes everyone nervous because hes just not safe. You dont know if hes going to put your eye out as a joke. It may not actually be that dangerous but it feels that dangerous. Wendy is really nervous driving and every scene with her begins with her driving up somewhere so you might die even before you get out of the car. You cant really sit back and yawn because you might have to grab the wheel or get the gun away from Carlos.
DRE: I spoke to Tom when the show was just starting and he mentioned there might be a couple of episodes of Viva Variety going on the first Reno DVD set. What happened with that?
BG: We talked about it. We wanted to put Viva Variety on the air again like at 3 in the morning instead of one of those weird Bill Maher movies where hes fighting jungle women. They dont want to do it and we dont know why. We love that show. We think we could edit together a best of Viva Variety video and it would really blow people away. We had such good bands on that show like Ween, Fishbone, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Shonen Knife and G Love and Special Sauce. We got drunk with Fishbone after the show. We had weird guest stars like Adam West and Charles Durning. We want them to put out DVDs of the show and were working on it but for some reason they are really dragging their feet. We dont make any money when they sell it; they own it lock stock and barrel so I dont know whats holding them back. We just want people to see it.
DRE: Like all things you guys do, Reno 911 is very critically acclaimed but whats it like to have people watch it?
BG: Its really great. You could tell a State fan as soon as they start walking towards you because they all have goatees and you can smell the bongwater on them. They walk up in their Phish t-shirts and go Oh man, Doug rocks! So its nice to work on a show where I go home to Tennessee and they watch it. Its cool to have all different kinds of people know the show and get it.
We have a lot of fans in law enforcement, which is great. Any time we block off the street cops have to be present so every single cop comes up to us and says, Theres a guy in our station we call Dangle. They all pitch us jokes. These three DEA guys we met came to our premiere party and all night long they were pitching us jokes. They wanted us to do a thing where we are all in HasMat suits, which they raid crystal meth labs in and Dangles suit would be cut off at the shorts.
DRE: Do you get out of speeding tickets?
BG: Kerri has. She got pulled over for speeding, the cop went to her car, leaned into her window and said, You are very lucky that I love Reno 911. For a while Tom had the idea of keeping Reno 911 hats in the glove compartment in case we get pulled over. Then I realized that if you go for your glove compartment they may shoot you before you get to the hat so were working the bugs out of that.
DRE: You grew up in Tennessee. So is Travis Junior based on anyone you knew growing up?
BG: Hes pretty much just me. Hes the redneck I keep buried inside. In high school I had a green Mohawk, I drove a Datsun V210 that was covered in spray paint because if someone felt inspired they could write something on the car. I got pulled over a lot. Cops hated me from a 100 yards away. Travis Junior is every cop who ever pulled me over in during high school. But mostly hes me with a different haircut.
DRE: This is the only controversial question Im going to ask. I spoke to Jay Chandrasekhar when Club Dread came out. He said that he doesnt think that you guys bit off the concept for Reno 911 from Super Troopers but he was a little upset that you didnt change the color of your uniforms.
BG: I had never seen Super Troopers until this show was already on the air and Ive only seen the first scene where the guy eats all the drugs. I laughed my ass off and thought it was great. But I think the costumes look better gray. It makes us look more authoritarian. We didnt mean to steal anything but the Keystone Cops did everything we did a 100 years ago. I hope they arent too ticked off. Some people tell us they ran into one of those guys and they say we stole their idea. Then we will meet one of them and its all cool. I hope they realize that Barney Miller did it all before us as well. Also our characters are so different. Beyond the fact that we are all cops I dont think there is much similarity.
DRE: Someone once told me that good sketch comedy comes out of a philosophy. Does Reno 911 have one?
BG: I think what is great about Reno 911 is that the reason the sketches work is because the conflict is immediate and there is nothing subtle about it. In the Dead Parrot Sketch [from Monty Pythons Flying Circus] hes complaining and there is conflict because he is trying to convince the guy to give him a refund. We were never a fan of people who come in and just say a catchphrase over and over or sketches that kind of wander while people say jokes. To us the funniest stuff in the world is two people who want something very different fighting as hard as they can to convince the other that they are right. On our show someone is trying to do something and were trying to stop them from doing it. Either they win and steal our cop car or we win and we throw them into the backseat. But there is never any wondering what the scene is about.
DRE: Did you go on tour as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
BG: I did. I was Michelangelo dude, the party turtle! It was back when the turtles rocked the earth.
DRE: Was it like a mall tour?
