anderswolleck

Talking to Greg The Bunny co-creator, Dan Milano, can make you feel a bit schizophrenic. As hes talking he will slip on the Greg puppet then the Warren the Ape puppet. But then he might have Warren on his hand and argue with him in Gregs voice. It can be a bit overwhelming. I think the FOX network felt the same way when they cancelled the behind the scenes satirical sitcom, Greg the Bunny. When the creators of Greg the Bunny went from public access to a network I think they were expecting to do a Larry Sanders with puppets type show but were forced by the suits into a Just Shoot Me with puppets type mode.

Thats all in the past now because due to the success of the Greg the Bunny DVD set all the main puppet characters like Warren the Ape, Count Blah and Greg himself are doing film parodies on the Independent Film Channel.

Check out IFCs official website for Greg The Bunny

Daniel Robert Epstein: So between the cancellation of the FOX show and this new IFC show you did Fur on the Asphalt. But did a lot of things come your way after the FOX show got cancelled?

Dan Milano: Yes and no; as a result of the FOX show, we struck up great friendships with everyone in the cast. I've been doing stuff for Robot Chicken and Seth [Green] has always done stuff for us. Eugene Levy was part of a pilot that I sold at Warner Bros. A lot of doors opened especially because of Greg fans in LA. I've been doing script work for Laura Ziskin and Lauren Shuler Donner. Ziskin just used to watch it on IFC back in 1999. People were passing tapes around of the old stuff; FOX was cool enough to release a DVD after Family Guy was such a hit.

DRE: Did the DVD sell many copies?

DM: Yeah, it did very well for them but it's very hard to fact check that stuff. They told me they were very happy. We didn't get much in the ways of residuals, but we did get some residual checks, which meant that it had to clear about half a million copies.

DRE: Lets talk to Greg, how are you?

Greg The Bunny: Im good! When I was on IFC, I was what you'd call a minimalist puppet. A lot of noise, no moving mouth. We actually liked that about me, it had a Velveteen Rabbit appeal. Suddenly you're on the FOX show and they start spending money on a moving mouth and you know what? It looks weird.

DM: On FOX in half of the thirteen episodes, they gave him marble eyes with blinking eyelids and a moving mouth and all this overproduction instead of buttons. It wasn't bad, just different. So now that we're back, the comedy is definitely more subversive than it ever was on FOX and the looks of their puppets have reverted back to their original form.

Now that we've returned to IFC we're showing six of our old pieces from IFC in 1999 and six of our new ones. We started on Manhattan Neighborhood Network on a show called Junktape where Greg was created. Off of that, we had that show on Independent Film Channel, which is mostly interstitial material: short films, movie parodies, man-on-the-street stuff. That was on for two years. Based on that, we got the notoriety and we got the FOX series. Post-FOX, we're now back at IFC. So this is the fourth show.

DRE: Are we going to see behind the scenes type stuff like the way the FOX show was?

DM: That's the stuff that I love the most because thats when the characters are most alive. We have an episode based on Pulp Fiction called Dead Puppet Storage and it's a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a parody. It's specifically about what a bastard Warren the Ape can be to deal with. We begin in the world of making the show. The co-creators, Sean Baker and Spencer Chinoy talk from off-camera at the puppets. They try to get them to remember their lines and not blow their takes so we show a lot of that.

DRE: You call the Coen Brothers parody episode, You know, for kids! A line from the most hated Coen Brothers film, The Hudsucker Proxy.

DM: Yeah, I know! We just thought it's one of the only things that made everyone immediately think of the Coen Brothers because the episode is not a parody of any one film. It's a kidnapping story where Warren and Greg have basically staged a phony kidnapping plot to fool their agent, Pal Friendlies. Then they become pursued by a sheriff like the one in Fargo. They go from running through a supermarket doing Raising Arizona, then through the woods where they get arrested and they're on the chain gang from O Brother, Where Art Thou? It just goes like that all the way to the end.

DRE: How quickly do the film parodies get produced?

DM: Its about two weeks of production, a week for editing and mixing if the schedule's tight. It's difficult because even though we shoot very much guerrilla style, there are technical aspects. It's hard to always consider where your puppeteers need to be, get your framing and have those puppet-sized props.

DRE: Do you have a raised stage?

DM: On the FOX show, absolutely. It was four feet off the ground and we had trenches and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes people stumbled into them and got hurt. But I think that everything is overproduced on network television. I just think you lock off the camera and set your frame; you get the shot of the person you want and stick the puppet in. So that's what we do now. If we have a scene with Seth Green or Gilbert Gottfried or other cameos, we find the shot and the puppeteer sticks the puppet up, ducks down, and we get pillows to try to make it comfy for him and that's it. In this Pulp Fiction episode you'll see Greg and Warren in a car doing the Royale with cheese scene and I'm literally pinned under the brake, sitting Indian-style under the driver's side. It was the most uncomfortable thing I've ever felt. My legs were numb when it was over but it looked hilarious.

