Secret Origins, Part V
Here’s part one of the Andy Earles interview.
Matthew Perpetua: How did you start off with comedy and writing? Tom told me he had found you through your Cimmaron Weekend zines.
Andy Earles: Yes, that’s how Tom found me. He wrote me an e-mail about the Cimarron Weekend, I happened to be planning a trip to New York, so we just agreed to do something in person on the show. That was the first bit that I did for the show, the Giles Palermo character, back in May of 2001. I was really unhappy with how it went, and thought it would be a one-shot, but Tom e-mailed me a few months later about calling up and messing with the producer for “Bands On The Run” and Beastie from Soulcracker. That was summer of 2001, and it just became regular from then on.
MP: When I was talking to Tom, we were both trying to find a way to describe your comedy, and I think the best thing either of us could come up with was that you highlight this horror of mundane modern life. It’s all in the depressing details.
AE: My surviving family is very mundane. My mother, bless her heart, is the picture of mediocrity. My rent-paying job is in an office setting, that is where I am sitting right now.
MP: What sort of office job?
AE: IT. It’s glorified desk help, what I do. But its days are numbered. Writing has become, at least time wise, the equivalent of a part time job.
MP: Did the Very Depressed Office Worker come out of that experience?
AE: That comes from a prank call idea that Jeff Jensen and I had. Jeff came to Memphis to record much of Just Farr A Laugh in the late summer of 2001, and we found this business card for a motivational speaker/stand-up comedian on a bulletin board at the hipster coffee shop/bakery around the corner. It turned out that this guy was some kind of lower level Def Jam/Kings Of Comedy style comedian that had actually appeared on BET in the past.
I had this idea of trying to hire this guy to come to my office and speak to my employees while weaving that fucked-up work situation out of the whole thing. I couldn’t get him on the phone though, only his wife. Shortly after that, I decided to move the whole idea into the context of Tom’s show. I don’t remember what happened with that call, to the wife, but while Jeff and I were recording new material for the next CD a couple of months ago, I made the same call to a Job Harrassment Hotline, and it is pretty crazy. I can say things in these calls that I can’t on Tom’s show, like “I went out to my Hyundai Sante Fe because I had to go pick my daughter up from school, and one of my employee’s had taken black shoe polish and wrote ‘Butt Fuck’ across my windshield.”
MP: That’s pretty horrific. How did the person react?
AE: The guy just kept going, “Wow, you have a really bad situation there. You need to get professional help, it’s not going to get better, it’s just going to get worse.”
MP: So it was genuine sympathy, they didn’t question it.
AE: I added that the building maintenance super, or head janitor, keeps coming into the office trying to sell drugs to my employees. He walks into our work space saying, “Doses and weed, who wants doses and weed?” Creekwood Banks is his name. Here’s the kicker – Jeff calls this guy RIGHT back as one of my employees in a totally scary redneck voice. “I jus’ hit redial on my boss’ phone, this some kind of a help line er somthin’? Don’t believe a word that pussy says, he’s always up in our shit tellin’ us to get back to work. Like ‘get to work, bitch.’ Sure, I buy some shit from Creekwood Banks, but I don’t dose in the office er nuthin’, gotta get that shit somewhere.”
MP: So is this going to be on the next cd?
AE: Yeah. We also do these completely fucked up pranks to businesses, then call back as a mystery shopper explaining that “that call” was a mystery call to test the employee’s reaction. We have also, for better or worse, invited some religious humor into the game.
MP: Really? I thought that was one of your taboos.
AE: Well, it is, but the I loved the idea behind these calls so much that they have to go on. Jeff’s character is this suburban party yuppie who only takes his family to church on Easter and Christmas.
MP: So, how closely do you work with Jeff Jensen? How did you two meet up?
AE: He contacted me years ago through The Cimarron Weekend. I used to work at a record store here in town for five or so years. It is one of the “hip” stores in Memphis, one out of three. You get the idea. Anyway, our relationship started by way of the magazine and him coming into the store on one of his jaunts. Jeff does a lot of travelling. Jeff is from Lawrence, KS, he moved to NY about ten years ago.
MP: What does Jeff do?
AE: Jeff is independently wealthy, he does not have to work. I am the exact opposite of the spectrum. I am independently unstable and I have what amounts to three jobs. This place, writing, and hustling records on eBay.
MP: So what does Jeff do with his time?
AE: Jeff was the bass player in a band called Smack Dab, a sleeper Homestead Records band in the early ’90s. He is the lead singer of a current band called Closet Case. Jeff organized a citywide, 500 person scavenger hunt once.
MP: Which city?
AE: NYC. Maybe it was closer to 300-400 people.
MP: Actually, you know, I think I remember hearing about this. When did he do that?
AE: ’98 or ’99.
