Well, I finally completed the trilogy--no not Gabriel Garca Mrquezs memoir trilogy, that would be impossible. This past year Ive spoken to all three members of the Stella comedy troupe, Michael Showalter, David Wain and now the most visible of all three, Michael Ian Black. This past year has been good to Black. His directorial debut, The Pleasure of Your Company, was one of the few sales at the Toronto Film Festival, he is doing a column for the revamped Cracked magazine, and the first and probably last DVD of the Stella television series has just been released.
Buy the first season DVD of Stella
Daniel Robert Epstein: How was Toronto?
Michael Ian Black: Toronto was lovely. Its a lovely city.
DRE: I read you sold your film.
MIB: I did and so I have no complaints about the way Toronto or Hollywood treated me.
DRE: Were you nervous being up there with your movie?
MIB: Well I felt a little bit like Gary Gilmore, the convicted serial killer. Who, when given the choice between lethal injection and the shooting, or the firing, what do they call it?
DRE: Firing squad?
MIB: Firing squad. He chose the firing squad and I felt a little bit like him marching off to his own death.
DRE: [laughs] Did you have a chance to see any other movies up there like Death of a President?
MIB: I didnt see that. I saw Diggers, which was good and the other was The Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Think.
DRE: How was that?
MIB: Also good.
DRE: When would you like The Pleasure of Your Company to come out?
MIB: Well, it doesnt really matter when I would want it to come out but Im thinking the studio might put it out in the spring but I dont know if thats what theyre thinking. Nobody from the studio has contacted me.
DRE: I guess your job is done, right?
MIB: My job is essentially done. Well, actually thats probably not true. There are some more things to do because we havent finished our music. Also the studio may or may not request picture changes. I dont think they will. Theres always more. Im afraid the job never ends. Its like being a parent and I hate this movie the way I hate my children.
DRE: How so?
MIB: Im just tired of it.
DRE: [laughs] Well the kids get older and they change, right? But movies dont, is that what it is?
MIB: Well, yeah, the kids change often for the worst, but the movie remains the same so at least with the kids theres some variety on a day to day basis. You might wake up and they might be dickheads or they might be kind of nice but the movie just pretty much remains the same.
DRE: Are you psyched about the Stella DVD being out and seeing peoples reaction to it?
MIB: Im excited about the Stella DVD coming out only in that over time I hope people will begin to appreciate it because they certainly didnt when it was on television. But Im really proud of it and I think it will bear up under close scrutiny.
DRE: Comedy Central promoted Stella very well though.
MIB: They promoted it well, they believed in it, we believed in it, but America said No thank you.
DRE: [laughs] Are you used to that sort of thing now because youve had a lot of shows that arent recognized in their initial run?
MIB: That seems to be a pattern with me. Im so far ahead of my time that Im like a man from the future.
DRE: [laughs] Are you satisfied with the Stella TV show?
MIB: I dont know if anybodys ever completely satisfied with anything they do but I do think that its good. I think its very funny. I think we did what we set out to do and I think its unlike anything else on TV which did not help us in attracting an audience.
DRE: How much different was it doing the Stella TV show as opposed to the stage shows?
MIB: Well theyre totally different. The stage show is almost totally different characters that we play. On stage were much more un-retarded if thats a word.
DRE: How did you guys decide that these characters would be that stupid?
MIB: It was just a natural evolution of what weve been doing in these short videos that weve made for our stage show and theres something really funny about three dumb guys.
DRE: Why does it seem that in this type of comedy, the characters are never that bright?
MIB: Our characters are kind of weird savants in that they could do anything. They had intelligence at their disposal. They just often chose not to use it or when they used it, it was totally inappropriate.
DRE: How did you split up the writing duties?
MIB: Once we had the story locked down we would divvy them up a little bit and then we would split up and individually write the actual drafts.
DRE: When the three of you would have disagreements, what kind of stuff would it be over?
MIB: They were usually over technical things, story points. They werent usually over jokes. If people didnt like jokes then we would just change them. Story points were a little harder because its like fitting a puzzle together. So I think thats where most of our disagreements took place.
DRE: Did you guys have any censorship problems?
MIB: Very little. We knew what we were getting into when we went on TV. Its not like we were going out there saying we want to fuck a lot of corpses and strap on as many black dildos as we can per episode. We deliberately didnt want to do that. We wanted to play by the rules of TV. We thought it would be creatively enhancing for us and it was.
DRE: Was it in the scripts how weird your characters spoke?
