Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim started making videos to entertain each other and alleviate film-school tedium, and wound up stumbling into comedy careers almost by accident. They sent some of their absurdist, uncomfortable bits to Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk, who helped them usher the dry, divisive, often wonderful Tom Goes To The Mayor onto Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Heidecker and Wareheim's next show, the live-action, sketch-based Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, gives the uninitiated an easier entry into their minds: Inspired by Mr. Show and Monty Python but truly original, Awesome Show mixes over-the-top absurdity with subtly weird bits and guest stars like oddly engaging senior citizen Richard Dunn and cable-access personality David Liebe Hart.
In just 10 11-minute episodes, beginning early in 2007, Awesome Show introduced a slew of unforgettable characters who magnify everyday ridiculousness: John C. Reilly plays painfully uncomfortable "expert" Steve Brule on a news show starring Heidecker and Wareheim as "the only married news team"; they also play "Casey and his brother," a public-access nightmare duo whose jokes are simply horrible, wonderful songs. It's painful at times, but also some of the funniest, most innovative comedy on TV right now. Heidecker and Wareheim are in the midst of producing 30 more episodes of Awesome Show, with season two set to begin airing on November 18. They recently spoke to The A.V. Club about their new Internet talk show, the return of Awesome, and the rules of absurd comedy.
The A.V. Club: How much time are you spending preparing the Internet show, Tim And Eric Nite Live?
Tim Heidecker: We're trying to make it as impromptu as possible.
Eric Wareheim: It's a totally different energy than making Awesome Show. It's live. If you mess up, you mess up. If you start laughing and can't stop, like I probably will, that's gonna happen for maybe 10-12 minutes.
TH: We feel like we've set the pieces up for lots of accidents to occur, lots of mistakes and awful moments, so hopefully they will.
AVC: Season one of Awesome Show ended with a cliffhanger, which is unusual for a sketch show. So is Casey dead?
TH: Who would watch the season première if we just announced it candidly here? It's a huge episode for us, a huge storyline.
EW: A lot of things will be answered, and then a whole new set of questions will be asked.
TH: Either way, you'll still get your Casey fix. We made lots.
AVC: Do you remember creating Casey? He's so horrible and scary-looking, which in a way provides a perfect starting place for your humor.
TH: I was writing the "Right Way To Rock" song as a joke. I just liked the way the keyboard sounded and how dumb the song was, and Eric suggested we do it as a promo—that I do a karaoke singer and Eric dance to it. It was decided that I was going to put a little makeup on, because that's what we do, we just experiment with makeup and wigs and glasses and stuff. I'm not a makeup artist, but it was basically just taking lipstick and mascara and putting it all over my face, and it started looking really horrifying, so we went with it.
Casey and his brother
AVC: What's all over Casey's mouth?
TH: It's very simple. It's lipstick, hair gel, and mascara on the eyebrows. The hair gel really makes your face shine. It's like a mucus covering all over my face.
EW: That's gotta be one of our number-one fan-mail questions: "What disease does Casey have? What's wrong with him?" We watched a lot of really great local talent shows and stuff like that. The whole Uncle Muscles Hour [one of many shows within Awesome Show] thing is just that, the most awkward, uncomfortable stuff.
TH: We always laugh when we're editing it, like "Why would they have ever kept this take? Why wouldn't they have done it again?" Because there are so many sneezes and coughs and burps, looks in the wrong camera—just the opposite of what a show should be.
EW: We started doing this live, which totally freaks people out. They just cannot believe they're seeing it.
AVC: How do you prepare for live shows? It must be very different from whittling down sketches.
EW: We did a tour earlier this year that was pretty much just Tim And Eric stuff, then we did a big fake charity event for Richard Dunn called "Muscles For Bones." We're pretty much doing that in Vegas for this big comedy-festival thing. It's a lot of people from the show doing their bits, so they come prepared, and Tim and I will use some older bits and intercut that with video. It takes a lot of rehearsal, but…
TH: We found these guys that are just naturals, and they would never have the opportunity to perform for so many people if we didn't create this show that allowed them to be celebrities. When these guys come out, like Ron Austar, who sings the "do da do do" song… When we played at the Troubadour here in front of 500 kids, it was like Elvis came out. To that man, who's like 50 years old, it's this incredible moment. It's also completely absurd and ridiculous.
EW: The L.A. version of this was a huge experiment. We knew they'd enjoy it, but these kids were screaming. Tim and I were backstage when he came out, and it was like this intense roar.
AVC: Is there any part of you that's uncomfortable putting these people on TV?
TH: We're very careful not to cross a line, and the line's impossible to see. We have to find these moments that make them loveable and funny at the same time. But we're not pointing our fingers and cackling at them.
