Scott Aukerman bringing his ‘Comedy Bang! Bang!’ podcast to Pittsburgh
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On Tuesday night, popular podcast “Comedy Bang! Bang!” will bring its live show to the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks. The host of the show — which also spawned a five-season-long TV show on IFC and a bestselling book — is actor-writer-producer Scott Aukerman.
“’Comedy Bang! Bang!’ is essentially a fake talk show hosted by myself where we have really great comedians coming in and they play fake people,” Aukerman said. “All the guests are fake but they’re comedians just improvising really funny characters. So that’s basically what people are going to see. … We just have conversations that we’ve never had before and we haven’t talked about beforehand. We just have a lot of fun. It’s a kind of high-wire act in a way. We don’t know what’s going to happen when we’re out there. … It’s a conversational improv show, if you will.”
The show often features celebrity guests being interviewed as themselves and interacting with the comedians’ improvised characters.
“Comedy Bang! Bang!” started as a radio show in 2009.
“When I first started it, I thought it was going to be me interviewing comedians. … I was also producing a comedy show at the (Upright Citizens Brigade) Theater at the time and I had comedians on that show who were playing characters, and I thought it would be really fun to have the characters come on the show with me interviewing them like they’re on a talk show. Pretty quickly that became the format of the show,” Aukerman said.
The show has had an impressive tenure so far, but Aukerman isn’t nearly tired of doing it yet. “Fifteen years is a long time to be doing the same show, other than if you’re ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘60 Minutes.’ I do believe we’ve put out more episodes than ‘The Simpsons,’ we passed that recently. And I hope to eventually pass ‘60 Minutes.’
“The show doesn’t get old but I do. That’s the horrible irony. It’s really fun, there’s so much variety in it, there’s new people every week. I use a rotating cast of people so it’s not just me and the same people every episode,” he added.
Aukerman also hopes that the podcast can be a source of joy for listeners. “This maybe mirrors the listening experience, but if I’m having a bad day and I have a recording on the books, by the end of the recording, I’m in a way better mood and it makes my problems go away,” he said.
Podcast episodes are usually recorded in a studio with the comedians and celebrity guests, but “Comedy Bang! Bang!” is currently on tour, and the episodes taped in front of a live audience do change things up, Aukerman said.
“For me, it’s a little bit more presentational. We try to add a lot of physicality to what we’re doing. … That’s what I’ve heard a lot from people who come to the live shows, they’re really appreciating not just the physicality of what we’re doing, we constantly try to get up on our feet and do scenes — like physical scenes — for people, but also they’re really enjoying watching the interaction between us all and how much fun we’re having.”
With a deep background in improv and “alternative comedy,” Aukerman is a perfect fit for this type of show. He began in comedy in the mid-1990s and worked as a writer and performer on legendary HBO sketch comedy series “Mr. Show.” He and Zach Galifianakis co-created web series “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis,” an unorthodox and funny celebrity interview talk show that also spawned a film. He has appeared in, written and produced many projects throughout his career.
“In my spare time, I write scripts that sometimes get made and sometimes don’t get made. I have a strange career where podcasting’s become kind of the main part of it, which is so strange because when I was growing up it didn’t even exist. It wasn’t something I could dream about,” he said.
“I really like the different types of things I get to do. One day I’ll be recording a lot of podcast episodes, the next day I’ll be writing a movie script or making a video, I started writing comic books for Marvel … every day I get to do something kind of different,” he said.
Aukerman admires all of the comedians who appear on “Comedy Bang! Bang!” He especially lauded comedian and frequent guest Paul F. Tompkins, who is on the current tour with the show. “I’d say he’s the epitome of a ‘Comedy Bang! Bang!’ guest where he’s just an incredible improvisor and he does a variety of different characters.”
“But I also love the regular Hollywood stars who come on who really get it,” he added. “It can be daunting to come on this show because when you’re a Hollywood star, you’re used to just kind of being interviewed and talking about yourself. Then you come on my show and you not only have to talk about yourself, you have to share airtime with these really odd, supposedly odd characters that are there.”
He said that certain guests — including Jon Hamm, Tatiana Maslany and Jack Quaid — have stood out as especially receptive to the unusual format. “Jack Quaid, he comes on the show and not only is he himself, but he grew up listening to the show, he wants to do characters on it.”
Aukerman wants the show to be a good time for everyone. “I really love the people who come on and just have fun with it. That’s what the show’s about, just having fun,” he said.
The “Comedy Bang! Bang!” live show will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks. To learn more, visit comedybangbangworld.com/tour.