Inside With: Kurt Braunohler | By: Eliot Glazer
Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 8:32AM  |
Are you actually a carpenter? If not, how do you make a living?
I am about the furthest thing from a carpenter you can imagine. I am VERY, VERY bad with my hands. But I've always wanted to be good with my hands and have befriended many people who are good at making real physical things, simply because I could never do that and it fascinates me. So, if you were to ask me what I would be in a different life I'd say "carpenter" much the same way a bird might say "a fish" when asked the same question. It would just be a totally new experience.
Right now, I'm about 80% making a living through comedy which is mind blowing to me. Kristen and I just got a development deal with the BBC, which is thrilling, and hopefully that will lead to me being able to not have to work 2 days a week fixing computers. Or Animal Planet could just pick up Penelope as a TV show already. (Hint! Hint!) Did I say Animal Planet? I meant Adult Swim. (Bigger Hint!)
With projects like Chengwin, Neutrino, Kurtbot and 24 Hour Road Trip, you have carved a niche in a mix of guerilla comedy and performance art. However, you also perform stand-up, sketch, improv and you teach. Where do you see the lines blurred between the different genres, and do you prefer one to the others?
Here's what I like about performative street experiences--it's about fucking with the mental landscape of a city. [Chengwin co-creator] Matt Murphy and I were always motivated by this idea that we wanted to take urban spaces that might only be defined in someone's minds as "place in between my apartment and starbucks" and drop a half-chicken, half-penguin battling a half-chicken, half-skunk right in front of them. Then all of a sudden, for that one person, this ordinary, routine space is forever changed. It now has a new title in their mind, something like, "Animal Battle Arena" or something. Nothing about the physical city changes--in fact, we prided ourselves on disappearing immediately after performances. (We had this giant cube truck just waiting out of site and it would zoom in and we'd hop in the back and we'd take off. That also helped us not get arrested.) I really like that idea of reinforcing the mutability of New York City. Because when I moved here I was kinda bored. I wanted to feel like ANYTHING was possible all the time. And I didn't. And Matt felt the same way. And that is what kind of motivated Chengwin and Chunk (and Chabio and Chixon and Chove) to make New York City fucking EXCITING. I think now is a very different time in NYC, and now I do think it is exciting again. Which is very cool.
And that's where it ties in with the comedy stuff I like. I like comedy that makes me feel like anything is possible. I want it to surprise me and take turns I would not have expected, but in hindsight seem to make sense. And at the heart of all the street stuff I was doing was its spontaneity and ephemeralness. This thing just popped up, changed you in some way, and disappeared, almost as if it had never existed. And that's why I love improv so fucking much. I have had experiences improvising that felt like we changed the world. And then you walk off stage, you realize it is nothing. There's no record. Only about a handful of people experienced it. No one's writing about it. It's just a pure aesthetic experience. And that's so beautiful to me.
But all of this brings me to Psychogeography, and kind of ties in with all of these "guerilla theatre" things I've done in the past. I've been doing Psychogeography experiments with my two good friends, Calvin Johnson and Scott Knowles since 2000, under the name "Psychogeography Project" which is purposefully vague. Our big events that have been the most popular are the "24 Hour Road Trip"--in which we have the all-American road trip, but without a car, in a single city. We explore the city for 24 hours straight without stopping, using all public transportation. We try and get ourselves in all the nooks and crannies of a city that you never have time to explore. We've done 3 here in New York, 1 in Philadelphia (in conjunction with The Next American City) and we're doing 1 in New Orleans on March 8-9 (which I will not be able to go to unfortunately.) We've also done something we call the "Urban Disorientation Game" in which we blindfold three groups of people, take their cell phones and wallets, throw them in a van, drive them to a part of the city they have never been in and leave them there [Interviewer's Note: I was invited to participate, but chickened out.]. They are not allowed to talk to anyone outside their group, or take public transportation, and it is a race back to where they started. We did one in New York City as part of the Glowlab Conflux and one in Rome as part of another arts festival. Those are really fun. We'll be doing one again this summer here in New York.
And I guess that's how I want my comedy to feel--like I blindfolded the audience and threw them in a van and dropped them off somewhere they'd never been before, but it's ok because they're gonna have a party. I want it to feel like that, or like eating ice cream and taking a shit at the same time. Either or would make me happy.
You've acquired a reputation for being an especially desirable improv teacher and you recently won an ECNY for Best Director, illustrated in your somewhat avant-garde methodology that results in a show like Big Black Ballet. What is your approach to teaching and directing?
First off, to give credit where credit is due, I didn't have that much to do with the creation of Big Black Ballet--that was all Big Black Car. I just directed them a few times and tried to help them out. I did help create "the Soundtrack" form with Mother back in the day when I was directing/coaching them though--so I already had a LOT of thoughts about music based improv. I kind of feel like Big Black Ballet is an extension of "The Soundtrack" into the non-verbal realm which is where I always thought the power of the form existed. I love the Ballet though and am thankful to Big Black Car for letting me perform in it with them when I could. It was a cool show.
I think teaching really helps me direct. I'd recommend it to any director. When you're teaching you’re being paid to watch performances and then give them very specific and easily understandable notes to make that performance better. So after hundreds of hours of watching improv and giving notes, you just start to be able to articulate what everyone else can feel. And once you can articulate what IS happening, it's relatively easy to change it.
As for my avant-garde approach, I usually start a Directing Session by letting everyone get real familiar with each other, just touching and looking into each other's eyes. Then I encourage them to take their tops off and just kinda rub around on each other. That usually is awkward until I bring out some beer and then we REALLY get to work, just rubbing all up on everyone and really making some creative juices flow. Then I shut off the lights and berate them, just really verbally abusing them. Then I demand my money and I leave. The success rate of this technique is shocking.
