David Wain is the one who isn’t Ken Marino, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, or Judd Apatow.
When David Wain — co-creator of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, Stella, The Ten, Role Models, Wainy Days, Childrens Hospital, and Wanderlust (opening tomorrow) — tweeted he was doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit, my comedy nerd klaxon nearly exploded. So I hit the secret lever that opens the passageway to my comedy nerd cave and started reading the Reddit thread while drinking heavily and winning imaginary one-sided arguments, as comedy nerds are wont to do. Here are a few highlights of Wain’s AMA so far:
He made the “Beyonce pouring sugar on my d-ck” drawing from Role Models. For that we will always owe him a debt of gratitude.
“Michael [Ian] Black is actually a nice guy” and Paul Rudd is as damn amazing in person as he seems.
During the “Comedy Bang! Bang!” podcast earlier this week, Wain confirmed Michael Showalter’s announcement that there’s going to be a Wet Hot American Summer sequel. But WHAS fans will be glad to hear Wain confirmed the sequel’s development one more time in the Reddit thread. Yay!
One of his favorite podcasting experiences so far was this “Comedy Bang! Bang!” episode with Paul Rudd and Ken Marino.
His all-time most awkward moment in his career? When he met Cameron Crowe: “He was/is my all time hero esp for doing Fast Times and Say Anything. I sent him my short film and he wrote me a great note about it. Then when I was working at MTV, maybe 21 years old, he tracked me down to say hi in the office, and I was super stand-off-ish to him – FOR WHAT REASON I HAVE NO IDEA! I will always regret it.”
Characters in several Wain movies have been named Jim Stansel. Wain explains, “Jim Stansel was the name of a guy who used to work with my dad when I was like 10 years old. We have a super-8 movie of him up in a hot air balloon for a radio station promotion in Dallas, and my dad’s going ‘that’s Jim Stansel! That’s Jim Stansel!’ and the name has always stuck in my head.”
He says, “my relationship with Adult Swim (Childrens Hospital, Superjail, Newsreaders coming soon) has been much smoother and more productive than was with Comedy Central (Stella).” He also says Stella is “ongoing and no plans to end it. More shows, perhaps a movie, more shorts – who knows.” He added that it was too bad Comedy Central didn’t give them a second season.
The State reunion shows “never got videotaped well enough to be released – the big show we did in SF somehow we didn’t get sound!” This makes me a sad panda.
His advice for writers is to “Keep writing, don’t wait for invitation or venue, quantity as important as quality esp when starting out.” When asked about his advice for college filmmakers “in six words or less”, he replied, “work hard and don’t make excuses”.
Some of the sarcastic questions/answers are also notable. To the question, “What was better, the pizza or the *ssf*cking?” he replied, “I go back and forth.” When asked, “was it hard to be professional when you got the chance to see Jennifer Anitstons t-ts?” he replied, “yes”, and to the question, “Kill, Marry, F–k: Alec Baldwin, William Baldwin, Stephen Baldwin” he answered, “Absolutely.”
This AMA just started at 10:00 AM EST, so head on over there to see the newer responses. Whatever happens, it can’t possibly be worse than Woody Harrelson’s AMA. Oh, and it appears Wain is familiar with that Harrelson debacle:
*golf clap*
[Banner picture via Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com]