BG: It was like the Backstreet Boys. We came out, sang a bunch of songs from an album and Shredder came to try to shut down our rocking. It started at Radio City Music Hall and was a 48 state tour. I did the voices for the tour then on the stage there was Broadway dancers in costume. I went out and did radio morning zoos to promote the show. I would sit down with them and kids would phone in to ask questions where I would answerer the questions as the turtle. We were the lamest rock and roll group out there but it was still a lot of fun when I was 19.
DRE: I just heard recently that The State is supposed to hit DVD soon.
BG: Theyre trying man. Its come close a lot and we hope it happens. Once again we wouldnt make a dime because MTV owns it. The music is what slows it down. Everything was driven by a song, which could clear to air on MTV, but not to sell it on DVD. They are trying to negotiate with all these record labels.
DRE: But have you recorded commentary?
BG: We havent done anything. We are just waiting for the deal to happen. Our fingers are crossed but Im not holding my breath. I think we would have to rescore everything before they could release it. Pants without Cannonball playing in the background just isnt Pants.
DRE: What is your favorite State sketch that you were involved with?
BG: I like the Superfriends one where we made fun of Aquaman. Mostly because I like seeing David Wain dressed as Batman.
DRE: What is your favorite State sketch you werent in?
BG: Cutlery Barn is probably my favorite sketch. Its the one with the black background and everyone sticks their heads through. It was one of the weirdest ones we ever did.
DRE: What about your favorite Reno episode?
BG: This year is much better than last year. We have one this year that is our best episode ever. This British exchange cop, played by Tom Ulster of the sketch group Exit 57, wearing a bobby outfit comes in and we think hes the cutest nicest guy in the world but hes actually like Begbie from Trainspotting. Whenever hes alone with Garcia hes beating up people and getting blowjobs. Its really good.
DRE: Are you planning on a third season yet?
BG: Were playing it by ear. We like the show, its fun but its also a lot of work. We write for a month to figure out the character arcs and what the episodes are going to be about then we shoot for two months pretty much 12 hours a day and then we edit for three months. Im an old man so getting hit in the nuts and getting thrown out of trailers is getting to me.
DRE: Whats happening with Balls of Fury?
BG: We just signed the deal with Fox Searchlight for Tom [Lennon] to star in it and me to direct. Its just on paper so things can fall apart. The movie is great though. Its exactly Enter the Dragon if you take out all the kung fu and put in ping-pong. The government approaches a great ping-pong expert to get invited to a secret island ping-pong tournament to nail this bad guy. Its so silly and great.
DRE: Are you and Tom going to get writing credits on Taxi [starring Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon]?
BG: We are! We did a lot of work on Starsky and Hutch but we didnt get our names on it but Taxi will.
DRE: I just spoke to Patton Oswalt and he said he rewrote some of Starsky and Hutch as well.
BG: Everybody in town came around for that one. Todd Philips is a great guy to work with. We run into Patton a lot because he runs all the punch ups for scripts. Whenever they need comedians to write stuff either he does it or he passes it along. Hes kind of the gag godfather.
DRE: What was something specific you wrote in Starsky and Hutch?
BG: When they disguise themselves as mimes because we have a thing for cops dressed as mimes. We did the whole last car chase and the plot of exchanging cars for cash. The dumbest jokes in there. Also a lot of the Huggy Bear stuff like I know some people that know some people that robbed some people.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Just recently the first hilarious season of Reno 911 was released on DVD. I got a chance to talk with Garant about that, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and getting out of speeding tickets.
Buy the first season of Reno 911 on DVD
Daniel Robert Epstein: Its good to talk to you because you dont do as much press as someone like Tom [Lennon].
Ben Garant: Yeah he does the circuit. Hes Mr. Showbiz and Im more of a behind the scenes guy. But we all have pretty much an equal part in Reno.
DRE: How was it watching the first season for the commentary?
BG: We vaguely remembered a lot of it but it was pretty fun. We were sitting down and watching it with the cast. The cast hadnt seen it nearly as many thousands of times as we had. They still laugh at the jokes because it didnt beat them over the head for six months due to editing.
DRE: At what point during the first season did you realize it was going to stay on the air?
BG: We usually do weird little cult shows. While we were doing Viva Variety it was cracking us up but we knew that since it was a parody of a Belgian variety show that it wasnt going to be for anyone but us. But as soon as we started doing this it felt like a show that everyone would get so we had a good feeling about it.
DRE: Is Tom always passing out boxes and boxes Snickers bars?
BG: Yes we get lots of Snickers because hes the Snickers pimp. For Halloween he gives kids complete boxes of Snickers. They worship him because of that.
DRE: Is all the dialogue still improvised?
