Spring Break
Truckin' in the nude
Duo dishes on improv comedy and new show on Comedy Central
By: Cristine Mayer
Issue date: 1/25/07 Section: Aggielife
Are a lot of the things on the show improvised?
DK: The live show was largely improvised. For the television show, the songs and such had to be written before, because there is just not time to improvise. Improvising doesn't lend itself to this form of television.
DA: It's divided into five acts, and we really have to hit 10 to 20 second endings. A lot of hilarious stuff had to be cut.
DK: You have to be a slave to the clock.
What do you think your audience's response will be to the fact that it is completely out of the realm of political correctness?
DK: All we know is this is what we like, this is how we like it.
DA: T-Bones is jokingly saying things he knows not to be true, and the Naked Trucker usually responds with something moral.
DK: There are satirical elements that people overlook; the characters play with language, and it's deliberate and how we speak to each other and what we can and cannot say.
Can we expect any more guest appearances on the show?
DK: Well, in doing a TV show, you have one chance to call in all the favors and lean on all your famous friends to help out; you need all the eyes you can. We're going to have a guest star in every episode. We do want people to know they can look forward to their favorite comedians, such as Neil Flynn of "Scrubs" and Tenacious D.
How much creative control does Comedy Central have on the show?
DK: We have a lot of freedom. A lot of networks took a look at the show, said they liked it and never did anything. But Comedy Central did.
DA: There's a lot of passion on behalf of a lot of the execs at Comedy Central to make this thing work. There are a lot of fans of our show at Comedy Central, and we don't feel like it's a watered-down version of our show. There are standards, but those are just practical standards. We might have trimmed a verse of a song to make it fit, but it's just because we need the time.
Is it harder now to write for a show that's half an hour each week, or does it get to the point where the characters write it for themselves?
DK: Stephen King once said that 'writing is like archaeology; you just keep uncovering it.' Writing is failure. You know you're going to fail, but you just try again.
DA: Our acting is like archaeology - it's old.
DK: The one thing we do know is how these characters are going to react. So we have that fluidity, and we have that point to start at.
Can the audience expect a CD
on the way?
DA: We're actually putting some stuff together right now. We have a live show coming on DVD. And that has all of [the songs] in their entirety. Once a month on the website we'll also probably put one song up. I mean, for the people interested, there's definitely music out there floating around.
DK: The live show was largely improvised. For the television show, the songs and such had to be written before, because there is just not time to improvise. Improvising doesn't lend itself to this form of television.
DA: It's divided into five acts, and we really have to hit 10 to 20 second endings. A lot of hilarious stuff had to be cut.
DK: You have to be a slave to the clock.
What do you think your audience's response will be to the fact that it is completely out of the realm of political correctness?
DK: All we know is this is what we like, this is how we like it.
DA: T-Bones is jokingly saying things he knows not to be true, and the Naked Trucker usually responds with something moral.
DK: There are satirical elements that people overlook; the characters play with language, and it's deliberate and how we speak to each other and what we can and cannot say.
Can we expect any more guest appearances on the show?
DK: Well, in doing a TV show, you have one chance to call in all the favors and lean on all your famous friends to help out; you need all the eyes you can. We're going to have a guest star in every episode. We do want people to know they can look forward to their favorite comedians, such as Neil Flynn of "Scrubs" and Tenacious D.
How much creative control does Comedy Central have on the show?
DK: We have a lot of freedom. A lot of networks took a look at the show, said they liked it and never did anything. But Comedy Central did.
DA: There's a lot of passion on behalf of a lot of the execs at Comedy Central to make this thing work. There are a lot of fans of our show at Comedy Central, and we don't feel like it's a watered-down version of our show. There are standards, but those are just practical standards. We might have trimmed a verse of a song to make it fit, but it's just because we need the time.
Is it harder now to write for a show that's half an hour each week, or does it get to the point where the characters write it for themselves?
DK: Stephen King once said that 'writing is like archaeology; you just keep uncovering it.' Writing is failure. You know you're going to fail, but you just try again.
DA: Our acting is like archaeology - it's old.
DK: The one thing we do know is how these characters are going to react. So we have that fluidity, and we have that point to start at.
Can the audience expect a CD
on the way?
DA: We're actually putting some stuff together right now. We have a live show coming on DVD. And that has all of [the songs] in their entirety. Once a month on the website we'll also probably put one song up. I mean, for the people interested, there's definitely music out there floating around.
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