EW: A lot of people that are on our show, the only reason they work is because of how sincere they are about what they're doing. David Liebe Hart is really into singing these songs about hellos and goodbyes on other planets, and how these other planets work, and I think that comes across. We don't want to abuse anybody. Tim and I, when we started out, knew that we weren't into really cruel comedy, making fun of people.
TH: Eric and I don't put ourselves on a pedestal, either. We're happy to go down and be as ridiculous as anybody else. We're not Johnny Knoxville or Ashton Kutcher, sitting up top and laughing at the people on our show. We're as ridiculous as everybody else.
EW: These people are part of our world now. David Liebe Hart stops by the office once a week, so does Richard Dunn. They've integrated into everything we do now. They're part of this community.
David Liebe Hart and friend
AVC: How do you cast somebody like Richard, who just seems like somebody's doddering grandpa?
EW: We were looking for Tim's dad for the first episode of Awesome Show; we wanted it to be a much older guy, as if Tim hired some old guy to pretend to be his dad. Richard was just this old guy with funny glasses and an older sweater.
TH: We actually saw him from our office, in the parking lot, getting out of his car, smoking a cigarette. He was wearing that sweater… It was immediate to us. We looked at each other and jumped up and down. Then once he started talking, it was unbelievable.
AVC: Are people aware of what type of show they're auditioning for?
EW: Most of the time what happens is they're actors and they're, umm, not very successful actors…
EW: Not much experience. We found that out early on in this show. We prefer these kind of actors with no experience, trying to be sincere, and really talking about [Awesome Show fake products] B'Owls and T'Irds, rather than a comedian coming in and being funny.
TH: When we announced we were going to do the show, on a message board someone scoffed about how there could be a sketch show with just two guys. We always knew that the show would be cast, that if we were going to do a fake commercial, it wouldn't be done by a Groundling or a Second City guy, it would be done by a guy who might really audition for a commercial, a real actor, a real guy that would try to sell this product. But someone who really wouldn't get that job because they weren't talented enough, or they didn't have the experience.
EW: That goes for some of the comedians that come in, too. The ones that can really transform into a real person work, and the ones that just stay comedians don't. John C. Reilly transforms into Steve Brule. It's unreal.
AVC: How did you hook up with John C. Reilly?
TH: He did a voice on Tom Goes To The Mayor and we all got along really well, and we decided we'd try to work together on something else, maybe a movie. At that time, we were developing Awesome Show, and he basically just offered his services. He said, "Why don't I just be on this show, and we'll get to know each other better?" He brought this idea of Steve Brule, basically, to us. So we just got the cameras up, set the green screen up, and let him roll, let him go as far as he wanted to. And five Steve Brules came out of two hours of goofing around.
EW: And he loves it, because there are no rules. He's like, "It's just like anarchy here!" The day before, he was shooting a movie, which is very regimented and organized.
TH: Here, there's a 24-year-old bearded man with an ironic T-shirt running the camera, and a couple of interns, and we basically roll until they want to stop. We just hope that we're going to capture these little moments if we just keep rolling and trying.
John C. Reilly as Dr. Steve Brule
AVC: You two met at Temple University?
EW: We met at film school, freshmen year. We both went to school looking to be artistic filmmakers and started goofing around, played in a Philly band together, and then made a couple of short films, kind of in protest of our film school. Comedy was not an option at this particular film school, so we kind of went around the system and made this one video together.
AVC: Did you intend to become serious filmmakers?
TH: When you get into that early-20s college mentality, everything is so serious. The curriculum is designed to make you want to make French New Wave films and Stanley Kubrick films. At the time, comedy was also not cool at all. We didn't really know about Mr. Show or anything like that. Comedy was bad Saturday Night Live. What Eric and I were doing, we didn't even realize was comedy. We thought it was crazy and weird and artistic and also funny, but it wasn't "comedy."
EW: A lot of the stuff we made in the beginning was literally just for us, and maybe a couple of our friends, just because of some weird desire to make these little bits.
AVC: What was the first piece you completed together?
TH: It was probably the thing in college, where we were given an assignment to give a presentation about filmmaking, like about art direction or editing. It was kind of a busywork assignment. So Eric and I got together and shot an instructional video with two points: One was that lobsters are in film, and the second was that VHS is better than 35mm. The middle of the piece was a montage set to a Boston song, with Eric and I running around the park. It was just really funny, and everybody was pissed because everybody wrote a little paper and gave a little talk, and we just slid the VHS in.
EW: I remember Tim and I talking about this, and thinking, "We're fucking going for this." At the time it was like, "You need to get good grades!" It was kind of a fuck-you to this, like "Why are you wasting our time?"
TH: At Temple University, and I'm sure this was the way in a lot of film classes, comedy was not an option, and not considered a serious form of expression. You had to make a film about an issue.
EW: It's funny how they can steer you, once you're in this little cocoon of college—you just do what everyone else is doing, what your professors tell you to do.
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