BG: Yes we never write a script. We have kind of a loose idea of what we are going to do. We know we are going to pull up to a bunch of Ku Klux Klan guys and then at the end one of them is going to catch on fire but we dont know whats going to happen in-between. We hired a really funny guy to be in the KKK but we didnt rehearse with him because its always better when we dont know whats going to happen until we get there. It keeps us on our toes and I think its more fun for the guest stars. We know we need three KKK outfits, a cross, a couple of mullets and a stunt guy who can catch on fire other than that we dont know whats going to happen. When we try to write dialogue it sounds scripted and really different from the rest of show.
DRE: Do you, Kerri and Tom play off one another better than you do to everyone else?
BG: Weve all gotten better at it. Tom, Kerri and I have a shorthand. We kind of know what the other person is going to do which helps on set. But its also interesting because we never worked with Carlos [Alazraqui], Niecy [Nash], Wendi [McLendon-Covey] or Cedric [Yarbrough] before this and they really surprised us. Tom surprises me sometimes but I really never know what Carlos is going to do on set. When I think hes going to charge in, he runs away. I know that Tom and Kerri have each others back but I dont know if everyone else has ours, which makes for more fear on set. When you put a gun with blanks in Carlos hands it makes everyone nervous because hes just not safe. You dont know if hes going to put your eye out as a joke. It may not actually be that dangerous but it feels that dangerous. Wendy is really nervous driving and every scene with her begins with her driving up somewhere so you might die even before you get out of the car. You cant really sit back and yawn because you might have to grab the wheel or get the gun away from Carlos.
DRE: I spoke to Tom when the show was just starting and he mentioned there might be a couple of episodes of Viva Variety going on the first Reno DVD set. What happened with that?
BG: We talked about it. We wanted to put Viva Variety on the air again like at 3 in the morning instead of one of those weird Bill Maher movies where hes fighting jungle women. They dont want to do it and we dont know why. We love that show. We think we could edit together a best of Viva Variety video and it would really blow people away. We had such good bands on that show like Ween, Fishbone, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Shonen Knife and G Love and Special Sauce. We got drunk with Fishbone after the show. We had weird guest stars like Adam West and Charles Durning. We want them to put out DVDs of the show and were working on it but for some reason they are really dragging their feet. We dont make any money when they sell it; they own it lock stock and barrel so I dont know whats holding them back. We just want people to see it.
DRE: Like all things you guys do, Reno 911 is very critically acclaimed but whats it like to have people watch it?
BG: Its really great. You could tell a State fan as soon as they start walking towards you because they all have goatees and you can smell the bongwater on them. They walk up in their Phish t-shirts and go Oh man, Doug rocks! So its nice to work on a show where I go home to Tennessee and they watch it. Its cool to have all different kinds of people know the show and get it.
We have a lot of fans in law enforcement, which is great. Any time we block off the street cops have to be present so every single cop comes up to us and says, Theres a guy in our station we call Dangle. They all pitch us jokes. These three DEA guys we met came to our premiere party and all night long they were pitching us jokes. They wanted us to do a thing where we are all in HasMat suits, which they raid crystal meth labs in and Dangles suit would be cut off at the shorts.
DRE: Do you get out of speeding tickets?
BG: Kerri has. She got pulled over for speeding, the cop went to her car, leaned into her window and said, You are very lucky that I love Reno 911. For a while Tom had the idea of keeping Reno 911 hats in the glove compartment in case we get pulled over. Then I realized that if you go for your glove compartment they may shoot you before you get to the hat so were working the bugs out of that.
DRE: You grew up in Tennessee. So is Travis Junior based on anyone you knew growing up?
BG: Hes pretty much just me. Hes the redneck I keep buried inside. In high school I had a green Mohawk, I drove a Datsun V210 that was covered in spray paint because if someone felt inspired they could write something on the car. I got pulled over a lot. Cops hated me from a 100 yards away. Travis Junior is every cop who ever pulled me over in during high school. But mostly hes me with a different haircut.
DRE: This is the only controversial question Im going to ask. I spoke to Jay Chandrasekhar when Club Dread came out. He said that he doesnt think that you guys bit off the concept for Reno 911 from Super Troopers but he was a little upset that you didnt change the color of your uniforms.
BG: I had never seen Super Troopers until this show was already on the air and Ive only seen the first scene where the guy eats all the drugs. I laughed my ass off and thought it was great. But I think the costumes look better gray. It makes us look more authoritarian. We didnt mean to steal anything but the Keystone Cops did everything we did a 100 years ago. I hope they arent too ticked off. Some people tell us they ran into one of those guys and they say we stole their idea. Then we will meet one of them and its all cool. I hope they realize that Barney Miller did it all before us as well. Also our characters are so different. Beyond the fact that we are all cops I dont think there is much similarity.
