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November 8, 2007
Inside With: The Sklar Brothers
By: Matt Sklar
After their successful ESPN show Cheap Seats wrapped last year, L.A. based actor-comedians Randy and Jason Sklar have been balancing their stand-up careers with profile-raising turns on Grey's Anatomy, Entourage, and the movie Wild Hogs. They also star in the web series ["(Layers)"] with Nick Kroll on Super Deluxe and have a new cd, Sklar Maps, available on AST Records. We caught up with Randy just as the brothers begin gearing up for four headlning shows at Comix this Friday and Saturday.
I should start by saying that I think I was asked to interview you because I also happen to be a twin named Sklar. So let me get the questions out of the way that I'm sure, like me, you've been asked many times throughout your lives: can you read each other's minds?; if one of you gets hurt, does the other feel the pain?; and did you ever try to trick your parents by dressing the same growing up?
We cannot read each other's minds. However, recently we've been able to access the inner thoughts of Jeremy and Jason London, and those are dark, dark dudes. We have never experienced transitive pain moments and we both have the use of all of our limbs, but in high school we both claimed to experience the sensation of a phantom foot. As a result we were not allowed to watch the made for TV movie, The Terry Fox Story. As for tricking parents and friends by pulling the old switcheroo we have always felt, from an early age, that's as hack a move as you'll ever find in the twin arsenal, and that's saying a lot. Twins in general freak us out. They're weird and as a rule unoriginal. (Sklar twins excluded of course). There's a basic set of twin shtick that's pre-determined and most twins just plug into that paradigm and that becomes part of their public identity. Or they'll go in the other direction and completely individuate from an early age, and try to create such divergent personalities that they eliminate the possibility that they could ever be considered twins. Either way it's been done to death.
There's always an element of sketch to your stand-up performance just by the fact that there's two of you on stage playing off each other, but your new CD, Sklar Maps, seems to rely more on personal storytelling and real-life anecdotes. Is that something you were specifically going for with this cd, or do you feel that's the direction your stand-up is moving towards in general?
We've always walked the line between stand up and sketch in our comedy. We have tended to introduce to the audience a stand up premise with quick jokes that directly address the crowd, and then that premise gets blown out into a longer sketch-like bit. And there still are a number of bits on Sklar Maps that adhere to that comedic style. But because this was recorded at a theater (UCB Theater L.A.), in front of more of an alternative crowd, it allowed us to delve deeper into personal anecdotes without having to worry about pummeling the crowd with oneliners. We knew they were willing to come with us on the journey, they trusted us that pay offs were right around the corner, and that allowed us to open up the material a bit and to perform some longer stories that we've been dying to record.
We also wanted this CD to feel more personal. It's a CD that explores the world we currently find ourselves entrenched in, Los Angeles, 2007--Hollywood to be exact. We are from St. Louis and even though we've managed to build a modest career in this industry, we still feel like outsiders, and we still find ourselves laughing at the absurdities of this city and this industry we've chosen to live our lives within.
You both live in L.A. now, but you lived in New York during a very exciting time in the alternative comedy scene, when shows like Eating It at Luna Lounge and Stella at Fez were taking off. Are there any particular shows or venues in the city that you enjoy performing at when you're in New York?
Alternative comedy in New York in the mid 90's was amazing. In 1994 we had just moved to New York and we were hating our act. We went to see a brand new comedy show called Eating it--at the time it was at Rebar, and Andy Kindler was on the show, and Lizz Winstead, Jeff Ross, Marc Maron, Marc Cohen, John Benjamin, Sam Seder and Sarah Silverman. Lizz Winstead told a story that made her cry, Jon Benjamin came out of the crowd and fought Sam Seder, Kindler commented on his own jokes and Maron was so willing to peel back and reveal his true self, and it was one of the best comedy shows we'd ever seen. 30 people showed up. After the show, we walk out onto 8th avenue and 15th street and said to each other, "You're allowed to do that?!" It was so funny and so unpredictable, and so exciting. It was like this revolution in our minds. Worlds of comedic possibilities opened up, and that was just the beginning of that era in New York. Eating It moved from Re-bar down to Luna Lounge, UCB moved to town and started performing there. The room couldn't fit all of the people who wanted to see the show. Agents and network executives were suddenly coming downtown to shows instead of going to comedy clubs. Stella and Moonworks and shows at Surf Reality started to pop up and draw lots of diehard fans. Stella, of course, was one of our favorite shows. Those guys were hilarious, their videos were legendary, the crowds were four deep sometimes at the bar, and you never knew who would come down and be on the show. We saw John Stewart and Janeane and Liev Schreiber on shows. And Mr. Blue and the band was incredible. And every few minutes you felt the subway underneath the floor. It was the apex of comedy in New York at that time. It was an amazing time for comedy, and we felt so lucky to find ourselves in the middle of it all.
