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RADIO
Brian Posehn
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Jul 11, 2006
Brian Posehn has deep comedy roots. He first gained famed as a performer/writer on the seminal sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David. Since then he’s become an in demand supporting in numerous sitcoms like Just Shoot Me and movies such as The Devil’s Rejects and Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. This past year has been the biggest for Posehn. The Comedians of Comedy was a hit for Comedy Central, his first comedy album Live in: Nerd Rage was just released and his first comic book miniseries The Last Christmas just began at Image Comics.
Buy Brian Posehn Live in: Nerd Rage
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you just doing interviews today?
Brian Posehn: Yeah.
DRE:
Anyone good?
BP:
You.
Actually it’s been a lot of fun but after a while you start to forget what you just said and you start to feel like an idiot.
DRE:
That’s ok; at least you’re not like Patton [Oswalt].
BP:
How’s that?
DRE:
If Patton doesn’t like the questions he’s being asked, he’ll pretty much just stop talking [laughs].
BP:
[laughs] Lovely.
DRE:
You’re friends with Joe Lynch, right?
BP:
Yeah, real good friends.
DRE:
I just visited the set of his movie [Wrong Turn 2]. It was awesome.
BP:
I’ve been too busy to get up there. I really wanted to, but he should have just written a part for me and then I would have had to go up there. If he was a true friend he should have had a nerd get shot or stabbed or whatever. But we’ll see maybe I’ll be in the third one.
DRE:
All the actors in the movie are very pretty.
BP:
What are you saying? I’m pretty.
DRE:
You’re not as pretty as the redhead from Blair Witch 2.
BP:
You’re right.
DRE:
[laughs] I was actually just talking to Missy about you.
BP:
Cool, I just had a couple of SuicideGirls in my video for my song Metal by Numbers and my good buddy, Gerry Duggan, called and got some SuicideGirls to come to set.
DRE:
Which ones?
BP:
I don’t even remember. Siren or Staple?
DRE:
Staple [laughs].
So is your angry voice real?
BP:
No [laughs]. I used to do it around friends and then those friends started to get in positions where they can hire me. The first time I did Just Shoot Me I didn’t audition for it. The part was written for me by a buddy, Rob Cohen. He just said, “Come on and do that dorky thing you do. Then scream in somebody’s face.” So I did.
DRE:
How did the title Live in: Nerd Rage come about?
BP:
I was trying to think of what to call the album and what to use for cover art. Powers is one of my favorite comic books. One of the issues last year had a telephone pole in the background of a big battle with a flyer on it that says Brian Posehn Live in: Nerd Rage. I figured I should use that as the title. Then I got the artist, Michael Avon Oeming, to do a more detailed version of the poster. I emailed [the writer of Powers, Brian Michael] Bendis because even though he is a fan and a friend Michael put the flyer in on his own.
DRE:
Mike is a spectacular artist.
BP:
No other artists’ work looks like that right now.
DRE:
And some of the stuff looks so different from Powers.
You used to sell this album just through your website.
BP:
Yeah because I didn’t know how big of an audience there was and I didn’t know where to go as far as labels. I wanted to get it out so I could work on a whole new act. So I did that and then I was thinking that going with a metal label made sense because I talk about metal so much that I’ve cultivated a metal audience. Also David Cross went to Sub Pop and Patton likes whatever he likes so he went to Aimee Mann’s label. So it just made sense. Down the road I was thinking I was going to start recording with Scott Ian and doing funny metal. Then Relapse, who was on my short list, approached me before I could approach anybody else. It was an organic fit and I immediately called Scott Ian in and said, “Look pal, we got to do this. We got to finally buckle down and write these songs we’ve been talking about.” So that’s how it all happened.
DRE:
Could you possibly do a funnier metal group than Super Group?
BP:
Yeah, it’s hard to be funnier than Sebastian [Bach] and [Ted] Nugent but I’m going to try.
DRE:
You have to roll around the floor with them. Every time I flip past that show they seem to be wrestling.
BP:
Yeah. We talked about calling my band Savage Animal too.
DRE:
I know Patton waited so long to put out his album because he wanted to own it. Is it the same with you?
BP:
I got a pretty good deal.
