How The Bread Is Made: Episode 109

Hey, it’s the world-famous Scott-A-Bot here, with the first in an occasional series of “looks back” or “peeks behind-the-scenes” of Comedy Bang Bang episodes.

I don’t anticipate writing these to be very funny, probably, but why should I change my style now?  Instead, I want to offer a few tidbits of trivia or glimpses into what was going on my ol’ noodlehead during the tapings.

EPISODE 109: THE ANDY SAMBERG SPECIAL

Andy and I are relatively recent friends.  I met him around the taping of Episode 3 or 4, when I was put together with him to maybe serve as his head writer for the MTV Movie Awards.  I told him that I had been playing his songs from Incredibad on the show, and I think that tickled him.

Something about him, both professionally and personally, really hits my sweet spot.  I feel the same way about his work that I did when I first saw Bob and David’s live shows before Mr. Show got on HBO.  I just get excited to see anything he does.  Additionally, he’s one of the most genuinely nice guys I’ve met in this blessed business of show.

One of the weird things about booking so many things (the live show, the podcast, our Xmas albums, the charity auction, etc. etc. blah blah blah) is that I have to straddle a fine line between bugging people to do me favors and providing them with an opportunity to be on a good program to which a lot of people listen. With Andy, I definitely feel like what I do should be so far beneath his radar, and not worth his time, but he never makes me feel like that.  But I definitely pick and choose my moments to ask him for a favor like being on the show.  (I also sneakily got him to film something for the CBB TV pilot, which he graciously spent another hour doing after the podcast wrapped.)

Meanwhile, Adam Pally is a recent acquaintance… super funny guy who does a great job on one of my favorite TV shows of the moment, Happy Endings. I believe he is relatively new to LA, having performed in NYC for most of his career.  When I reached out to him regarding being on the show, he seemed very excited, even calling me “Hot Saucerman,” which made me feel very comfortable, knowing that he was already a fan of the show.  After the taping, he even said it was a dream come true for him to be on a show of which he was such a fan, which is really cool for me to hear.  We also ended up taping about a two hours before we planned to, due to Andy getting a free window earlier than expected.  And Adam was great about rushing over to be there to meet us.

I really could talk to Andy for hours without saying much, just joking around and talking about nothing.  But I know that could be frustrating for the listener who is tuning into the show for the first time, expecting something of substance (we knew this episode would be a lot of listeners’ first), so I tried to keep our conversation relatively on topic to his new album.  But I genuinely am interested in his process.  Keeping to a straighter interview is always easier when I know a lot about and have a genuine enthusiasm for the subject.

Meanwhile, Adam got there and asked us which character he should do… “Bro,” my weed dealer seemed like the easiest one for the audience (and us, because we didn’t have a lot of time) to understand.  Sometimes, with the characters on the show, I’ve seen them onstage prior to a taping, so I know what to expect.  But with Adam, I had no idea what his “game” would be, or where it was going to go, so that was kind of exciting.

An interesting note:  Andy and I talked about this after Adam left and we were filming that thing – the funny thing about dealing with an “annoying” character is that you genuinely start to get annoyed at the performer.  Even though it’s all in the service of comedy, and you know what they’re doing is really funny, there’s something about trying to improv with someone who is acting as the spanner in the works that gets your dander up.  Hopefully you can hear that in some of our interactions with him.

Meanwhile, I have to apologize for how little work I personally put into the show this week… between prepping to film the CBB pilot, and my other day job, I was super tired and at my wits end.  So the “Hollywood Facts” segment was written in about five minutes right before we started taping.  I believe it shows!

One last fact of interest: This show was actually taped previous to the taping of Episode 108, but then two things made me postpone it.  One, we found out that we could get an iTunes banner ad if we delayed it a week.  And two, we had just done a show with a plane break the week before, and I didn’t want people to get sick of them.  So we rushed to record another episode in time for the 108 slot at the last minute, with Rob Corddry, Erinn Hayes, and James Adomian.

Additional post script: The pizza was real! Check out the pic of us eating it.  The couch may or may not have been real, but we have a picture of it too.