“Comedy Bang Bang” host Scott Aukerman loves and laughs at late-night talk shows; How the "Interstellar" sound editor created the sound of gravity; The indie film community gets raucous at the Independent Spirit Awards; How the Family of the Year song "Hero" became the unofficial tune of “Boyhood"
'Comedy Bang Bang' host Scott Aukerman plans an 'emotional' goodbye for Reggie Watts
On the surface, the IFC series "Comedy Bang! Bang!" might look like a typical talk show, but it's much, much weirder than that.
The show — hosted by creator and executive producer Scott Aukerman — combines interviews with celebrities with sketch comedy, musical parodies, recurring story lines and plenty of absurd scenarios to make you laugh out loud.
"Comedy Bang Bang" simultaneously makes fun of and pays tribute to the conventions of traditional late night shows — David Letterman is one of Aukerman's biggest influences. The show is now going through a pretty big transition with sidekick Reggie Watts leaving for a new gig as bandleader of "the Late Late Show with James Corden." IFC announced this week that rapper and musician Kid Cudi will replace Watts.
Besides his hosting duties, Aukerman also runs the Earwolf podcast network (where he still hosts the "Comedy Bang Bang" podcast) and he's co-creator of the hit web series “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis." He might just be one of the busiest comedians in show biz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnW3xkHxIEQ
Aukerman stopped by our studio recently to talk about how he puts the show together, what makes him laugh and what his typical work day looks like.
Note: This interview was recorded prior to the death of "Comedy Bang Bang" podcast regular Harris Wittels. Host Scott Aukerman made brief comments about Wittels' death online and said he would have more to say on Monday.
Interview Highlights:
Were you a fan of talk shows growing up?
I was. I will say I did not ever like the kind of talk shows that went super in-depth with the questions, like a Tom Snyder, but I loved Letterman. Letterman was my biggest influence, and I used to think that I wanted to do what Letterman did. I wanted to have a talk show. I really found out doing this show that I really just wanted to do a comedy show. I wanted to do the comedy that he was doing, not necessarily talk to celebrities. The most fun is messing around doing skits and doing comedy pieces and that's what I get to do on my show and I never have to have really boring conversations with people.
Walk us through how you put the show together:
The guest usually comes last. We usually don't know who is going to be on the show until the very last minute. What it starts off with is we have an idea for the storyline of the episode...so it'll start with that idea, we'll write all of that — we'll then write what we call the Act Two videos, which are the comedy videos in the middle of the episodes. And then we find out who's going to be on the episode, and then a couple of days before they're on, we'll write sketches aimed just at them. So it's kind of a backwards process, but it's one that we found that works for us.
How does it feel to be losing Reggie Watts on the show?
It's disappointing in one way of, I really wanted the show to be the same all the time. Change is very scary and I'm very resistant to it, because when you find something that works you just want to exploit it until it's done. But change can also be very exciting in a lot of ways. Now we have an opportunity to work with someone new. I think we have a really wonderful goodbye for Reggie that honors the work that he did on the show and it's kind of an emotional episode, but then we have a new person that's coming in and we're going to try and develop a similar kind of relationship, but one that is different enough where it feels like something new.
What makes you laugh?
I just love comedy, I love comedians. I produced a show at UCB in L.A. for 10 years. On TV I love stuff like "Nathan For You," I love sitcoms, I love "Parks and Recreation," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is really great. I do love to laugh, I'm not like one of these burnt-out comedians who's like, the gynecologist who gets home at the end of the day and is like "honey, put that away." I love going home and actually laughing.
What's a typical day for you like?
Usually every other day I have to record a podcast. Every day I have to write new stuff on the show, and when we're filming the TV show I have to do that for 12 to 15 hours a day. And I also have to be in the editing room and I have to give notes on scripts. So, I woke up at 4 in the morning today and I couldn't get back to sleep thinking about notes on a thing I had to get. It's really a problem.
This Q&A is an excerpt. Listen to the audio of the interview for more.
Oscars 2015: How the sound of gravity was created in 'Interstellar'
As Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony nears, we're taking a closer look at one of the categories that often goes under-appreciated: sound editing.
Richard King was the supervising sound editor and sound designer for Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar," and he says the sound that the team worked the hardest on was the sound to represent gravity.
"When [the characters are] in the vicinity of a black hole, there's an enormous, unbelievable amount of force drawing them in, and we needed some kind of sound to make the audience feel like they were in that situation," King said.
To get to that point, King had to use a little bit of imagination. The team began, he says, by, "thinking about those carnival rides that spin around, that pin you against the wall with centripetal force while the floor drops away from you. That feeling of heaviness, of having to really exert yourself to move, was something that I could see the actors doing in the film."
And bringing the audience into that kind of environment required something else, he said:
Something to build that sensation up and create some pressure that the audience could really appreciate. Chris [Nolan] really wanted to change the environment inside the movie theater and make you feel like you were in those situations. And one of the ways that we accomplished that was to fill the theater with this very carefully orchestrated, low-end information that seems to hang in the air. You can feel it in your body, and it's meant to be a little frightening, but it doesn't last long.
King didn't want to create a synthesized noise in a studio; he wanted to find a natural sound because, he says, "the audience can tell the difference between a fake sound and a real sound." Which led King to a surprisingly earthy sound: groaning sand. He explains: "If you slide a sheet of sand down the slope of a steep sand dune, it makes this tremendous groaning sound."