MIB: No, we would just make it up as we went along. Sometimes they would talk really weird. Sometimes they would walk really weird. They would do weird things, but there were no rules. Part of the fun of it was that they were very pliable characters. They could do whatever we wanted them to do whenever we wanted them to do it and it wouldnt be violating anything about them because you never knew anything about them. They were ciphers, they had no past, they had no future, they lived totally in the moment.
DRE: Did you ever see ever creating extended storylines if the show kept going?
MIB: No we didnt really know what we wanted to do for the second season. We talked a little bit about changing the show to a certain extent more for production reasons than for anything else. It was an incredibly difficult show to produce on the budget that we had so there were some technical things we went through to make that easier. But in terms of storylines or specific script ideas, we didnt really spend any time thinking about them because we knew that there was a better than 50/50 shot that we were going to be canceled. The ratings were terrible. They started bad and they got worse.
DRE: Was it on after Reno 911 when it debuted?
MIB: No, it was on after Chappelle's Show reruns which was not a good pairing. We probably would have done a little bit better after Reno. But ultimately I dont think it mattered. I think people sampled it and decided they didnt like it and that was that. I dont think theres anything to blame other than the fact that America didnt care for it as a whole. I do think of it as like a Thomas Pynchon novel where everybodys heard about Gravitys Rainbow but nobody ever wants to sit down and fucking read the thing. Even though when I perform and I mention Stella it gets a large round of applause but theyre all fucking lying. If they really watched it would still be on TV.
DRE: What was so difficult about the show?
MIB: David [Wain], Michael [Showalter] and I were doing everything. We were writing it and often we were directing it and we were performing in it. Then we were supervising all the editing so we were doing all that on a fairly limited budget and limited schedule which was exhausting.
DRE: Oh ok. You had some pretty interesting directors though like David Wain then you had John Hamburg and Susan Seidelman.
MIB: We had great directors. They were really just terrific, talented directors and we had terrific actors who came to be in it with us. I think its a very successful show creatively. I really think its strong and I think eventually people will come to agree with me and if they dont they certainly cant watch it any more than they did before.
DRE: I visited the set of David Wains The Ten, not too long ago and I mentioned to him that Showalter had said to me months before that the Stella television show is in a kind of limbo until Comedy Central sees how well the DVDs do and David Wain said Limbo is probably too nice of a way to put it.
MIB: I think David was accurate. Although, in fairness, Comedy Central liked the show and believed in the show, but they couldnt justify picking it up when nobody was watching it. Their enthusiasm for the show never flagged, but they're just not in the business of throwing money into a well, so they didnt really have a choice but to cancel us.
DRE: But would you still want to do Stella stage shows in the future?
MIB: Wed like to. The problem is that once you stop momentum everybody gets busy with other things. So David started making The Ten. I made my movie. We were planning on touring this fall but David is now in post-production with his film so he cant. But at some point wed like to tour with Stella again.
DRE: I actually watch Celebrity Poker Showdown because it taught me how to play that game.
MIB: Well, youre watching the wrong show if you want to learn how to play.
DRE: Well, it gave me a basics on how to play.
MIB: It will give you a basic understanding, yeah.
DRE: Then I actually turned out to be pretty good at Texas Hold 'em.
MIB: If you do say so yourself.
DRE: If I do say so myself [laughs].
MIB: You won money hand over fist, youre telling me.
DRE: Well, is 40 dollars hand over fist?
MIB: Well, if you have midget hands then yes.
DRE: [laughs] Are you going to be doing it again if they bring it back?
MIB: Oh yeah, Im like their Paul Lynde. Ill show up whenever they want me to. Im a total whore for that show. I love it.
DRE: Are you still doing the stuff for Cracked?
MIB: Yeah, Im still writing for Cracked magazine. They relaunched a couple months ago. I dont know when theyre new issue is coming out, maybe in a couple weeks.
DRE: Did you read Cracked when you were younger?
MIB: I did read Cracked. I read all those magazines like Cracked and Mad and the ghetto version of them, Crazy. But this Cracked is kind of the grown up Cracked. Its much more adult oriented.
DRE: Also I read that youre writing a childrens book.
MIB: Yeah I wrote a childrens book thats coming out in 2008. Its called Duck Butt.
DRE: Is it about a character named Duck Butt?
MIB: No, its really just a lengthy list of animal butts with pictures. Its very, very good.
DRE: Are the pictures actual pictures or is it illustrated?
MIB: Its illustrated. Im assuming Ill win the Caldecott Medal for this.
DRE: Did you have anything else that youre working on lately?
MIB: No, Ive stopped working entirely. Im resting on my laurels at this point.
DRE: Since youre kind of the most visible member from The State TV show, do you ever feel like the spokesperson?
MIB: No, because I think everybody from The State gets asked the same questions.
