When Derek Waters first started his web series 'Drunk History,' he never imagined it would be picked up by Comedy Central and become an Emmy-nominated show a few years later.
You might say that show's concept is self explanatory. A comedian or actor gets drunk and gives a history lesson, but it's in the way the people tell the story — or at least try to — that made the show a hit.
Derek Waters got the idea for "Drunk History" when he and his friend, "New Girl" star Jake Johnson, got drunk and tried to piece together the story of the plane crash that killed musician Otis Redding.
"Everyone gets drunk and talks about music," said Waters on The Frame. "What's something that people don't get drunk and talk about, and that you can prove is right or wrong?"
Waters makes sure that even though the person giving the history lesson is drunk, the facts are right. He hired a team of UCLA researchers to fact check and pitch stories that were interesting and hardly told in textbooks.
The Frame's John Horn talks with Derek Waters about what's real and not on the show, how he decides who would be a good drunk storyteller and what he thinks about being Emmy nominated for the first time:
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:
How do you know who would be a good drunk narrator on your show?
I would say about 80 percent of the narrators are my friends so I know what they're gonna be like going into it. But for the new people I had meetings just to find out what type of story they like and hear them talk just as humans. You get a good grasp of what somebody is excited about. No matter what alcohol does to a certain person, as long as they're not an alcoholic, it enhances their love for the said subject that they're excited about.
Some of your storytellers get emotional, even cry at the end of their stories. Are those reactions common? Are they scripted?
I'm very enthusiastic about letting people know that nothing is scripted. The only thing that's scripted are dates and how to pronounce someone's name. That I make sure they say right but the rest is all real.
This feels kind of like the older/alcoholics version of 'School House Rock.'
Yeah, I think that show and also Shelley Duvall's 'Faerie Tale Theater' is my all time favorite. I wasn't the best learner in school and secretly this is a way that I'm learning history. I love history but whenever you tell a story, you humanize the people you're learning about. It's a lot easier to learn and that's still my goal to humanize everybody.
You also tend to get drunk with the person telling the story. Why is that?
[Laughs] My doctors asked the same thing. That's funny. No, most of the time I'll do it with someone who hasn't done this show before and reminding them that they're not being exploited and that it's a comradery. We're doing this together. It helps me know when I drink with them where they are. If I feel completely fine and they're [drunk rambling] I'm like, 'No, that's not real. You're not really talking like that.'
Do any of your narrators have any regrets about doing the show the next morning?
After this season airs there will be one hundred stories, but out of all of those narrators, everyone emails me the next day to apologize to say they didn't think they did a good job. And I say, 'Remember, this is what alcohol does because I promise you, you did a good job or we'd still be filming you.'
So this started off as a lark. You and Jake Johnson started talking about somebody in music and you were both intoxicated, but you go from this to getting an Emmy nomination for your series. A little bizarre isn't it?
Very, very bizarre. I'm not gonna ask too many questions. I'm just gonna go, 'Okay, all right.' It's nice that the most pretic... precede... What's that word?
Prestigious.
Thank you.
You are sober, right?
Yes. I just didn't go to college. Give me a break, man. That the Academy is saying, 'Yes this is a real show and people should watch it.' That's what I take from it. That it's getting recognized.
Comedy Central's 'Drunk History' is nominated for a 2015 Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Variety Sketch Series" category.