Behind The Seen: The Whitest Kids U'Know
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Sketch comedy shows seem to be more popular these days than coked-out celebs entering rehab-and we never thought that was possible. Fuse is just the latest channel to get on the improv bandwagon with the launch of THE WHITEST KIDS U'KNOW, a show starring the NYC comedy troupe of the same name. Having appeared everywhere from Bamboozle to Late Night With Conan O'Brien, these Kids are anything but. How did Whitest Kids U'Know form? We all lived in the same dorm in Brooklyn. Anyone at any school could live there if they missed their housing deadlines-so, by nature, it attracted lazy people. Sam [Brown] and Trevor [Moore] met at a comedy club in the city and realized they both lived there. They had been talking for a bit about forming a sketch group. Zach [Cregger] lived just a floor below, so Sam introduced them and we started the troupe. Then on September 11, we went up to Timmy [William]'s floor to watch the buildings burn and Timmy was sitting in the hall because his room was full of smoke. We started bringing him around with us after that. Years later, we met Darren [Trumeter] and brought him in. How did you manage to snag a show on Fuse? We had been performing regularly for a while at a rock club on the Lower East Side and building a crowd there as well as posting videos online. After a while, we made our own little homemade pilot and got it in the hands of producer Jim Biederman. He responded to the tape and together we set up the show at Fuse. When you come up with a sketch, do you write together or separately? We all sit around and brainstorm together. When someone comes up with an idea that we all like, one of us will sit at the computer and we'll all just throw ideas around till the sketch is complete. How do you know when a sketch is funny? If a sketch makes us laugh out loud in the room, then chances are it might make someone else laugh. That's really the only way to gauge. If a sketch is funny in theory, but doesn't make us laugh out loud when we're writing or rehearsing, chances are it will bomb. How would you define "alt-comedy" and do you consider yourself part of that scene? I don't know what "alt-comedy" is. I would guess it's comedy that's not found in a comedy club, or comedy that's for a younger crowd and isn't most of what people see on TV. If that's what it is, then I hope we would fall into that category. Any advice for budding comics who want to see their face on the small-or big-screen? It's hard, hard work. We have sacrificed every weekend for the last five or six years doing this and we love it to death, but it's work. I would say that if you treat it like it's your job and take it seriously, then in time, it will become your job. That's always been our motto. Also, it's good to bomb every once in a while. -Leslie Simon The Whitest Kids U'Know airs on Fuse at 11 P.M. EST on Tuesdays. For more information about their debut CD, live shows and more, check out whitestkids.com. |
