David Wain announces book-length oral history of The State

Comedian and filmmaker David Wain announced via Twitter today that comedy fans everywhere will soon be able to frantically ingest a book dedicated to members of The State reminiscing about how strange and fun it was to be members of The State.

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The Union Of The State is, according to author Corey Stulce’s website, “the oral history of the troupe’s creation, dissolution, reinvention and reunion over the last three decades, told by the members of the group and their collaborators.” The book depicts how the 11-member comedy group first saw industry success after nabbing their own sketch comedy series on MTV in 1993, before fanning out to create, write and star in a variety of film and television projects, including Wet Hot American Summer, Reno 911!, and the Night At The Museum film franchise.

In a sample chapter available online, the collaborators recall their debut live performance in 1989, when they were still called The New Group. Ken Marino recounts the way the troupe opened shows:

“We were so obnoxious; we would start every show with [AC/DC’s] ‘Back in Black’ playing. The audacity. It was great, but it was weird. It was not your normal start to a sketch comedy show. I loved it.”

Stulce says that rather than being hired to write the book, he was inspired to start working on it on his own after hearing State member Thomas Lennon advise success-seeking fans to “just start doing it, and they won’t notice that they never told you to” at the 2012 San Francisco Sketchfest. Stulce previously published Laugh Lines: Conversations With Comedians (under the name Corey Andrew), in which he gathered interviews he’d done with big-name comedians including George Carlin, Don Rickles, Jim Gaffigan, Lily Tomlin, and Margaret Cho.

The Union Of The State will be officially published on May 3, but is available for pre-order through Stulce’s website now. The UCB Theater in Los Angeles will host “An Evening With The State” to celebrate its release on May 7, and Kerri Kenney, Janeane Garofalo, and Kevin Allison will participate in a Brooklyn book release show on May 20.