DRE:
Was that very important to you?
BP:
No, what was most important was distribution and just getting it in the right places.
DRE:
How did you like the process of putting the album out yourself at first?
BP:
I would make more money if I was just doing it on my own but at a certain point you need real distribution. I made a lot more off each record selling it out of my office, but I don’t have a lot of room in my office. I had to take it to the next level with signing to a label.
DRE:
One thing I thought that was cool about the Comedians of Comedy was how you guys would do stuff during the day and then go talk about it onstage that night. Is that the way that you’ve always done your act?
BP:
No, I’m more of a writer. Throughout the show you didn’t see me doing a lot of that stuff. That’s mostly Patton. He is way more prolific than I am and I think he knew that that was something he was going to do. There’s a little bit where I’m writing a bit in the morning and then trying it at night and it doesn’t go as well as I hoped. I don’t have a total method to my writing, it just happens when it happens.
DRE:
Is it a much different thing than working on a screenplay or working on a sketch show?
BP:
For sure, because with writing sketches and screenplays I can force myself to just sit down and write. With standup I’ve never done that. Though when I first started, I would. There would be days where I’d meet other comics at a coffee shop and we’d sit around and work on bits. But it wasn’t like I would sit down and go “Ok, today I’m going to think of a bit on dating” or whatever. I never was that kind of comic. If it pops into my mind and it’s funny I’ll write it down and then maybe work on it later.
DRE:
Where was the CD recorded?
BP:
It was recorded on the Comedians of Comedy tour at a bunch of different places. The first part of the set is actually from Atlanta, one of my favorite cities.
DRE:
How did you like having to hear your act over and over again?
BP:
It’s a lot of work because I took ten different full sets and then put them together to make the 45 minute disc. The challenge was getting what I thought were the best takes and the best versions of each joke. But the first 20 minutes is all from one show in Atlanta. Then the rest of the record is bits that I don’t do too much anymore that I wanted to get on the record and then never do them again. Also I wanted to have uncensored versions of my material from the Comedy Central special.
DRE:
Do you have a special coming up?
BP:
Not yet. We’re talking about a DVD so I have a lot of writing to do. Maybe I should start to do what Patton does and write about everything that happens to me and try it on stage at night. I’ve got to start generating material somehow.
DRE:
Were you surprised about how popular the Titannica sketch from Mr. Show got?
BP:
That was around the time when I first started to get noticed in public so that was one of the first things that everybody connected with. When we did that scene live and David was revealed with the puppet body we got our biggest reaction we ever got. The crowd just went insane those first two shows. When we used to do Mr. Show we’d do two shows in a row and then we’d edit them together to make the best show.
DRE:
That sketch really is classic.
BP:
I’m pretty proud of it. I have the puppet body hanging in my garage.
DRE:
I asked David Cross but he couldn’t remember exactly who wrote the Pharmacist Who Sells Weed sketch. Was that you?
BP:
Yeah, that was me.
DRE:
That’s a great sketch too.
BP:
That idea came from me and Scott Aukerman. I smoke pot occasionally and it came from me joking about how I should get a prescription for dealing with Bob [Odenkirk]. I wrote the line for David to make it less about me because I couldn’t write a sketch where I was the main character. The show was called Bob and David.
DRE:
I read you just had a big 40th birthday party.
BP:
Yes I did. There’s a clip of it on Youtube of all things.
DRE:
I read about it on Blabbermouth.
BP:
I can’t believe that [laughs]. It’s really funny that people are talking about my silly birthday. We had this band Metal School which is a cover band that plays at the Keyclub every week. They’re hilarious but they’re actually really tight. They used to be at The Viper Room where I would go see them all the time. My wife knows that I’m a huge fan so she surprised me. She booked The Improv and told me we were going to a cancer benefit where one of my friends was performing.
DRE:
Oh, it was a surprise party.
BP:
Yeah, it was a total surprise. You can’t really back out of a cancer benefit. She guilted me with the C word so I showed up and all my friends were yelling. Then I got up and sang You Got Another Thing Coming jokingly with the band and then Scott Ian came up to sing.
