Lance Krall and Anna Vocino of Free Radio Have Fun Improvising With Celebrities

Anna Vocino and Lance Krall on the set of Free Radio.

Improvised comedy on TV takes some intense comic chops to make a scene really soar. Lance Krall and Anna Vocino take it to a whole new level on VH1's Free Radio. In the fictional world of radio station KBOM, DJ Lance the "Moron in the Morning" tortures his celebrity guests.

The premise of Free Radio is that a prominent DJ of a morning radio radio show has left his job for satellite radio. The station scrambles to find a replacement. Clueless and inappropriate intern Lance gets the job. Amazingly the show is more popular that ever. Lance is inappropriate, uninformed, and even racist. He is completely unaware of the chaos he creates around him. His co-host the lovely Anna, with her well researched interview questions and pretty smile, helps the morning guests, all celebrities playing themselves, navigate the insane and wacky waters of being interviewed by an imbecile.

With a fantastic supporting cast including Brain Huskey as the station manger, Sarah Baker as the receptionist, and Gerry Bednob at Lance's manager , Free Radio is well worth taking the time out to have a laugh.

LAist asked show creator Lance Krall and his co-star Anna Vocino about making Free Radio, some of their favorite celebrity guests, and how they reacted to threats from some confused Twilight fans.

LAist: Thanks for taking the time to talk this morning. We know you are in the middle of editing.

Lance Krall: I am wrapping up the last episode. I am in a good place emotionally. We did an eight episode season, sort of like one of the short BBC seasons.

It's like Free Radio the mini-series.

Lance: I could handle much more to be honest with you. I hit my breaking point creatively after eight episodes because I edit everything from home and it basically sucks up every minute of my day. These short seasons are a little bit of a blessing. If we did too many more I would probably kill someone.

The cast of Free Radio.

If VH1 picks it Free Radio for more episodes in a season, would you allow anyone else to help you edit it?

Lance: I actually hooked up with an assistant editor this season who really started to get the vibe. This guy was really great. So yeah that's the goal, to find like-minded creative people who see your vision and understand what you are going for and I think I finally found one this season. I am really happy.

How did you come up with the idea for the show?

Lance: My manger, Rory Rosegarten, and I were asked to pitch some ideas to VH1 of the creative success of the Lance Krall Show on Spike TV. We came up with this idea, figuring since it's VH1 they are going to want some form of celebrity on the show since I am not an aging rap star or a rock and roll guy who wants to date crack whores. I didn't really have much to offer VH1. Well we needed to come up with something with celebrities and that was pop culture-driven, so we came up with this idea for Free Radio.

When did you start working together?

Anna: Years ago. We started doing comedy together. We did improv. A group of us started a theatre together in Atlanta. It's over a decade ago, let's just put it that way.

Lance: It has been a really long time. We have a really great chemistry on the show. It's come from us knowing each other for so long. We are basically like family.

Tell us about putting together an episode. How much is on paper? How much is improv?

Lance: I have a great writing partner, Loren Tarquinio. Basically before the season starts we bang out a bunch of outlines. That's about the extent of the writing for the show. They are loosely outlined scripts. We want to create an arc and create story, but we have such great improvisers and due to the show's tone, because the interviews are so loose that the rest of the show needs to feel that way. We decided we wanted the whole show to be improvised. We do about forty takes of everything. There is a lot of great stuff.

Anna: Yes, forty takes from every angle.

Lance: That's the other part. It's one thing when you have a blueprint and say OK these lines have to get out, but when you are editing improv you have to watch every single scene. And watch every single take. It kills me because there is so much funny stuff that just doesn't make it into the show. It's a fun show to edit. I basically start with the interviews. I make sure all of those are in good shape. Then we mold the story around that. So it is a very organic process.

Have any of the celebrities actually gotten offended by the improv? Has anyone not quite realized that they are supposed to be in on the joke?

Anna: Everyone has left the show having a really good time. We have only had one instance where there was a touchy moment.

Lance: We had a couple actually. We had one last season with Bob Saget. We started going down the twins path and he was not super cool with it. What's funny, not funny at the time, but funny now is that he said, "I don't really want to talk about this." So when you are in the middle of the interview you just assume that they are just saying that and that's part of the interview and my characters says, "Uh, I want to talk about it." He kept saying, "No, I don't want to talk about the twins." So of course in character I keep pushing it and pushing it and finally he realized that we don't have a safety word.

Anna: We need a safety word. We really need to set up a safety word.

Lance: Eventually he just stood up, looked at the camera, and said, "No, I don't want to talk about this." We were like, "Oh."

Anna: Sorry Bob Saget.

Lance: After that he was fine. He said, "I'm really sorry. I am just touchy about that. I don't want to look like I am being involved in making fun of the twins. They are like daughters to me." We said, "Oh yeah we totally respect that." And this season we had Cory Feldman on. We still don't know if it was real or not real.

Anna: It seemed pretty real.