Your comedy partner, Kristen Schaal, has had quite a year with her breakout role on Flight of the Conchords and headlining gig at Comix. Does that make you want to punch her in the neck with jealousy?
Well, first off, the neck is NOT the place you want to punch Kristen--she is constantly doing neck pull-ups and her neck is like a steel bundle. I would go for the kidneys first.
And to be completely honest, I would feel jealous if not for these two facts: first off, Kristen and I are SO different, it's like a Panda bear getting jealous that he can't be eaten like an orange. And Secondly, Kristen's success has only been good for me. Kristen has been amazing about trying to involve me in the projects she is offered. The nice thing is we really like performing and working together, so it tends to be that whenever Kristen gets an opportunity she is always looking for a way to get me involved. And that is pretty unique and cool. I don't know many performers who work like that. But Kristen is a super rare-bird. I hope she continues to blow up so we can continue to make more cool things together.
Speaking of Kristen, your collaboration on Penelope: Princess of Pets, has been unanimously hailed as one of the funniest web series on the broadband channel, if not the Internet. Where did you come up with the concept and more importantly, when will the next episode come out?
We came up with the concept when we were thinking up script ideas for movies. But then we had been pitching Super Deluxe and they finally said "Bring us the show you really want to do." (Which is a very cool thing to say, by the way.) And we sat down backstage at the PIT and thought it would be fun to do it online. And that's where we came up with the title. We also came up with another idea that day called the "The Smile High Club," but that one was never made.
The next episode is a hybrid Penelope episode and a music video for the New Pornographers song "Mutiny, I Promise You." That was really exciting to work with the band and build this crazy set and shoot it all in one day. And as soon as Turner and Matador can work out their legal shit, we can put that up online. We also just shot 5 more episodes which should be online in early April. I'm REALLY excited about these next 6 episodes--we tried to top ourselves from the first three. Hopefully, we're somewhat successful.
Are you and Kristen dating? Have you ever dated? You insist that you're merely platonic, but your bit at Kristen's recent show with Arj Barker (in which she proposed marriage to you, resulting in your throwing her homemade birthday cake at her feet and hurriedly fleeing the premises) suggests otherwise.
I ask Kristen this same question every day. She reassures me that we're not. But who can tell these days?
At one show last summer, you delivered an act in cargo Capri pants, and blamed your late arrival on having gotten caught up "stealing a pair of pants off a fat toddler." I know a magician never reveals his secrets, but was this a mistaken fashion misjudgment or a knowingly intentional part of your set?
I have to give credit where credit is due here. Scott Eckert [of Big Black Car] earlier that week had told me that my pants looked like toddler pants. And I liked that and was hosting something that night and mentioned I had mugged a fat toddler, and people seemed to like it. But then on the specific day you mentioned, I had wanted to wear my Capri pants (I am a stylish man! I am not afraid of Capri-pants! I am secure in my masculinity!) But then I thought, "You can't wear these pants on stage." And then I thought, "Yes I can! Fat toddler joke!" But the truth of the matter is, I wore those pants a lot that summer. I liked them. They were half shorts half pants, like "shants."
You wore a skin-tight, white spandex body suit at Sketchfest '07. You're also known for riding your bike in the nude. Can I assume you have no problem with displaying your biznazz?
The Germans have this thing called FKK--which basically stands for "Free Body Culture" which means you can be naked anywhere, essentially. And I think that is awesome. I have never been happier than when I went to Berlin and got to go to this floating pool/sauna in this big ass river. And everyone was nude inside. I loved it.
But as far as performing nude goes--it doesn't really work for comedy I don't think. It just disturbs people generally. But I have been trying to figure out a burlesque bit to do. I did one once where I had this giant dildo coming out of my pants and I did a strip tease with this handkerchief that I had draped over this giant cock--it was my "dickercheif." That went horribly wrong. I thank Seth Herzog for having me back on Sweet after that performance.
Photo: Liezlwashere
You wrote a sketch comedy show for Noggin. Is it easier to write for babies or the Rififi crowd?
The Noggin experience was very eye opening. I was only 23 when I sold that show to them and I was NOT prepared to deal with constant client interaction. They were very hands on there, which I actually appreciated. But eventually this cool idea I had got slowly and slowly nibbled down to something I didn't recognize. It was amazing to watch the process as an outsider though and see how really good ideas can fail. Not that my idea was so great, but that there has to be a single vision for any project, and when you have a room full of visions, you end up getting something that caters to a bunch of different ideas but never fully accomplishes anything.
And writing for babies is similar to writing for the Rififi crowd. They both love shit jokes.
At 6'4", you're a tall dude. Has this worked to your advantage with comedy and/or ladies?
I think I tend to scare people a little bit at first because I'm big. Which I think helps comedy--because what is laughter if not veiled tears of terror? And it does NOT help with the ladies because I am unfortunately only attracted to ladies under 4'11" and so my height has been a real disadvantage there.
Do you have any more Hot Tub shows coming up?
Hot Tub was on hiatus because we were in production for Penelope and then we're going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival in March and April. But it will be back after that! Hot Tub can never die. Kristen and I are performing together and separately all over town the next month--just check out our myspace pages. But if you want to know right now, you can see me every Wednesday performing with The Faculty at The PIT, on February 20th at the UCBT for CBS/NYC Presents, and the BrooklynVegan/Klaus Kinski show at Piano's on Feb 28th.
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