I have been listening to Comedy Bang Bang for years. The essential podcast, originally titled after the comedy show Comedy Death Ray, is run by host Scott Aukerman. Over the years, Aukerman has gotten scores of the best comedians around to come on his show, both as themselves and as characters. The result? Aural pleasure that will have you laughing out loud on the subway like a crazy person.

I was thrilled with the announcement that IFC had picked up the podcast to turn into a television show. Aukerman, along with "band leader" Reggie Watts, bring their own dose of surrealism, irreverence and fresh comedy to the show along with many of your favorite actors and comedians. I'll post the review of that soon (SPOILER ALERT: IT'S GREAT).

I had to really calm myself before I interviewed Aukerman, due to the fact that I might accidentally propose marriage or offer myself to him under an indentured servant. Of course, when I got him on the phone he was sweet, humble and everything I hoped he would be.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be talking to you. I’ve been listening
to Comedy Bang Bang for years now.

Scott Aukerman: Holy shit! Thanks so much for listening, that’s crazy!

I guess I’m a long time, first time.

I’m a first time, long time. (Love you long time.)

I think that’ll be the title of this interview. So how did the TV show from
the inception of the podcast come about?

Well, it’s interesting that you used the word Inception because that’s exactly what happened. Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in my dream and told me to get a TV show. And I thought he was crazy.

But is the TV show within the dream?

Yeah, every episode I’ve dreamed it. Basically what happens is that we get stuck in the writing room. Nothing gets done—I mean, we have not written a single thing for this show. I have to go home at night, I have to think really hard, and then I dream the show. Everything that happens in the dream I write down first thing in the morning and then we film it.

So you’ve very similar to Andrew Lloyd Weber then? [Ed note: Reccuring joke from the podcast]

 Yeah, I don’t want him on the show but I have to put out what I dream.

You always have a lot of comedians like Andy Daly and Seth Morris; are you ever concerned they won’t translate into television rather than doing their characters through a podcast?

I wasn’t concerned at all. Maybe now that you mentioned it, I should have been
concerned. I just kind of operated on using the same rules as I always do: if I find itfunny, then hopefully people will to and if they don’t, then I don’t really care.

I think that’s a good way to go about making television. Are there any charactersyou’re excited to premiere on the show that aren’t on the podcast or are you sticking to the tried and true characters?

No, there’s a lot of stuff that’s not on the podcast. As a matter of fact, Bob Odenkirk is in Episode 5 and he does a character that he has literally been wanting to do for 20, maybe 25 years. He’s had the idea for this character and he’s never had a place to do it so when he heard about my show, he asked to do this certain character. It’s an idea he’s had for over two decades, but there’s a lot of new stuff.

How do you go about fitting that into a half-hour show? Do you have tapings that go on for a few hours and edit that down?

We don’t do it live in front of a studio audience. That was a choice we made
basically because my experience with Between Two Ferns—I sort of know how to do that show. That’s what we do. We tape for a while and then figure it out. It’s not all happening live. I don’t think I’m telling any secrets but it’s a 22-minute show but it usually takes about 24 minutes to tape so we usually cut two minutes out.

Oh well. Is that going to be on the future DVD release, you think?

Those two minutes? No, we burn those two minutes the minute we’re done with
them.

So I’m assuming you’re shooting on celluloid instead of digital, which is the hot button topic.

It’s a big problem and the biggest problem is editing whatever’s right next to it to the city dump. Because we cut those two minutes out and throw them out the window and then all of a sudden, there’s a big fire at the city dump. It’s a big problem, but you work with the budget you have.

You do what you can. What excites you about comedy these days? We see this huge resurgence of podcasts in the most recent years and it really gives a different kind of platform to comedians. Do you see yourself as the godfather of that kind of comedy?

I see myself as the godfather that says I’m going to murder people that are trying to come after me (laughs). I think it’s an exciting time for comedians because the whole reason that we started the Earwolf podcasting network is because podcasts are such a great opportunity for comedians to spread what they do without the world. It’s easier than ever for people to become a fan of yours and to be interested in what you do. I think it’s such a great time to be a comedian right now and I think podcasts are a huge part of that.

Speaking of podcasts that you do and Earwolf, you have Analyze Phish and you mentioned Between Two Ferns. Are you going to do a combination of that in the show?

That sounds like a good show and if you want in on it, it’s your idea. I say we split it 50/50.

I’m completely down. I’m gonna hold you to that too.

I get $50 and you get $50.

Do you only get $100 per show? Is that how it works?

Is the TV show a combination of Analyze Phish and Between Two Ferns?

And Comedy Bang Bang. Would you consider combining them for maybe a very special episode or maybe kind of keeping them separate? 

Analyze Phish I just kind of do for fun. I don’t think there’s anything left to do on
Analyze Phish. I mean, what do you think? Once you take a million drugs and you still
don’t like Phish, I don’t know what else there is to do with it.

What about the B-sides? I mean, have you guys really covered the Phish B-sides is
the question.

Oh my God. There have B-sides?

I’m sure they do. It’s just two hours of them tuning their guitars and bongos. Do you have any other future plans for the podcast? When you were filming this, you mentioned a lot that you were filming this and doing the podcast simultaneously. Would you ever consider leaving the podcast and just doing the show?

I actually made a commitment to keep doing the podcast because I don’t see why I would stop. The only reason I have a TV show is because I have a really great podcast where I get to do anything I want. It was really hard to keep doing the show and is still had to keep doing considering that all I’ve been doing is preparing for the show to come out, but it’s really important to me that I keep doing it and if a lot of people are enjoying it, I’ll keep doing it. Please don’t hold me to that.

Too late. It’s already on the record. How do you take a podcast into a TV show?

You have to smuggle it in. You have to wear a heavy trenchcoat like Rerun did on What’s Happening when he taped the Doobie Brothers.

I don’t exactly get that reference, but I’ll Google it. [ed note: Google is a "sponsor" of Comedy Bang Bang]

Of course you wouldn’t! I’m an old man! Why would you understand anything I say?

I don’t. I’m just doing this because they pay me. But making it into a TV show: you probably have a lot of choices to make as far as the little sketches you do like going to pay your meter (I saw the first episode, obviously) and working Reggie Watts into it and stuff—are you satisfied with how you turned it into a show as far as an offset of the podcast?

I didn’t want to do just a direct translation of the podcast. When they offered it to me, I made a choice early on that I didn’t want them to basically just tape me in front of a live audience doing what I do in the podcast. I really want to take the opportunity to do a really cool, visual show, a type of show I’ve always wanted to do. It’s inspired by the podcast and has a lot of the same elements but it’s different in lots of great ways. People would get bored if they just were watching people do a podcast. The podcast exists every week so if you really love the podcast version of it, I’m still doing it.

You’re looking for both viewers and still listeners to the podcast.

Correct.

You clearly collaborate a lot with Reggie Watts; he’s did the Comedy Death Ray intro and the Comedy Bang Bang intro and he’s on the show. Are you considering bringing other musical artists in or are you going to stick with Reggie, which would be a totally fine decision, for the rest of your stint.

Well, I’ll tell him you’re totally concerned about him and that you don’t want him to stick around.

No, I do!

It was a decision early on about what was going to fill that bandleader role. A lot of decisions we made on the show were based on talk show tropes and bandleaders are a really big one. And when we thought about Reggie Watts, we kind of realized, “Oh, he could not only be the bandleader but he’s such an amazing comedian that he could also be the sidekick as well.” There was talk early on about what would happen if Reggie was unavailable to do the show and we did something very, very different with it. But thank God we don’t live in that reality and we live in this totally amazing one.

This is a good reality. There was always a lot of rumors about the execution of Run Ronnie Run and how it was perceived and the editing—just movie rumors that go around.

I wish it had been executed. You’re right. Actually, that movie would have been a lot better if Ronnie Dobbs was executed, shot in the back of the head, execution style.

You just turned that into an Oscar-winning film just now. Have you come up with any walls with IFC? Is that a worry for you as far as that experience just kind of translating into a new territory?

When I started doing the show, I made a pledge with myself that I wouldn’t
compromise with certain aspects of the show. Anytime you do a show with anyone because they’re paying for it, they have a right to sort of make their opinions known. Sometimes, you end up compromising too much to where you don’t recognize the finished product as something you even wanted to do, so I made a point because this is sort of my last opportunity to ever do a show starring myself. I just really wanted it to be the show I wanted it to be. Thankfully, IFC hasn’t been anything but wonderful in their support of the show and what they think of it so there hasn’t been any call for me to compromise. But I was ready not to. I want everyone to know that. There have been no fights that I’ve had to wage.

Excellent. As far as my final question, what are you most excited for on this season of Comedy Bang Bang?

Every show is so different. I made the decision early on that we weren’t going to
repeat any characters or bits on the show so every show is so different. I think people are really going to be excited when they see it because in every single show there’s something going on and something that everyone will really enjoy. I’m really excited once everyone sees all ten to really see the scope and the breadth of what we really tried to achieve.

Well honestly Scott, it’s been such a dream talking to you. I’m such a huge fan and I love the show.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I think you’re going to like the TV show; I mean, I know you’ve already seen it, but…

I already do, but it’s on the DV-R. We’re going to have a party and we’re going to dress up like the characters.

(Laughs) Oh my God.

Totally nerding out.

I’ll come to your party!

You should! You wanna trek it out to Brooklyn, you’re more than welcome to.

Tune into Comedy Bang Bang tonight for it's premiere. 10 PM. At least DVR it, I swear you won't be disappointed.

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