DRE:
I read the first issue of The Last Christmas. I was looking at the cover and I thought “Boy, whoever did this cover does a great rip-off of Geof Darrow.” Then I saw it was actually Geof that did it. How did you make that happen?
BP:
I know Geof only from being a fan. I go to [the San Diego] Comicon every year and he’s one of my favorite artists alive. I bought a page from Hardboiled off him years ago and I go to his booth every year. [The Last Christmas co-writer] Gerry Duggan and I had been talking about doing the comic for quite a while. We brought it up to Geof. We were like, “Hey man, if we ever get this thing going will you do a cover?” He was like, “Well, if it actually ever happens, let me know I’ll consider it then.” We were set up at IDW Comics last year but they made us a horrible offer and my lawyer was like “No way.” We walked away from that and then we were looking for another place and just decided to do it with Image. As soon as we asked Geof we both thought that it would never happen. But he came through.
DRE:
How did you pick Rick Remender as your penciler?
BP:
Rick’s a good friend and I had talked to him about this project for a long time. I said, “Do you want to do this by yourself? Do you want to do it with Kieron Dwyer?” Who is a good friend of ours also and Rick used to ink Kieron’s work. I knew Rick could do it on his own so I gave him the option. We’ve known him more as a writer but I think he wanted to establish himself more as a penciler. We’re happy with it. He captured this great EC Comics look.
DRE:
It reminded me of the Lobo Christmas Special a little bit. Was that in your guys’ mind at all?
BP:
Well a lot of people read that book but try reading that book now. It is just mayhem for mayhem’s sake and there’s no story to it.
DRE:
That’s true.
BP:
A lot of people have brought up that comparison but not in a bad way. But I’m sure there’s going to be some fat man at Comicon that’s yells at me. It was an inspiration but in that Santa’s the bad guy and in our book Santa is the hero. There’s a reason for the mayhem in our book. But I’m not going to slam that book anymore.
DRE:
[laughs] Hey Simon Bisley did draw it which makes it automatically awesome.
BP:
Yeah, he’s amazing. At one point Gerry and I were talking about getting Bisley to do a cover but I was like, “No, then we’ll really draw comparisons.”
DRE:
I read that you’re writing a Goon short story.
BP:
Yeah, that’s coming up. I’m doing that with Tony Moore.
DRE:
Wow. That’s great. Tony Moore’s fantastic.
BP:
He’s amazing. He’s one of the best newer guys out there.
DRE:
What’s your Goon story about?
BP:
It’s not written yet. But I have some crazy ideas keeping him in the Goon world.
DRE:
Are comics something you want to keep doing?
BP:
I’m doing what I want to keep doing. I’d love to be able to juggle all of this for the rest of my life. Like push a comic book one month and then have a new standup CD out and then keep doing movies and TV. I hope I can keep doing everything I’m doing because I love all of it.
DRE:
Has anything you’ve written gotten on TV or movies yet besides Mr. Show and The Comedians of Comedy?
BP:
I’ve had lines in movies. Honestly, it’s a tough business to crack. Run Ronnie Run had my name on it but I can’t wait to get something out there that just has my name and is the way I envision it. Screenwriting is the most frustrating thing I do. The other parts of my life aren’t nearly as frustrating but I think once I get that, I’m going to be more satisfied than I ever have just because it’s so hard.
DRE:
Do you go to lots of meetings?
BP:
Yeah and I do rewrites and punch ups on things you’ll never see. I’ve also done punch ups on movies that have come out and I’ve had original scripts that have gone along and gotten bought but ultimately won’t get made. I’m sure if you talk to Patton about it, his experiences are almost exactly the same.
DRE:
Ben Garant told me that Patton is like the leader of a few people that rewrites a lot of the comedy scripts.
BP:
Yeah, he does those a lot.
DRE:
Are you one of those guys?
BP:
My name’s in the same hat.
DRE:
You have a role in Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie Stay, have you seen it yet?
BP:
No I haven’t. I hear good things. Have you seen it?
DRE:
I haven’t seen it. It just sounds so good.
BP:
Yeah, I’m hearing really good things and Bob’s an old friend. I’ve known him for years. He said “Hey I wrote a movie about a girl that blows a dog.” I’m like, “Alright. Do I got to be there?”