DRE: [laughs] Such as, is there any movement on The State DVDs?
MIB: Not on the DVDs as far as I know but I know theyre selling the first season on iTunes right now.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy the first season DVD of Stella
Daniel Robert Epstein: How was Toronto?
Michael Ian Black: Toronto was lovely. Its a lovely city.
DRE: I read you sold your film.
MIB: I did and so I have no complaints about the way Toronto or Hollywood treated me.
DRE: Were you nervous being up there with your movie?
MIB: Well I felt a little bit like Gary Gilmore, the convicted serial killer. Who, when given the choice between lethal injection and the shooting, or the firing, what do they call it?
DRE: Firing squad?
MIB: Firing squad. He chose the firing squad and I felt a little bit like him marching off to his own death.
DRE: [laughs] Did you have a chance to see any other movies up there like Death of a President?
MIB: I didnt see that. I saw Diggers, which was good and the other was The Dixie Chicks documentary, Shut Up and Think.
DRE: How was that?
MIB: Also good.
DRE: When would you like The Pleasure of Your Company to come out?
MIB: Well, it doesnt really matter when I would want it to come out but Im thinking the studio might put it out in the spring but I dont know if thats what theyre thinking. Nobody from the studio has contacted me.
DRE: I guess your job is done, right?
MIB: My job is essentially done. Well, actually thats probably not true. There are some more things to do because we havent finished our music. Also the studio may or may not request picture changes. I dont think they will. Theres always more. Im afraid the job never ends. Its like being a parent and I hate this movie the way I hate my children.
DRE: How so?
MIB: Im just tired of it.
DRE: [laughs] Well the kids get older and they change, right? But movies dont, is that what it is?
MIB: Well, yeah, the kids change often for the worst, but the movie remains the same so at least with the kids theres some variety on a day to day basis. You might wake up and they might be dickheads or they might be kind of nice but the movie just pretty much remains the same.
DRE: Are you psyched about the Stella DVD being out and seeing peoples reaction to it?
MIB: Im excited about the Stella DVD coming out only in that over time I hope people will begin to appreciate it because they certainly didnt when it was on television. But Im really proud of it and I think it will bear up under close scrutiny.
DRE: Comedy Central promoted Stella very well though.
MIB: They promoted it well, they believed in it, we believed in it, but America said No thank you.
DRE: [laughs] Are you used to that sort of thing now because youve had a lot of shows that arent recognized in their initial run?
MIB: That seems to be a pattern with me. Im so far ahead of my time that Im like a man from the future.
DRE: [laughs] Are you satisfied with the Stella TV show?
MIB: I dont know if anybodys ever completely satisfied with anything they do but I do think that its good. I think its very funny. I think we did what we set out to do and I think its unlike anything else on TV which did not help us in attracting an audience.
DRE: How much different was it doing the Stella TV show as opposed to the stage shows?
MIB: Well theyre totally different. The stage show is almost totally different characters that we play. On stage were much more un-retarded if thats a word.
DRE: How did you guys decide that these characters would be that stupid?
MIB: It was just a natural evolution of what weve been doing in these short videos that weve made for our stage show and theres something really funny about three dumb guys.
DRE: Why does it seem that in this type of comedy, the characters are never that bright?
MIB: Our characters are kind of weird savants in that they could do anything. They had intelligence at their disposal. They just often chose not to use it or when they used it, it was totally inappropriate.
DRE: How did you split up the writing duties?
MIB: Once we had the story locked down we would divvy them up a little bit and then we would split up and individually write the actual drafts.
DRE: When the three of you would have disagreements, what kind of stuff would it be over?
MIB: They were usually over technical things, story points. They werent usually over jokes. If people didnt like jokes then we would just change them. Story points were a little harder because its like fitting a puzzle together. So I think thats where most of our disagreements took place.
DRE: Did you guys have any censorship problems?
MIB: Very little. We knew what we were getting into when we went on TV. Its not like we were going out there saying we want to fuck a lot of corpses and strap on as many black dildos as we can per episode. We deliberately didnt want to do that. We wanted to play by the rules of TV. We thought it would be creatively enhancing for us and it was.
DRE: Was it in the scripts how weird your characters spoke?
MIB: No, we would just make it up as we went along. Sometimes they would talk really weird. Sometimes they would walk really weird. They would do weird things, but there were no rules. Part of the fun of it was that they were very pliable characters. They could do whatever we wanted them to do whenever we wanted them to do it and it wouldnt be violating anything about them because you never knew anything about them. They were ciphers, they had no past, they had no future, they lived totally in the moment.
