Talking It Up With Tim And Eric

Although both programs have now come to a close, the duo’s bizarre brand of comedy craziness lives on with their fourth nationwide live tour, an upcoming one-hour “Chrimbus Special” and a “Tim and Eric” movie in the works.

Before the guys hit the road for the “Tim and Eric Awesome Tour, Great Job! Chrimbus Spectacular 2010” they spent time talking to Pollstar about Worf, their touring band Pusswhip Banggang, the holiday ritual behind Chrimbus, and exactly how they came up with the “Poop Tube” skit.
     
So, the two of you met in college?

Eric Wareheim: Yeah, we met in film school, first year. Temple University. Hootie Hoot Temple Owls.

Did you guys hit it off right away?

EW: We started joking around, made some short films. People started liking it. We started taking it more seriously. We got in some film festivals.

Can you talk a little bit about who are some of your influences as far as comedians?

Tim Heidecker: Soupy Sales, Abbott and Costello. Wolfman Jack.

EW: Smothers Brothers. 

Adult Swim – All Dolled Up
Tim and Eric show off their awesome sense of style.

What can fans expect from the tour?  

TH: Well, you’re going to get a lot of comedy, a lot of energy, a lot of music. A lot of community, just getting together and being around similar like-minded people.

Do you guys have a lot of crowd interaction during shows?

TH: We do. We bring up people from the audience. There’s a costume contest. There’s just a general level of excitement and enthusiasm.

I watched the promo video you guys shot for the tour. It’s pretty disappointing that Worf had to cancel. 

EW:  Yeah we were all really looking forward to it. We put a lot of money, most of the budget in the tour into doing Worf outfits, Star Trek stuff. 

TH: Talk about a bad contract that we signed – His appearance fee is non-recoverable. He was able to cancel and keep his advance. And we gave him the entire advance. So we’re sort of in the hole on that.

Are you guys still going to be able to tell fans about how he puts his mustache on?

TH: Contractually, we’re not really able to do that now. It’s like the worst contract we ever signed.

So, your band is going to be on tour – Pusswhip Banggang. Which one of you thought of the name?

TH: I think it came up in a writer’s meeting. Eric, wasn’t it Pussywhip Banggang at first? And the standards wouldn’t allow us to say “pussy.” It’s a bad word. Even though we had a skit on the show called “Pussydoodles.” That somehow managed to sneak by.

Who would you name as some of the band’s influences?  

EW: The Doors

TH: Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band

Has the band released an album?

TH: No, but we should have.

Are there any plans to?

TH: No, no plans. Not right now. We sent a lot of demos out to Atlantic, Vivendi, Universal Music Group. But we’ve heard no reply.

Well, hopefully something works out.

TH: Eric’s dad recorded us on his Tascam. He has a Tascam digital eight-track recorder. We put a three-song demo out. It sounds pretty good. It doesn’t sound great. 

Oh. Maybe you could re-record it or something. You guys have a “Chrimbus Special” coming up in December. Is it really going to be about goof-spoofing “Jaws”?

TH: No. That in itself is a goof.

EW: We gotcha.

TH: It’s a double goof.

Pretty tricky. Yeah, I wasn’t really familiar with the Chrimbus holiday besides what I read in your press release. Is this something where you write letters to Winter Man to request gifts, sort of like Santa Claus?

EW: No. Winter Man’s one function is just to inspect your bush. And he comes over when you’re sleeping and makes sure that your Chrimbus Bush is trimmed and wet. That’s pretty much the only criteria. And then you get a gift.  

What sort of gift do you get? 

TH: It really depends. You know whatever you want. Most people get the “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special” DVD. That’s usually what people want. And it’s about getting what you want. So whatever you want you should be able to get.

Adult Swim – Merry Chrimbus!
Tim and Eric on the set of “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special.”

I was wondering – did you ever get an apology from SNL over the ‘Tiny Hats” controversy? 

TH: No.

No apology?

TH: Not even. Forget apology  – We didn’t even get a single word from them. Not even like a “Just wanted to let you know it was a coincidence.” Just nothing. Radio silence.

That’s too bad. I read that the song “Petite Feet” was actually inspired by your cameraman. Are a lot of your sketches and songs inspired by people you actually know?

TH: I wouldn’t say that necessarily, but everything is inspired by something that happens in life.

I’m a big fan of the Channel 5 Married News Team. Were those characters inspired by a specific news team?

