Behind The Seen: Human Giant
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It should be illegal for one person to be this funny. Guess that's why God spread the humor around to three people-Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel and Aziz Ansari, who comprise HUMAN GIANT. So, how does a comedic trifecta score a show on MTV? Good question... How did you get Human Giant picked up by MTV? PAUL SCHEER: The people at MTV were big fans of the shorts that we had online and they asked us if we thought we could do a similar type of show on MTV. We were like, "Totally," and then went off and made the pilot. It was the easiest experience I've ever had in my life. It never happens like that. When you come up with a skit, do you write together or separately? And, in turn, what's the collective process like from there? ROB HUEBEL: We all come to the table with ideas, pitch them out and try to make each other laugh. Something may spark with one of the other guys, and he'll add to it and build on it. Eventually we kind of just try to kick it around until we get a pretty clear idea of the concept and where it should go. One guy will then take it off by himself and try to write it up as an actual script. Then we all get together again and read it aloud. We rip it apart, criticize it and make the guy feel like shit for wasting all our time. Or, it's what's called "comedy gold," and we go off and shoot it. We always go in with a solid script, but then we try to be loose and throw out new lines and new dialogue all the time to make it funnier. That's usually where we get some of our best stuff. For the bits that have already appeared online, were there any that needed to be tweaked for MTV? If so, how do you make the network happy without sacrificing "the funny"? AZIZ ANSARI: The network really wanted to maintain the vibe of the stuff we'd done on our own. The only thing we had to tweak was bleeping out curses, which isn't a huge deal. And, we couldn't use guns, but we could use missile launchers, cross bows, chainsaws, oozies and other more crazy weapons, so that worked out to our advantage. Also, no offense, but [it's a] bad idea to ever use the phrase "the funny." Any advice for budding comics who want to see their face on the small-or big-screen? ANSARI: I would just say take the initiative and try to make stuff on our own. Really, [you should] be most concerned about putting out quality material-be it standup, videos or whatever. Also, don't ever use the phrase "the funny." And if someone else does it to you in interview questions or whatever, make sure to be a dick about it. It will come off charming if you do it the right way. HUEBEL: Start writing [because] writing is the hardest part, by far. And try your stuff out in front of a live audience. We show all of our videos to a live audience before we put them in the TV show. SCHEER: Work with people you admire and respect. Find a place to perform where you can grow and never stop creating. I know that sounds a little lame but if you never stop working, the right people will find you and they get you where you want to go. -Leslie Simon |