Looking back on "Interstellar," King remarks: "The feeling that we wanted to impart upon the audience was one of wonder and awe, that this must be an incredible experience to go through. So in our small part, we tried to make that a real, tangible, palpable, believable experience through sound."
Richard King is nominated for an Oscar for best sound editing for "Interstellar."
Spirit Awards at 30: Inside the rowdiest awards show in Hollywood
Thirty years ago some of the best and brightest in the film world gathered for the first time to honor their own. No, not at the Oscars. That other ceremony, known as the Independent Spirit Awards. Loud, lewd and soaked in alcohol, the Spirit Awards have always played at being rebellious — or at least, anti-Hollywood-establishment.
There’s really no mistaking a Spirit Awards show. Held in a big tent that temporarily takes over a parking lot on the beach in Santa Monica, it’s a lively, drunken, delightfully profane affair where a host like Sarah Silverman openly talked about how her "vagina smells like a mountain breeze.” And winners like Mickey Rourke have managed to make at least one presenter feel uncomfortable before mentioning his recently deceased pet dog and breaking the microphone.
But it wasn’t always this lively. Back in 1984, Peter Coyote hosted what they called "the FINDIEs" — short for Friends of Independents. It was a luncheon to acknowledge overlooked smaller films, held at a restaurant that’s long since gone out of business. There wasn’t any live TV broadcast or red carpet, but there was the tradition of not cutting off anyone’s speeches.
What a difference 30 years, a new name and a host like Andy Samberg can make.
“We’re all here because we get it, we want movies with real stories… we’re a community of artists, and a community we have one thing to say to Hollywood, f--- you!” Samberg told the tented attendees in 2013.
Andy Samberg Spirit Awards video
“The Spirit Awards are really, it’s a really loose environment” says Josh Welsh, the president of Film Independent, the people who put on the awards. “The tone is important, the SAs are fun, a lot of the same talent is in the room as that other awards show, they might have a glass of tequila or red wine."
Welsh admits that although the show is billed as a celebration of all things indie, what actually defines an independent movie can be murky. This year, all but one of the five Spirit nominees is also up for the Best Picture Oscar. A nominated Spirit Awards film can cost more than $20 million.
Welsh says,
"Seeing big stars in the room, Bruce Willis was there for the Wes Anderson film, to see stars taking risks in indie fair is fantastic, but I want to see the younger talent, people no one knows."
Jennifer Caserta runs IFC (the Independent Film Channel) where the show is broadcast. She says it’s always a bit of a relief to see a couple of big names making the nominee cut.
"For the broadcast, it does absolutely make sense that you have celebrity. It’s the indie world celebrity, and of course the presenter roster is very rich, and that’s what makes an award show too, having presenters who are big names."
Like most awards shows, this event also serves as a fundraiser. Forty percent of Film Independent’s yearly budget is made on this afternoon. So it’s a balancing act — keep enough stars in the audience to keep people watching, while giving a boost to the fledgling careers of filmmakers and actors no one has heard of just yet.
An example of an up-and-coming actor who took home some Spirit Awards hardware is actor Derek Luke. When he won for "Antwone Fisher," he said in his acceptance speech that just four years beforehand he'd been waiting tables at the Spirit Awards.
And this year, Justin Simian, the writer-director of "Dear White People," has gone from working this same event as a PR underling to hoping to hear his name called for Best First
Feature. Simian says just being nominated has boosted his stock, but not in the way you might think.
"People are more interested in what I have to say, and like for me to talk more about things… I can’t say my world is turned upside-down, I’m just trying to write and direct movies. There just seem to be more people interested in that as well, it feels like I have a few more allies. It doesn’t feel like the end of anything, it just feels like now I can get to work."
In some ways, the Spirit Awards are just like any other awards show. There are musical numbers or parody sing-alongs, industry specific monologues and there’s even an elder statesman: John Waters.
“I’ve been to all of them," says Waters. “I know for 'Hairspray' we didn’t win anything, and Ricki Lake was 'Make way for the losers, here we come.'"
This’ll be the first year Waters won’t be in attendance. In the past he’s hosted the show — he was even fake arrested by Jack Valenti on stage in a bit about illegal screeners. And the so-called Bob Hope of indie cinema has his own ideas about how to keep the show edgy.
"It’s so near the airport I always think they could sneak Roman Polanski in and he could win and they could sneak him out of the country, I always thought that would be a coup for the Spirit Awards."
And while that sounds far-fetched, remember, this is the show that has featured a plethora of words you can't say on the radio, copious on-stage drinking and at least one instance of presenter-on-presenter breast and crotch groping.
Which is to say, don't put it past them.
For the full list of this year's Spirit Award nominees, go here.
For more info about watching the show Saturday on IFC, go here.
Oscars 2015: how 'Hero' became the unofficial theme song for 'Boyhood'
The Oscars are this Sunday, and if "Boyhood" has the same winning streak it did at the Golden Globes, you’ll possibly be hearing its unofficial theme song after each win.
The song “Hero” is from the L.A.-based band Family of the Year. It’s featured in the movie and in the trailer for "Boyhood."
We spoke with singer Joseph Keefe and his brother, drummer Sebastian Keefe, on their reaction to hearing the song being used repeatedly during awards season.
Family of the Year's follow up album to "Loma Vista" is due out this year.