DRE: Did you ever see ever creating extended storylines if the show kept going?
MIB: No we didnt really know what we wanted to do for the second season. We talked a little bit about changing the show to a certain extent more for production reasons than for anything else. It was an incredibly difficult show to produce on the budget that we had so there were some technical things we went through to make that easier. But in terms of storylines or specific script ideas, we didnt really spend any time thinking about them because we knew that there was a better than 50/50 shot that we were going to be canceled. The ratings were terrible. They started bad and they got worse.
DRE: Was it on after Reno 911 when it debuted?
MIB: No, it was on after Chappelle's Show reruns which was not a good pairing. We probably would have done a little bit better after Reno. But ultimately I dont think it mattered. I think people sampled it and decided they didnt like it and that was that. I dont think theres anything to blame other than the fact that America didnt care for it as a whole. I do think of it as like a Thomas Pynchon novel where everybodys heard about Gravitys Rainbow but nobody ever wants to sit down and fucking read the thing. Even though when I perform and I mention Stella it gets a large round of applause but theyre all fucking lying. If they really watched it would still be on TV.
DRE: What was so difficult about the show?
MIB: David [Wain], Michael [Showalter] and I were doing everything. We were writing it and often we were directing it and we were performing in it. Then we were supervising all the editing so we were doing all that on a fairly limited budget and limited schedule which was exhausting.
DRE: Oh ok. You had some pretty interesting directors though like David Wain then you had John Hamburg and Susan Seidelman.
MIB: We had great directors. They were really just terrific, talented directors and we had terrific actors who came to be in it with us. I think its a very successful show creatively. I really think its strong and I think eventually people will come to agree with me and if they dont they certainly cant watch it any more than they did before.
DRE: I visited the set of David Wains The Ten, not too long ago and I mentioned to him that Showalter had said to me months before that the Stella television show is in a kind of limbo until Comedy Central sees how well the DVDs do and David Wain said Limbo is probably too nice of a way to put it.
MIB: I think David was accurate. Although, in fairness, Comedy Central liked the show and believed in the show, but they couldnt justify picking it up when nobody was watching it. Their enthusiasm for the show never flagged, but they're just not in the business of throwing money into a well, so they didnt really have a choice but to cancel us.
DRE: But would you still want to do Stella stage shows in the future?
MIB: Wed like to. The problem is that once you stop momentum everybody gets busy with other things. So David started making The Ten. I made my movie. We were planning on touring this fall but David is now in post-production with his film so he cant. But at some point wed like to tour with Stella again.
DRE: I actually watch Celebrity Poker Showdown because it taught me how to play that game.
MIB: Well, youre watching the wrong show if you want to learn how to play.
DRE: Well, it gave me a basics on how to play.
MIB: It will give you a basic understanding, yeah.
DRE: Then I actually turned out to be pretty good at Texas Hold 'em.
MIB: If you do say so yourself.
DRE: If I do say so myself [laughs].
MIB: You won money hand over fist, youre telling me.
DRE: Well, is 40 dollars hand over fist?
MIB: Well, if you have midget hands then yes.
DRE: [laughs] Are you going to be doing it again if they bring it back?
MIB: Oh yeah, Im like their Paul Lynde. Ill show up whenever they want me to. Im a total whore for that show. I love it.
DRE: Are you still doing the stuff for Cracked?
MIB: Yeah, Im still writing for Cracked magazine. They relaunched a couple months ago. I dont know when theyre new issue is coming out, maybe in a couple weeks.
DRE: Did you read Cracked when you were younger?
MIB: I did read Cracked. I read all those magazines like Cracked and Mad and the ghetto version of them, Crazy. But this Cracked is kind of the grown up Cracked. Its much more adult oriented.
DRE: Also I read that youre writing a childrens book.
MIB: Yeah I wrote a childrens book thats coming out in 2008. Its called Duck Butt.
DRE: Is it about a character named Duck Butt?
MIB: No, its really just a lengthy list of animal butts with pictures. Its very, very good.
DRE: Are the pictures actual pictures or is it illustrated?
MIB: Its illustrated. Im assuming Ill win the Caldecott Medal for this.
DRE: Did you have anything else that youre working on lately?
MIB: No, Ive stopped working entirely. Im resting on my laurels at this point.
DRE: Since youre kind of the most visible member from The State TV show, do you ever feel like the spokesperson?
MIB: No, because I think everybody from The State gets asked the same questions.
DRE: [laughs] Such as, is there any movement on The State DVDs?
MIB: Not on the DVDs as far as I know but I know theyre selling the first season on iTunes right now.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 16 of 16 COMMENTS
so hilariously brilliant.