DRE:
[laughs] On the day the dog’s on set.
It was very low budget, wasn’t it?
BP:
Yeah, we shot it at his producer’s house.
DRE:
Oh really? [laughs]
BP:
It was the most low budget thing I’ve been involved with and Mr. Show was real low budget. But when we did Mr. Show we would sometimes steal locations. We would jump out of a van with a camera crew and everybody would throw makeup on, yell our lines then jump back in the van and drive off. But Stay was even lower budget than that.
DRE:
You read a lot of mainstream comics. Are you interested in writing them as well?
BP:
I want to write comics but I’m never going to be one of those guys that screws with the history. I just don’t care and I don’t have the brain to do all the research. I can’t imagine doing a reboot like some of these guys are doing now.. It’s a lot of work as a reader; I couldn’t imagine doing as much work as those guys do with writing it. Spider-Man and Batman are my two favorites but I don’t know what I would do with them. I’m more apt to come up with a Deadpool story.
DRE:
I would imagine that it is really hard to think of something new to do with Spider-Man or Batman.
BP:
Right. Everything’s been done and also if I’m doing it, there’s got to be something funny about it because otherwise people will go, “why did he do this super straight boring Spidey story?” So I’d have to think of a comedic take and a lot of the mainstream comics so far haven’t been open to some of the ideas I’ve pitched. Gerry and I came up with The Adventures of Drunk Iron Man. I wanted to show all these other stories you didn’t see of him fucking things up while he’s freaking wasted. Like flying around with his helmet on backwards and a bottle of whiskey by his side.
DRE:
[laughs] Is there going to be a second season of Comedians of Comedy?
BP:
Hopefully. You’d have to ask the little fellow. We still tour together. So whether or not they send a camera crew out with us is in their court, but there’s nothing on the books but there’s been talk of us going to Europe and doing something for the BBC. That would be insane and I would love to do it. I love touring with Patton and Zach [Galifianakis] because they’re two of my favorite people in the world and they make me laugh every time I see them.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Brian Posehn has deep comedy roots. He first gained famed as a performer/writer on the seminal sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David. Since then he’s become an in demand supporting in numerous sitcoms like Just Shoot Me and movies such as The Devil’s Rejects and Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic. This past year has been the biggest for Posehn. The Comedians of Comedy was a hit for Comedy Central, his first comedy album Live in: Nerd Rage was just released and his first comic book miniseries The Last Christmas just began at Image Comics.
Buy Brian Posehn Live in: Nerd Rage
Daniel Robert Epstein: Are you just doing interviews today?
Brian Posehn: Yeah.
DRE:
Anyone good?
BP:
You.
Actually it’s been a lot of fun but after a while you start to forget what you just said and you start to feel like an idiot.
Actually it’s been a lot of fun but after a while you start to forget what you just said and you start to feel like an idiot.
DRE:
That’s ok; at least you’re not like Patton [Oswalt].
BP:
How’s that?
DRE:
If Patton doesn’t like the questions he’s being asked, he’ll pretty much just stop talking [laughs].
BP:
[laughs] Lovely.
DRE:
You’re friends with Joe Lynch, right?
BP:
Yeah, real good friends.
DRE:
I just visited the set of his movie [Wrong Turn 2]. It was awesome.
BP:
I’ve been too busy to get up there. I really wanted to, but he should have just written a part for me and then I would have had to go up there. If he was a true friend he should have had a nerd get shot or stabbed or whatever. But we’ll see maybe I’ll be in the third one.
DRE:
All the actors in the movie are very pretty.
BP:
What are you saying? I’m pretty.
DRE:
You’re not as pretty as the redhead from Blair Witch 2.
BP:
You’re right.
DRE:
[laughs] I was actually just talking to Missy about you.
BP:
Cool, I just had a couple of SuicideGirls in my video for my song Metal by Numbers and my good buddy, Gerry Duggan, called and got some SuicideGirls to come to set.
DRE:
Which ones?
BP:
I don’t even remember. Siren or Staple?
DRE:
Staple [laughs].
So is your angry voice real?
So is your angry voice real?