Then from 2002-2005 we were fortunate enough to get to shoot our ESPN Classic Show Cheap Seats in New York while living in L.A. So we would come out every five weeks to New York for the week and we'd get to once again become a part of the comedy scene in New York, albeit in a more tangential way. Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale were amazing in that whenever we would call them and tell them we were coming to town, they'd have us on their show Invite Them Up. We love that show. It's got such a solid mix of talented folks trying new material and good crowds that want to see something different. We also got to do shows at the UCB Theater, which really grew after we left New York, into a comedy mainstay. We got to do Seth Herzog's show Sweet a bunch of times and we loved that space. We would do the Hump show with Sean Conroy and at the end of our run we got to do Aziz's Crash Test. After living in LA where everything shuts down at midnight, we couldn't believe how many people would be out at comedy shows at 1am on a Monday night.
And we've never performed at Comix before, but we've only heard good things. They book great comics and treat them really well. We're excited to headline there November 9th and 10th with John Mulaney as our feature.
You've had high-profile guest starring roles on Grey's Anatomy and Entourage this year. With those appearances, and with your involvement with ESPN and Jim Rome's show, has the audience at your stand-up shows changed in any way?
We've definitely enjoyed a bump in attendance and knowledge of our work by audiences. We just headlined the Hollywood Improv at the end of September and for the first time it really felt like people were there to see us. And when that happens, audiences are already on your side, so it gives us a chance to try newer bits and to push things a bit further.
You also co-write and co-star with Nick Kroll in the new web series, Layers, on Super Deluxe. Can you talk a bit about how the show came together?
We had met Nick in New York when we were shooting Cheap Seats and immediately formed a connection. Even though he's six years younger than us, it was as though we were long lost camp friends. We had him come on Cheap Seats to play an Elvis Grbac impersonator who only looked like Elvis Grbac when he was wearing his helmet. But in our interview with him, he had forgotten his helmet so he just looked like a Jewish dude. From there we really wanted to collaborate on something but we weren't sure what. We were just hanging out after an Invite Them Up at Rififi when he told us of a character he did in a New York, a manager who represented agents, and we sparked to that idea, thinking what if we stepped it out even further to have it be an agent who represents agents and the publicists that represent that agent. That's how ["(Layers)"] was born. We pitched it to Dan Pasternack at Superdeluxe.com over greasy onion rings when Nick was out in LA and immediately Dan got the idea and they ordered 3 episodes.
You play publicists on the show, and you've played talent agents on Entourage. Do you draw from any personal experiences when playing these Hollywood types, or are they just fun characters to play?
We've certainly had plenty of time to observe the behavior of representation through the years. When it's good it develops talent and nurtures careers, and when it's bad it's like a parasite living off its host and sucking the talent dry or worse, non-existent. We've always been fascinated by that relationship and by people who are not so good at the game. The characters in Layers are like negative counterparts the characters in Entourage. It's like Entourage without any of the juice. We've always found it more fascinating to focus on bottom feeders who are trying to make a name for themselves, always one step removed from the action, but in their minds, always one step away from success. In Layers, these characters are one step away from the guy who is one step away from the guys who are one step away from success.
You've talked about your shared love of European football. Have you gone to many L.A. Galaxy games over the summer? Has Beckham fever really gripped L.A, or is it just hype?
We've only been to one Galaxy game, right before Beckham came to town. We were writing an article for ESPN the Magazine about Beckham's impact on Los Angeles. What we found was that most of L.A. didn't know or care about the L.A. Galaxy. And we're not going to call Beckham a bust, but he was injured a lot of this season and the Galaxy didn't even make the MLS playoffs, so that may have turned off any potential fencer's out there in LA, (which is basically everyone, everyone is on the fence about everything. There are people who are on the fence about being on the fence about things).
We both have Sirius radio in our cars and listen religiously to the English Premier League games on channel 125. There's also a great talk show called World Soccer Daily, which is fun, opinionated and very informative that we both listen to as our knowledge of the European game expands. I think the thing that is most compelling is the history of each team, the rivalries. Add to that a level of fanaticism that doesn't border the insane, but regularly lives there, and you've got a great sport. To listen to these games on the radio is amazing too. We also love to listen to the announcers; their enthusiasm is infectious. And after playing soccer up through high school, our knowledge of the game and its nuances helps us to enjoy it all the more. Yes, we are futbol nerds.
Posted by The Apiary at November 8, 2007 12:01 PM