DRE: Someone once told me that good sketch comedy comes out of a philosophy. Does Reno 911 have one?
BG: I think what is great about Reno 911 is that the reason the sketches work is because the conflict is immediate and there is nothing subtle about it. In the Dead Parrot Sketch [from Monty Pythons Flying Circus] hes complaining and there is conflict because he is trying to convince the guy to give him a refund. We were never a fan of people who come in and just say a catchphrase over and over or sketches that kind of wander while people say jokes. To us the funniest stuff in the world is two people who want something very different fighting as hard as they can to convince the other that they are right. On our show someone is trying to do something and were trying to stop them from doing it. Either they win and steal our cop car or we win and we throw them into the backseat. But there is never any wondering what the scene is about.
DRE: Did you go on tour as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
BG: I did. I was Michelangelo dude, the party turtle! It was back when the turtles rocked the earth.
DRE: Was it like a mall tour?
BG: It was like the Backstreet Boys. We came out, sang a bunch of songs from an album and Shredder came to try to shut down our rocking. It started at Radio City Music Hall and was a 48 state tour. I did the voices for the tour then on the stage there was Broadway dancers in costume. I went out and did radio morning zoos to promote the show. I would sit down with them and kids would phone in to ask questions where I would answerer the questions as the turtle. We were the lamest rock and roll group out there but it was still a lot of fun when I was 19.
DRE: I just heard recently that The State is supposed to hit DVD soon.
BG: Theyre trying man. Its come close a lot and we hope it happens. Once again we wouldnt make a dime because MTV owns it. The music is what slows it down. Everything was driven by a song, which could clear to air on MTV, but not to sell it on DVD. They are trying to negotiate with all these record labels.
DRE: But have you recorded commentary?
BG: We havent done anything. We are just waiting for the deal to happen. Our fingers are crossed but Im not holding my breath. I think we would have to rescore everything before they could release it. Pants without Cannonball playing in the background just isnt Pants.
DRE: What is your favorite State sketch that you were involved with?
BG: I like the Superfriends one where we made fun of Aquaman. Mostly because I like seeing David Wain dressed as Batman.
DRE: What is your favorite State sketch you werent in?
BG: Cutlery Barn is probably my favorite sketch. Its the one with the black background and everyone sticks their heads through. It was one of the weirdest ones we ever did.
DRE: What about your favorite Reno episode?
BG: This year is much better than last year. We have one this year that is our best episode ever. This British exchange cop, played by Tom Ulster of the sketch group Exit 57, wearing a bobby outfit comes in and we think hes the cutest nicest guy in the world but hes actually like Begbie from Trainspotting. Whenever hes alone with Garcia hes beating up people and getting blowjobs. Its really good.
DRE: Are you planning on a third season yet?
BG: Were playing it by ear. We like the show, its fun but its also a lot of work. We write for a month to figure out the character arcs and what the episodes are going to be about then we shoot for two months pretty much 12 hours a day and then we edit for three months. Im an old man so getting hit in the nuts and getting thrown out of trailers is getting to me.
DRE: Whats happening with Balls of Fury?
BG: We just signed the deal with Fox Searchlight for Tom [Lennon] to star in it and me to direct. Its just on paper so things can fall apart. The movie is great though. Its exactly Enter the Dragon if you take out all the kung fu and put in ping-pong. The government approaches a great ping-pong expert to get invited to a secret island ping-pong tournament to nail this bad guy. Its so silly and great.
DRE: Are you and Tom going to get writing credits on Taxi [starring Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon]?
BG: We are! We did a lot of work on Starsky and Hutch but we didnt get our names on it but Taxi will.
DRE: I just spoke to Patton Oswalt and he said he rewrote some of Starsky and Hutch as well.
BG: Everybody in town came around for that one. Todd Philips is a great guy to work with. We run into Patton a lot because he runs all the punch ups for scripts. Whenever they need comedians to write stuff either he does it or he passes it along. Hes kind of the gag godfather.
DRE: What was something specific you wrote in Starsky and Hutch?
BG: When they disguise themselves as mimes because we have a thing for cops dressed as mimes. We did the whole last car chase and the plot of exchanging cars for cash. The dumbest jokes in there. Also a lot of the Huggy Bear stuff like I know some people that know some people that robbed some people.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 16 of 16 COMMENTS
I have been watching re-runs of The State that I recorded off of MTV since the early 90's - definitely one of my favorite shows of all time. Reno 911 rocks too - but nothing will ever top The Cuttlery Barn or the Pants skit from the State.