BP:
No [laughs]. I used to do it around friends and then those friends started to get in positions where they can hire me. The first time I did Just Shoot Me I didn’t audition for it. The part was written for me by a buddy, Rob Cohen. He just said, “Come on and do that dorky thing you do. Then scream in somebody’s face.” So I did.
DRE:
How did the title Live in: Nerd Rage come about?
BP:
I was trying to think of what to call the album and what to use for cover art. Powers is one of my favorite comic books. One of the issues last year had a telephone pole in the background of a big battle with a flyer on it that says Brian Posehn Live in: Nerd Rage. I figured I should use that as the title. Then I got the artist, Michael Avon Oeming, to do a more detailed version of the poster. I emailed [the writer of Powers, Brian Michael] Bendis because even though he is a fan and a friend Michael put the flyer in on his own.
DRE:
Mike is a spectacular artist.
BP:
No other artists’ work looks like that right now.
DRE:
And some of the stuff looks so different from Powers.
You used to sell this album just through your website.
You used to sell this album just through your website.
BP:
Yeah because I didn’t know how big of an audience there was and I didn’t know where to go as far as labels. I wanted to get it out so I could work on a whole new act. So I did that and then I was thinking that going with a metal label made sense because I talk about metal so much that I’ve cultivated a metal audience. Also David Cross went to Sub Pop and Patton likes whatever he likes so he went to Aimee Mann’s label. So it just made sense. Down the road I was thinking I was going to start recording with Scott Ian and doing funny metal. Then Relapse, who was on my short list, approached me before I could approach anybody else. It was an organic fit and I immediately called Scott Ian in and said, “Look pal, we got to do this. We got to finally buckle down and write these songs we’ve been talking about.” So that’s how it all happened.
DRE:
Could you possibly do a funnier metal group than Super Group?
BP:
Yeah, it’s hard to be funnier than Sebastian [Bach] and [Ted] Nugent but I’m going to try.
DRE:
You have to roll around the floor with them. Every time I flip past that show they seem to be wrestling.
BP:
Yeah. We talked about calling my band Savage Animal too.
DRE:
I know Patton waited so long to put out his album because he wanted to own it. Is it the same with you?
BP:
I got a pretty good deal.
DRE:
Was that very important to you?
BP:
No, what was most important was distribution and just getting it in the right places.
DRE:
How did you like the process of putting the album out yourself at first?
BP:
I would make more money if I was just doing it on my own but at a certain point you need real distribution. I made a lot more off each record selling it out of my office, but I don’t have a lot of room in my office. I had to take it to the next level with signing to a label.
DRE:
One thing I thought that was cool about the Comedians of Comedy was how you guys would do stuff during the day and then go talk about it onstage that night. Is that the way that you’ve always done your act?
BP:
No, I’m more of a writer. Throughout the show you didn’t see me doing a lot of that stuff. That’s mostly Patton. He is way more prolific than I am and I think he knew that that was something he was going to do. There’s a little bit where I’m writing a bit in the morning and then trying it at night and it doesn’t go as well as I hoped. I don’t have a total method to my writing, it just happens when it happens.
DRE:
Is it a much different thing than working on a screenplay or working on a sketch show?
BP:
For sure, because with writing sketches and screenplays I can force myself to just sit down and write. With standup I’ve never done that. Though when I first started, I would. There would be days where I’d meet other comics at a coffee shop and we’d sit around and work on bits. But it wasn’t like I would sit down and go “Ok, today I’m going to think of a bit on dating” or whatever. I never was that kind of comic. If it pops into my mind and it’s funny I’ll write it down and then maybe work on it later.
DRE:
Where was the CD recorded?
BP:
It was recorded on the Comedians of Comedy tour at a bunch of different places. The first part of the set is actually from Atlanta, one of my favorite cities.
DRE:
How did you like having to hear your act over and over again?
BP:
It’s a lot of work because I took ten different full sets and then put them together to make the 45 minute disc. The challenge was getting what I thought were the best takes and the best versions of each joke. But the first 20 minutes is all from one show in Atlanta. Then the rest of the record is bits that I don’t do too much anymore that I wanted to get on the record and then never do them again. Also I wanted to have uncensored versions of my material from the Comedy Central special.
DRE:
Do you have a special coming up?
BP:
Not yet. We’re talking about a DVD so I have a lot of writing to do. Maybe I should start to do what Patton does and write about everything that happens to me and try it on stage at night. I’ve got to start generating material somehow.
DRE:
Were you surprised about how popular the Titannica sketch from Mr. Show got?
BP:
That was around the time when I first started to get noticed in public so that was one of the first things that everybody connected with. When we did that scene live and David was revealed with the puppet body we got our biggest reaction we ever got. The crowd just went insane those first two shows. When we used to do Mr. Show we’d do two shows in a row and then we’d edit them together to make the best show.
DRE:
That sketch really is classic.
BP:
I’m pretty proud of it. I have the puppet body hanging in my garage.
DRE:
I asked David Cross but he couldn’t remember exactly who wrote the Pharmacist Who Sells Weed sketch. Was that you?
BP:
Yeah, that was me.
DRE:
That’s a great sketch too.
BP:
That idea came from me and Scott Aukerman. I smoke pot occasionally and it came from me joking about how I should get a prescription for dealing with Bob [Odenkirk]. I wrote the line for David to make it less about me because I couldn’t write a sketch where I was the main character. The show was called Bob and David.
DRE:
I read you just had a big 40th birthday party.
BP:
Yes I did. There’s a clip of it on Youtube of all things.
DRE:
I read about it on Blabbermouth.
BP:
I can’t believe that [laughs]. It’s really funny that people are talking about my silly birthday. We had this band Metal School which is a cover band that plays at the Keyclub every week. They’re hilarious but they’re actually really tight. They used to be at The Viper Room where I would go see them all the time. My wife knows that I’m a huge fan so she surprised me. She booked The Improv and told me we were going to a cancer benefit where one of my friends was performing.
DRE:
Oh, it was a surprise party.
BP:
Yeah, it was a total surprise. You can’t really back out of a cancer benefit. She guilted me with the C word so I showed up and all my friends were yelling. Then I got up and sang You Got Another Thing Coming jokingly with the band and then Scott Ian came up to sing.
DRE:
I read the first issue of The Last Christmas. I was looking at the cover and I thought “Boy, whoever did this cover does a great rip-off of Geof Darrow.” Then I saw it was actually Geof that did it. How did you make that happen?
BP:
I know Geof only from being a fan. I go to [the San Diego] Comicon every year and he’s one of my favorite artists alive. I bought a page from Hardboiled off him years ago and I go to his booth every year. [The Last Christmas co-writer] Gerry Duggan and I had been talking about doing the comic for quite a while. We brought it up to Geof. We were like, “Hey man, if we ever get this thing going will you do a cover?” He was like, “Well, if it actually ever happens, let me know I’ll consider it then.” We were set up at IDW Comics last year but they made us a horrible offer and my lawyer was like “No way.” We walked away from that and then we were looking for another place and just decided to do it with Image. As soon as we asked Geof we both thought that it would never happen. But he came through.
DRE:
How did you pick Rick Remender as your penciler?
BP:
Rick’s a good friend and I had talked to him about this project for a long time. I said, “Do you want to do this by yourself? Do you want to do it with Kieron Dwyer?” Who is a good friend of ours also and Rick used to ink Kieron’s work. I knew Rick could do it on his own so I gave him the option. We’ve known him more as a writer but I think he wanted to establish himself more as a penciler. We’re happy with it. He captured this great EC Comics look.
DRE:
It reminded me of the Lobo Christmas Special a little bit. Was that in your guys’ mind at all?
BP:
Well a lot of people read that book but try reading that book now. It is just mayhem for mayhem’s sake and there’s no story to it.
DRE:
That’s true.
BP:
A lot of people have brought up that comparison but not in a bad way. But I’m sure there’s going to be some fat man at Comicon that’s yells at me. It was an inspiration but in that Santa’s the bad guy and in our book Santa is the hero. There’s a reason for the mayhem in our book. But I’m not going to slam that book anymore.
DRE:
[laughs] Hey Simon Bisley did draw it which makes it automatically awesome.
BP:
Yeah, he’s amazing. At one point Gerry and I were talking about getting Bisley to do a cover but I was like, “No, then we’ll really draw comparisons.”
