Andy Earles: Actually, very very little. I have introduced some bands in a funny fashion. I was Nick Nolte for Halloween back in 1998. I put a pillow in my shirt, poured beer all over myself, wore a chopped up nasty blonde wig, put flour all over my face, aviator shades, and sung Black Sabbath songs in front of a (at the time) popular garage band. I stumbled over everything, I would just keep falling down.

MP: Would you like to do more performance in the future?

AE: Sure, but I’m a little squeamish with big crowds and cameras though.

MP: As far as movies go, who are you into?

AE: Directors? Sam Fuller. The 60’s weird noir stuff. Fuller is just a really interesting person, he had a crazy life. The Big Red One and White Dog are very interesting, those are the early 80’s ones that he did. I think that John Cassavetes is one of the most overrated directors in history, and Fuller should have gotten a lot of the “godfather of indie” credit that Cassavetes got.

MP: When Tom was talking about your comedy, he mentioned that he thinks you have a Cassavetes quality.

AE: Really?

MP: For real.

AE: I wonder what that means.

MP: I’m not so sure myself.

AE: Like, the grassroots, cheap angle?

MP: I’m not really up on Cassavetes. I’ve just seen bits and pieces here and there.

AE: Hmmmm…..Now, I do like some of his movies.

MP: I think he was trying to articulate something about the depressing nature of your characters.

AE: Okay. I really like The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie.

MP: Do you see a lot of films?

AE: Yes. I watch, rent, and pay to see a lot of movies. Too much, maybe. I don’t really have the time.

MP: How did you manage to get obsessed with Roadhouse, of all films? [Earles did a comedy bit based on the movie Roadhouse in which he visited the Best Show studios as Tanner Wildgrass, a person who was apparently the real-life basis for Patrick Swayze’s character in the film.]

AE: Have you seen it?

MP: I’ve seen some parts of it on cable.

AE: Watch it, alone, start to finish, and think about that question. You’ll be thinking….”I don’t know why this is mindblowing, but it is.” Mindblowing in it’s absurdity.

MP: Mindblowing is probably the best word for it. It is creative and absurd in ways I don’t think were intended to be that way.

AE: Right. I’ve seen it about 80 times.

MP: Jesus. 80 times! There’s a lot of shitty stuff from the late 80s that have a similar kind of “what the fuck?” thing happening.

AE: Check out “Malone” with Burt Reynolds.

MP: What’s the premise of Malone?

AE: It’s similar to Roadhouse. An evil landowner, an ex-cop with a history blows into town. The tagline for Malone was “Ex-cop, Ex-con, Explosive!”

MP: Before you did that Tanner Wildgrass thing, I think I was always confusing Roadhouse with that movie Stallone did with arm wrestling, Over The Top.

AE: Yeah, that movie is worth seeing, it is totally fucking ridiculous. I know that Arnold is a slow-moving target, but you should revisit “Commando” some time, it’s hilarious.

MP: You have a big thing for Charles Bronson too, right?

AE: Yeah, I wrote a thing on him. All of this boils down to me watching too much stupid shit.

MP: Were you familiar with the Best Show before Tom recruited you?

AE: Yeah. Have you ever heard Rock Rot and Rule?

MP: Yes, that’s how I found the show myself.

AE: I knew of Tom through Rock Rot and Rule and the label he ran before I knew him, 18 Wheeler. He did 20 or so releases and a zine.

MP: Tom said that the first time you were on, it was live in studio and he was sick, and it didn’t go over too well. How was it for you?

AE: I didn’t like the outcome. I had never done anything like that before.

MP: Were you nervous?

AE: I was a mess. I think Tom felt bad, cos you didn’t have the practice that he and Jon had.

MP: What was the first thing you did on the Best Show that you were happy with?

AE: I got a lot more comfortable with it as the bits went along, through the following months.

MP: What came next after that first Giles Palermo bit?

AE: The first thing after Giles Palermo was when Jeff Jensen and I bumrushed the producer of Bands On The Run and Beastie from Soulcracker. As far as the first ones that I was happy with, it was either The Very Depressed Office worker or The Angry Mr. Bungle Fan.

MP: Was that the only time Jeff has been on the show?

AE: He did one or two other short calls. He called in as WIll Oldham announcing an auction in Williamsburg, and the items would be Don Cabellero’s wallet chains and the racing jacket that Lee Renaldo wore in the Kool Thing video.

MP: So, from I gather, Tom doesn’t always know what to expect from you when you call, am I right?

AE: Exactly. It’s fun to try and make Tom lose it. He told me that he almost lost it with one of the Kevin calls.

MP: Which one?

AE: The one where he confessed everything to Tom, the REALLY depressing one.

MP: That’s my favorite Kevin call. Tom is very convincing in that one – he seems genuinely concerned and upset by Kevin.

AE: I laid on the floor, on my stomach during the whole call, to sound extra tired and depressed. Usually I pace the apartment during the calls, much to my roommate’s chagrin.

MP: That Kevin call with the breakdown sounds very convincing. I think most people wouldn’t be so sure if it was comedy if they just tuned in at the tail end.