DRE: Who owns Junktape?

DM: Spence, Sean and I own those.

DRE: So when will we see that on DVD?

DM: We'd love to do that. There's a clip of Junktape on the FOX DVD set. We're talking about putting some of it on our website but Junktape contained licensed material. The original show was montages of weird film and TV stuff chopped together. You'd see a clip from an exploitation film cut with a propaganda film cut with a shot bears fucking in a nature documentary. So we can't show that, but we can show all the puppet stuff out of context which is basically the little adventures of Greg. We'll either put that on a DVD or we will put it on the website and make it available, because there's some really trippy stuff and it's especially great to see how much the characters have changed.

We're talking with IFC about releasing a DVD this fall of their old material and some of the new stuff. We've got it all sitting in a vault and we'd love to use it. What's interesting is that we largely improv all the dialogue. So for a two minute scene there's an hour of footage. We have hours and hours of interviews and conversations with Greg and especially Warren. We talked about putting something together called "The Warren Tapes", which would just be a collection of all his stuff. Stuff where he was born again, stuff where he's on mushrooms, or stuff where he's just ranting about his ex, that we completely had to cut out to make our ten minute running time.

DRE: Was that Jon Favreau/Warren the Ape confrontation in Fur on the Asphalt improvised?

DM: Yeah, that was improvised.

DRE: That Famke Janssen line was hysterical. .

DM: It wasn't scripted, but we said, "Let's have one of us just spit it out." Warren was going to say something about putting the moves on Famke and then Jon came up with that whole "She wasn't sleeping.

Jon came on set and was really nice and a little unsure. He was aware of the FOX show and we knew him through Sarah Silverman but he was a little scared, like "What are you going to have me do?" We said "You're going to run into Warren and you guys are going to have it out." We shot an hour of that.

DRE: How was Greg's experience with the hooker?

GTB: That would be the oral exchange. It was my first, actually.

DRE: How have you changed since your first sexual experience?

GTB: I was feeling very mature there for a while, but now I know a little more about life and now a lot of those after-school specials make more sense to me. But for the most part I think I'm the same bunny. It didn't change me. I just know that, sometimes now, when I get that feeling, I do something about it. I used to be perplexed, like Why is that going on? Then I'd go watch Speed Racer and relax. Now I tend to surf the web and there's a lot of stuff out there for a young bunny like myself. Warren always said my natural instincts would kick in and they really have. But I'm not crazy about it, like thirty times a day, nothing sick.

DRE: Well, you are a rabbit.

GTB: Yeah. I read once on a nature website that it was normal. I was worried for a while.

DRE: How is it when Dan Milano touches your no-no place?

GTB: He's in my no-no place right now! When you're a puppet, it's all a no-no place. That's pretty much it. We go to churches and pray to the Fist. Without the Fist, there is no life. Sodomy is just an accepted part of being a fabricated American.

DRE: Greg, what do you know about SuicideGirls?

GTB: Oh gosh, well the title is a bit misleading. But I do know that there are a lot of very pretty girls on there and I'm very popular with the Goth set. It must be the button eyes or the fact that I have a Tim Burton quality so they cuddle me very often. Which is enjoyable, because they smell really nice. Hot, vampy girls. God I love puberty!"

DRE: Aren't you 36?

GTB: In human years.

DRE: How long do rabbits live?

GTB: Oh gosh, I don't know! I don't really talk to regular rabbits because they chew and they bite and they smell like crap. Have you ever smelled a traditional rabbit? They smell like poo. They're not very engaging for personal conversation. Puppets have a regular lifespan, just like everybody else, meaning if I eat right and exercise I could probably make it to my 80s or something. Then on the other hand, I'm surprised Warren the Ape isn't dead already. His soul is dead, but the body lives on, inexplicably enough.

DRE: Back to Dan for a second, youre writing for Robot Chicken now. Do you go and sit in the room with those guys or do you just send in sketches?

DM: We see each other a lot so the way it works with them right now is I'm mostly doing voices. Victor Yerrid, who played Tardy Turtle on the FOX show and has also done puppetry on the new Greg The Bunny show, does voices as well. Seth [Green] will call me up and be like, "Dude, do you do Fred Flintstone?" and I'm like "I kind of do cereal commercial-Fred, not movie-Fred." You go in, get in a booth and they're just so fun.

DRE: That show's doing so well.

DM: It's Cartoon Networks top-rated show and it's also brought in a lot of women viewers. I don't know if that's because of Seths name but suddenly they're saying they have more female viewers than ever on Adult Swim.

DRE: Sometimes I think they say that kind of stuff just to get females to watch.

DM: Yeah, probably! I mean are they really all watching Voltron breakdance? But if you go to San Diego Comicon now there are women all over. I even went to this Star Wars Celebration and there were women everywhere. Dressed up and just having fun.