DRE:
I read that you’re writing a Goon short story.
BP:
Yeah, that’s coming up. I’m doing that with Tony Moore.
DRE:
Wow. That’s great. Tony Moore’s fantastic.
BP:
He’s amazing. He’s one of the best newer guys out there.
DRE:
What’s your Goon story about?
BP:
It’s not written yet. But I have some crazy ideas keeping him in the Goon world.
DRE:
Are comics something you want to keep doing?
BP:
I’m doing what I want to keep doing. I’d love to be able to juggle all of this for the rest of my life. Like push a comic book one month and then have a new standup CD out and then keep doing movies and TV. I hope I can keep doing everything I’m doing because I love all of it.
DRE:
Has anything you’ve written gotten on TV or movies yet besides Mr. Show and The Comedians of Comedy?
BP:
I’ve had lines in movies. Honestly, it’s a tough business to crack. Run Ronnie Run had my name on it but I can’t wait to get something out there that just has my name and is the way I envision it. Screenwriting is the most frustrating thing I do. The other parts of my life aren’t nearly as frustrating but I think once I get that, I’m going to be more satisfied than I ever have just because it’s so hard.
DRE:
Do you go to lots of meetings?
BP:
Yeah and I do rewrites and punch ups on things you’ll never see. I’ve also done punch ups on movies that have come out and I’ve had original scripts that have gone along and gotten bought but ultimately won’t get made. I’m sure if you talk to Patton about it, his experiences are almost exactly the same.
DRE:
Ben Garant told me that Patton is like the leader of a few people that rewrites a lot of the comedy scripts.
BP:
Yeah, he does those a lot.
DRE:
Are you one of those guys?
BP:
My name’s in the same hat.
DRE:
You have a role in Bobcat Goldthwait’s movie Stay, have you seen it yet?
BP:
No I haven’t. I hear good things. Have you seen it?
DRE:
I haven’t seen it. It just sounds so good.
BP:
Yeah, I’m hearing really good things and Bob’s an old friend. I’ve known him for years. He said “Hey I wrote a movie about a girl that blows a dog.” I’m like, “Alright. Do I got to be there?”
DRE:
[laughs] On the day the dog’s on set.
It was very low budget, wasn’t it?
It was very low budget, wasn’t it?
BP:
Yeah, we shot it at his producer’s house.
DRE:
Oh really? [laughs]
BP:
It was the most low budget thing I’ve been involved with and Mr. Show was real low budget. But when we did Mr. Show we would sometimes steal locations. We would jump out of a van with a camera crew and everybody would throw makeup on, yell our lines then jump back in the van and drive off. But Stay was even lower budget than that.
DRE:
You read a lot of mainstream comics. Are you interested in writing them as well?
BP:
I want to write comics but I’m never going to be one of those guys that screws with the history. I just don’t care and I don’t have the brain to do all the research. I can’t imagine doing a reboot like some of these guys are doing now.. It’s a lot of work as a reader; I couldn’t imagine doing as much work as those guys do with writing it. Spider-Man and Batman are my two favorites but I don’t know what I would do with them. I’m more apt to come up with a Deadpool story.
DRE:
I would imagine that it is really hard to think of something new to do with Spider-Man or Batman.
BP:
Right. Everything’s been done and also if I’m doing it, there’s got to be something funny about it because otherwise people will go, “why did he do this super straight boring Spidey story?” So I’d have to think of a comedic take and a lot of the mainstream comics so far haven’t been open to some of the ideas I’ve pitched. Gerry and I came up with The Adventures of Drunk Iron Man. I wanted to show all these other stories you didn’t see of him fucking things up while he’s freaking wasted. Like flying around with his helmet on backwards and a bottle of whiskey by his side.
DRE:
[laughs] Is there going to be a second season of Comedians of Comedy?
BP:
Hopefully. You’d have to ask the little fellow. We still tour together. So whether or not they send a camera crew out with us is in their court, but there’s nothing on the books but there’s been talk of us going to Europe and doing something for the BBC. That would be insane and I would love to do it. I love touring with Patton and Zach [Galifianakis] because they’re two of my favorite people in the world and they make me laugh every time I see them.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
