Having gone to college with the members of the comedy group The State in the late '80s, actor Mather Zickel began working with The State alumni like Reno 911!, The Ten, and Stella in the early 2000s. Now, he's front and center in Adult Swim's newest 11-minute comedy Newsreaders, a spin-off of Childrens Hospital produced and created by Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern, and The State's David Wain. As Louis La Fonda, the host of Newsreaders, a fake newsmagazine show, Zickel nails the cadence and feel of tabloidy reporters, helping the show to take on 60 Minutes in the same way that Childrens Hospital skewers Grey's Anatomy. I recently had the chance to talk [...]
Since their time with the sprawling 90’s MTV sketch group The State, David Wain and Joe Lo Truglio have gone on to, respectively, direct and act in several successful films including Wanderlust, Role Models, and the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer. Yet, prior to gaining recognition on the big screen, the duo made a brief foray into the theater with their 1998 play, SEX (a.k.a Weiners and Boobs). Written along with fellow State member and Wain’s oft co-writer Michael Showalter, the play is an irreverent comedic romp, which in its original production starred the writers, and most notably, featured a scene from David Mamet’s GlenGarry Glen Ross that [...]
In late 1993, MTV premiered The State, a sketch show run entirely by The State, a comedy group from NYU. The same year saw Loud Records releasing Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), the first album by the Wu-Tang Clan, a hip-hop collective out of Staten Island. Although these two New York groups have no literal connections, they have had parallel influences on their respective fields of comedy and hip-hop, as evidenced through their respective outputs as both a whole and as individuals.
At the time of their debuts, the members of both groups (save for Wu-Tang’s GZA) were all under 25. They had even reached audiences prior, though under compromised circumstances. The [...]
Forget Party Down and Arrested Development. After reading this oral history of the making of Wet Hot American Summer, I am throwing all my support behind a Wet Hot American Sequel. If only for the opportunity to drive up to the camp where it's being filmed and participate in what sounds like the most fun couple weeks anyone has ever had anywhere. As Amy Poehler described it, "We were being given the chance to take one more shot at summer camp, only we were wiser, better drinkers, and more sexually experienced."
Only read this article if you have the time and emotional stability to get really jealous and [...]