MP: Yeah, I think that’s probably what I remember. I was in school in the city then, and I remember hearing people talk about it.
When did you start the Cimmaron Weekend?
AE: ’97. It was a staple job at first, no cover price. I brought on my close friend Dave Dunlap and we become co-editors/owners and the CW became a real publication with a cover price and such in early ’99. We folded it a few months ago, officially. Dave now lives in DC, writing for the City Paper and it is tough to do a publication long distance. It’s easier to do comedy that way.
Each of the issues were equally broken out into six sections. Meaning, Dave and I both had our own editorial, feature, and review section. We were writing about music and whatever pop-cultural nonsense we were into at the time.
MP: Did a lot of the success of the zine came from word of mouth? What was your distribution like?
AE: We had pretty good distro through Revolver and Tower, we never sold over 1,000 of any issue but we might have made our money back, maybe. I’m going to start my own journal, a perfect bound 6″ by 9″ or something.
MP: You mean, like a literary journal sort of thing?
AE: It might look like that, but it will be whatever I feel like writing about, and there will be reviews.
MP: Okay, so it will be like an ‘upscale’ zine, I guess?
AE: Yeah, exactly.
MP: Where did the Samson bit come from? That one is so great, this whole man’s depressing life compressed into six minutes on an answering machine.
AE: Another one from a ditched prank call. We called a restaurant trying to get the waitress to act like she knew the character, because he was on a first date and had lied to the girl, saying that this place was his favorite eatery. The only thing that carried over to Tom’s show was what Samson was wearing.
MP: There are tons of folks like Samson out there. I wish I could be as happy as them. I love that bit where he says that one of his interests are giant pretzels, especially the honey-mustard kind.
AE: Yeah, you make fun, but…..you are the one that thinks too much, you are the unhappy one.
MP: Do you intend for that sort of subtext to be in your comedy?
AE: No, it’s just the things that I think are good fertile ground for comedy.
MP: It’s all over your comedy, too.
AE: Right, well, i
t’s a style that came from my upbringing, I guess.
MP: What was your upbringing like?
AE: Boring and lower-middle class. We were ok until I was 15, then my father had a stroke and couldn’t work. My parents split, I lived with my Mom and we were pretty poor. I mean, we didn’t starve. We ate well.
MP: Right. But definitely lower-middle class.
AE: Yeah. Two-bedroom, post-war architecture apartment, sliding windows. I took a lot of drugs, I drank a lot, I hoarded a lot of music, I watched a lot of cable, I read a lot.
MP: What kind of music were you into?
AE: Before 14? Classic rock. I was a huge Led Zep fan. 14-16, I was into college rock bordering on loud indie rock. I was really into R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth. 16 – 19, I was into much more indie and obscure stuff. Touch and Go, AmRep stuff, and noise and free jazz. I’m into pop music more than any other type of music.
MP: By pop, you mean?
AE: Any type of pop. I’m a big pop person, and 60’s folk rock.
MP: I was just wondering if you were talking like an ILM born-again Top 40 type of person. “Indie Sux now, Justin Timberlake is the real art now” kind of stuff.
AE: No, I am not like that. That is simply reactionary. I hate that fake-ass outlook.
MP: I enjoy a lot of popular Top 40 pop stuff, but I agree that is a completely reactionary attitude. It’s all over the place now. It’s insidious.
FailedPilot: Yeah. So, I went through about every phase you can imagine. Every record geek phase, that is.
Secret Origins, Part IV
Here’s the second part of the Jon Wurster interview.
MP: What inspired you to start the Stereolaffs label and release Rock Rot And Rule? That seemed to open a lot of doors for you.
JW: We just made tapes of Rock Rot and Rule for bands to listen to in their vans. People started to find out about it and we just thought we should put it out before somebody else did. It did open a lot of doors. It’s crazy.
MP: A lot of the comedy that you do is about music, and music culture, in a way that’s a lot more specific than what is common in pop culture.
JW: Yeah, I don’t really know about much else!
MP: How long have you been involved in music?
JW: I started playing drums at age ten, so about twenty-some years. Man, that’s too long.
MP: So you’ve been in and out of bands since a teen, I guess?
JW: Yeah, my first band was called Hair Club For Men in the very early ’80s. I just saw the bass player last week for the first time since high school.
MP: A lot of your characters tend to follow similar arcs, a lot of them starting off relatively weird but benign…
JW: Yeah, they all want to kill Tom at the end.
MP: You’ve sort of mastered that switch – that moment when it all goes haywire.
JW: Yeah, that to me is funny. Tom and I have vague outline for a movie called “Unhinged” about a guy who is that to a tee. I don’t think it comes from me really. I mean, I have moments where I want to go nutzo but I never do. Maybe this is a way for me to do that.