Lance: He got a little touchy when we started making fun of his music. We talked about Michael Jackson and Corey taking a bath with him and all that stuff and he was fine with that, but once you start making fun of his CDs that's when he gets really serious.

Anna: He got pissed.

Which celeb was the most game for improv and surprised you with their comedic ability? You've had comedians on Free Radio, but also actors and authors that maybe you were wondering how well they would be able to play along.

Anna: Dominic Monaghan was great. He came up with the line, "You would be great to be the Hobbit." Then he asked Lance, "Can you act?" He got him to do the Darth Vader, 'Luke, I am your father" scene.'

Lance: All that stuff is improvised. Last season I thought Jeff Corwin was a really big surprise. We didn't know what to expect. He told us, "I really want to be an asshole, if you don't mind." We said, "OK fine." He has had a lot of fun pissing on his image a little bit. He was a blast. Obviously Kathy Griffin was fun.

Anna: Kathy was great because she called you out within thirty seconds of the tape rolling. She was right there on top of it.

Lance: She is an old pro for sure. Hank Azaria was awesome. We shoot all of the stuff totally out of order. He was out last interview. He was such a joy, so fun. He was quick. That guy is super smart.

Anna: He is really good at what he does. I was expecting him to say, "No, I am not going to all of these voices. You can't boss me around. I am not your monkey." But he did them all.

Who is your dream guest star?

Anna: Oh gosh. Well we have had Fred Willard, who for me is the dream guest star. He has come back both seasons to play the station owner.

Gerry Bednob, Sarah Baker and Brian Huskey

Lance: I don't think enough can be said about Gerry Bednob playing my manager. When I came up with the idea of having a manager character last season. I said, "I want someone like Gerry Bednob as my manager." We wrote that in the breakdowns. We wrote "Like the guy from 40 Year Old Virgin". So he came to the audition and said, "Why would you want to have some like me, when you can have me?"

Anna: I would like to have Alec Baldwin on the show. He was supposed to do this season but there were scheduling issues. He would be a very interesting, fun guest. It would be great to see what his take on Lance would be.

Lance: He is a fan of the show and wants to do it. He made a point of letting our people know that he really wants to be on the show. That is so nice and warm. Warm and fuzzy.

Anna: We love Alec Baldwin.

Who is in the season finale episode on Thursday?

The season finale has Zachary Levi from Chuck, Cheech and Chong, and Sugar Ray Leonard. In the season finale we set up that there is going to be a celebrity boxing match for charity.

Anna: Lance and I get to box each other.

Lance: By the time with get to the fight in the 3rd act, we are so angry at each other that the fight gets deadly serious. It's probably the darkest ending ever to a comedy. It's ridiculous.

Anna, you write a blog about gluten free recipes. What else are you working on?

Voiceovers. I just finished a seven episode arc on The Young and the Restless as the voice of the chipmunk. I got more email from people who are Young and the Restless fans. It's hilarious. Some people were really angry about the chipmunk voice. Some people loved the chipmunk voice. It was hysterical. I think it is one of the best voiceover jobs I have ever had because it was so ridiculous. I also voiced the Grey's Anatomy video game that came out last month and I thought that was the most ridiculous voiceover job, but no, the chipmunk tops it. I have two video games to do this week and some commercials.

Lance: You have an awesome job. I wish I did more voiceovers.

Lance when you are not immersed in being Free Radio's "Moron in the Morning", where can we find you?

Being a moron at my house with my wife. Just there and in Hawaii soon. I am going to Kauai. I have so many friends in the industry that are amazing multitaskers. I just can't multitask like that. For me it's all one project or nothing.

Anna: You are working double full time on Free Radio.

Lance: I am emotionally and mentally spent. We wait to find out if we have another season and if we don't, then on to the next project. It's a very different show for VH1- so we'll see.

Is is true you received some death threats from Twilight fans?

Anna: VH1 will always leak clips early from that week's episode. Twilight has the most devoted fan base.

Lance: They are called Twi-hards. They were mad. Basically there was a scene from last week where I was embarrassed about screaming during an earthquake. The scream becomes this viral marketing campaign. And I say, "I don't want to become famous for something I embarrassing, just like Rachelle Lefevre doesn't want to be known for playing Victoria, the evil vampire in Twilight." I proceed to go off on how it is the worst vampire movie ever made. Of course I have some valid points about why the vampires are walking around during the day and how they are a bunch of emo kids. However that is the point of the show, my character has no filter. The Twilight fans saw that. I don't know if they saw it in context or out of context, but they went ballistic.

Anna: People were explaining to them, it's a comedy show. Rachelle went on the show voluntarily. Rachelle and Lance are friends. So she knew exactly what she was getting into.

Lance: The Twilight fans were so angry. They were like, "Who does this guy thing he is? We are going to kill him."

Anna: They said, "We are going to go down to his radio station and mob him and kill him."

Lance: So many 12 year old girls mad at me. I love it.

When you are not taunting Twi-hards and being threatened by tweens, what are your favorite restaurants here in LA?