TH: Um, no. They were just inspired by … actually a couple characters we had done for something else. For another show. The only tweak is that we made my character a woman. Sort of a woman.

Just a little bit. Are there any plans to put out another calendar?

TH: We’re in talks with our calendarist. He’s got some really crazy ideas that involve breaking it out of the sort of two-dimensional format and making more of a sculptured structure. That we think might be a little too much. It’s like the size of a house.

Well, I guess if you were really rich and had a really big house then maybe that could work for you.

TH: Yeah, if you have a lot of land. Each month is a room in the house.

Oh, so instead of buying the calendar and putting it in your house, it could be your house. If you’re looking to purchase one.

TH: That’s what he says. That’s what he’s got written out. It’s just very expensive.

Maybe if the economy picks up that could be a viable option for some fans.

TH: Yeah.

What’s your process for coming up with the sketches?

TH: We have a form that we downloaded from Dimmmel’s Comedy College. And that makes it pretty simple.

You said “dental”?

TH: Dimmmels

EW: D-I-M-M-M-E-L-S. It’s a pretty famous online comedy college Tim and I went to it. And once you graduate you can download a PDF and you plug in different topics that you’re thinking about at a particulate time. For example, when we wrote “Poop Tube” … we’re like “Sometimes it’s not fun to have to go No. 2 in a public spot.” And [you] put what kind of people you want in the bit. [We put] “It’s a boy.” And then you fax that back in to Dimmmels.com and they come up with a list of different kinds of way you can make your bit.

That sounds really helpful.

TH: And they also provide you with a sort of template script. … Usually we’ll just shoot off that script.

EW: A lot of people use Dimmmels. “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”  

TH: “The Whitest Kids You Know”

EW: They’re one of the first big guys to use Dimmmels kind of stuff.

Do you think SNL might have downloaded the same template you guys did for Tiny Hats? Maybe that could explain why the two skits were similar? 

TH: Dimmmels prides themselves on saying that no two sketches will be alike. But I mean, you’d have to call them.

Is it pretty expensive to get those PDFs?

TH: Yes.

Yeah, I’d imagine.

TH: $39.99 per sketch.

That could really add up. Besides the tour and “Chrimbus Special,” what’s next for you guys? 

EW: We’re shooting our movie in February, “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar movie.”

TH: We’re in. It’s happening. We got pictures of locations coming our way. And casting ideas, just a lot of energy surrounding it right now.

Can you talk a little bit about what the movie is about?

TH: Tim and Eric go on a little adventure and learn about their friendship. It’s not a sketch movie but its going to be from our sensibility. A lot of people from the “Awesome Show” are going to be in it. Some special guests that we can not reveal yet because they’re just not locked down yet. But I can tell you we’re very excited about it.

And it has something to do with a billion dollars?

TH: Well, Tim and Eric have been given a billion dollars to make their first movie so its sort of a history, precedent-setting move. That’s why everybody in Hollywood is going nuts about it.

Yeah, it’s a billion dollars.

TH: It’s a lot. The bar has been set.

Going back to your tour, can we expect any surprise guests to drop by?

TH: Well, I shouldn’t say you should expect any surprise guests because then there would be no surprise. But we love surprises. And we try to make surprises happen every day in our life. And on the road.

The fans should be pretty satisfied then.

TH: They’re going to have a great time. Everybody that comes to the show is going to have a blast. I don’t care if you’ve never even heard of us. You’re going to come and you’re going to be entertained. You’re going to go, “Whaaat?!” a lot.

If someone who had never seen any of your previous work happened to buy a ticket to the show, do you think they’d be really confused?

TH: I hope that someone who knows everything about our show is completely confused by the end of our live show.

So that’s part of the goal of the live show?

TH: When we’re putting the show together now, we always make sure that there’s enough places where we know people are going to go, “Whaaat?! What’s happening?!”

The ‘Tim and Eric Awesome Tour, Great Job Chrimbus Spectacular 2010” kicked off last week at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle. The live variety show features videos and clips from Tim and Eric’s upcoming one-hour holiday special, a performance from Pusswhip Banggang and an opening set from comedian Neil Hamburger.

Dates are on the books through a Dec. 5 gig at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. The guys will also be making stops in Dallas, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Nashville.

Tune in to Adult Swim Dec. 5 to catch “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Chrimbus Special.”