MP: A lot of the best bits usually have a good vs. evil thing happening in them.
JW: Yeah, I’m usually the evil one, huh?
MP: The theory that I had about it is that you and Tom are both pretty decent guys, and the comedy seems to be about examining bad ethics and finding humor in absurdly bad people.
JW: That’s exactly what it is – if you ask me. Can we use that?
MP: Sure. I was going to say something to that effect in the article.
JW: Just don’t put that I hate kids, ok?
MP: No, I won’t put that in the article. Anyway, not all of the characters are violent and crazy – some of them are just scam artists and creeps
JW: Like the President?
MP: Yes, like the President. Oh man, I’ve got to ask – was that Bush song that Zachary sings written by you or Tom? That thing is genius. “H is for forgotten memories.”
JW: Man, I’m trying to rememeber. I think that was collaborative. I will say 60/40 in my favor.
MP: That song is so creepy now, a few years after the 2000 election debacle. It’s too prescient for its own good.
JW: We gotta get NRBQ to record it.
MP: You should get NRBQ to do a 7″ “The Bush Song” b/w “Freedom Bombs”
JW: I like it!
MP: Actually, “Freedom Bombs” is probably a better a-side.
JW: Yeah, it’s what America wants to hear.
MP: What characters are you most proud of?
JW: Um…I think Clontle is up there. Brimstead was good but I lost interest in it. I’m not sure if it’s funny anymore. I think Corey Harris from Mother 13 is good. Barry Dworkin. One of my favorites is one we can’t find. I called in as a guy leaving the most mundane message about ball bearings on a guy’s machine. I thought that was a top 10. I think Philly Boy Roy and Hot Rockin’ Ronny might be my best.
MP I don’t think I’ve heard the ball bearings thing. Are there any that you don’t think turned out very well, or could’ve been better?
JW: Yeah, I thought the Batter Butler was better than it was when I listened to it last week to see if it was worth putting on the next cd. We had a guy saying he was Peter Tork call in the middle of something (can’t remember what it was) and it just ruined it. It might have been the second Barry Dworkin call. Mike Jackyl was one that didn’t sound as funny as I recall it being. Augie Richards, that’s a perfect example of why I should listen to the first call before reprising a role. The voices aren’t at all similar.
MP: What calls are you considering for the next cd set?
JW: It’s still up in the air. I’ve been editing potential things down these last few weeks. One I think we both like is the Clash call. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to have that on there now -even if it was recorded 9 or so months before Joe Strummer’s death. I am a massive Clash fan and I really think he would have found that funny. I think Mother 13 will be on there and maybe Jarrett the weight-loss kid. It’ll be another double cd.
MP: I like that Clash call a lot too. I’m not sure about how appropriate it is. It’s not exactly inappropriate.
JW: Yeah, if only there was a way of letting people know when it was done and in what spirit.
MP: It seems kinda tricky, and it might get in the way of some people’s enjoyment of it. It might just bum some people out.
JW: I think my goal would be to put out the Hot Rockin’ Ronny and Philly Boy Roy box sets too. It’s always a plus for the calls to be shorter. It’s hard getting these things down below 25 minutes. I’ve got Barry Dworkin down to about 22 minutes and The Clash down to about 25.
MP: Wow. You edited a lot out of Dworkin. How much did you edit out of the Chain Fights, Beer Busts, and Service With A Grin calls?
JW: A fair amount. I took several calls out of the Gorch. They were funny at first but then they meandered. Radio Hut probably had about 10 minutes trimmed.
MP: Radio Hut is another big favorite of mine. It’s a slow burner. Very scary.
JW: Radio Hut is maybe my favorite too. But that’s the one nobody ever comments on.
MP: Radio Hut didn’t hit me right away. That one holds up to repeated listenings so well.
JW: “You matured.” That’s a line Jim from Chunk always says.
MP: There are jokes in that one that I didn’t even notice til the 5th or 6th listening. There’s that one part where you quietly mutter “…it’s got something called Fudge. I don’t know what that is.” I didn’t even notice it til my friend pointed it out to me. It has become an in-joke reference for me and a couple of my friends.
JW: That to me is what it’s all about. That is the ultimate compliment. That’s why I
don’t really go for stand-up. I love things that you can listen to over and over and find new things with each listen.
MP: What is it that appeals to you about the Radio Hut skit?
JW: Just how low-key the guy is. He’s an asshole but he’s not yelling.
MP: I think that’s exactly it. He’s the scariest psycho you’ve done exactly because of how quiet and intense he is.
JW: Let me say that I hope I’m not coming off right now as one of those “..and wasn’t it great when I did this?” kind of guys.
MP: Oh, no.
JW: Cool.
MP: I was hoping that I wasn’t coming off like that old Chris Farley character, “Remember when you did The Gorch? That was cooooool!”