DRE: You've got to go to a really bad convention. If there are women there, then you know it's really crossed over.

DRE: How much does IFC get involved with the Greg the Bunny parodies?

DM: They get involved and they do speak of things more from a parody standpoint. We did a Godfather episode and we had an 80s dress up montage set to a rap song. Greg's afraid he's not Italian enough to be the new Don, and Warren's like "When I'm done with you, you'll be the coolest Don in school!" Then cut to the dress-up montage. They weren't as keen on that because they wanted a faithful parody. But we do that with everything; our Coen Brother episode actually ends with a parody of Se7en. Our Eraserhead episode kicks ass because it's really faithful to the style. It's creepy. Most people say "It was kind of fun, but I don't want to watch it again." It's so disturbing!

DRE: How did you make the baby?

DM: We used a peeled mango covered in Vaseline and we put a tube in it so it could throw up.

DRE: That's just nasty.

Can I talk to Warren the Ape?

Warren the Ape: Hey, how you doing? Warren Demontague is the full name. Im kind of trying to lose the whole the Ape thing.

DRE: Maybe you could just go to Warren Ape. Like how it's Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear.

WTA: Well it's not Anthony the Human Hopkins, so it's just Warren frickin' Demontague.

DRE: What kind of ape are you?

WTA: I'm just a simian variety. It's weird; when you're a fabricated American you just take on these forms, really. I really have nothing in common with apes. I think Greg might have some real bunny lineage in his family, but me? Whatever. This is what I was like right off the shelf. Maybe there are parts of me that are a little more primal than others. You could attest to the whole ape.

DRE: Do you have a red ass?

WTA: No I don't have a baboon ass. I have a nice, brown, furry ass. not too big. It's just a little junk in there, but it's a good ass. It's a good ass for TV. It looks good. I actually showed my cheeks on the FOX show once like when Dennis Franz showed it on NYPD Blue.

DRE: I bet your ass is a lot better looking than Dennis Franzs.

WTA: I think so, too. Of course, I haven't seen it to compare, but it probably looks like two pigs at the same trough.

DRE: What do you think of that Dan Milano guy?

WTA: He's a good guy. I've known him a long time. We don't talk much but he's good to me. I like having a personal assistant and that's been nice. We don't really discuss the whole handling situation because that's embarrassing and frightening. If I could have him removed, I would, sort of like Belial in Basket Case, but then he'd have to carry me around in a basket. So I let him stay attached.

DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?

WTA: I know I'd love to meet some. Those girls are crazy, man. I love sick, crazy girls. The sicker the better. No hold-ups, very few inhibitions, that's my kind of lady.

DRE: You have any tattoos?

WTA: Yeah, sure, but you can't see them. They're all over me. But they're obscured from view. I had to have myself shaved to get them added on. I had nipple piercings for a while, but they're gone now. They were putting a microphone on me and it made a hole so I just went with it. With a needle and thread, you can put pretty much anything on us. The whole first quarter inch is fur and foam; you've got to really dig deep before you hit the gooey stuff.

DRE: So you like dirty sex?

WTA: Oh yeah, what the hell. I drink hard, I play hard, I like life interesting, you know what I mean? Let's just say vanilla is not my favorite flavor. I like Rocky Road. Throw anything in there, throw the fucking kitchen sink in there.

DRE: I don't know what you mean by Rocky Road.

WTA: I just like a lot of stuff! I'll try anything, just throw in your chocolate chips and your pretzels and your peanut butter and your heroin and your gummy turds or whatever you want. It's all good.

DRE: What's under your hat?

WTA: I like that question because that's why I wear the hat. It makes people interested. They see you walking down the street and they say Who are you? What's that thing?

GTB: I think it makes you look like a retard.

WTA:: Shut up, Greg. The helmet is a manifestation of my inner child. Wait that's bullshit. Actually, some scars just don't heal. It gets me noticed, you need a gimmick and this is pretty much what gets me into the auditions.

DRE: You audition for anything lately?

WTA: It's been pretty dry. I tried out for Avenue Q, but I'm a baritone and they didn't seem interested. Im a strong presence and that's an ensemble piece. I think they felt I was just stealing the focus and that too much attention was focused on me. So we had a parting of the ways. Good luck with their little thing. I don't think it's ever going to do much of anything. I haven't heard much about it. I think it's closed by now.

DRE: No its won a few Tonys.

WTA: Ohwell good for them.

DRE: How many Tonys do you have?

WTA: I don't need a Tony! I don't need some gleaming statue to make me feel like I'm worth something. I'm harsh, I'm underground, I'm cult, I'm a Bukowski. I write my poetry, I'm working on my biography right now called Postcards From the Shitstorm. It chronicles some very difficult years. I'm finally getting it out on paper as part of my emotional therapy.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck