Inside the Awesome Show

If there’s one thing capable of dispelling the ennui of another Portland winter, it’s the twisted comedy of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Luckily for us, that’s also something that is about to be in ample supply.

With their Awesome Tour live show, which hits the Crystal Ballroom tonight, their Feb. 8 season premiere of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and the Feb. 10 DVD release of the show’s second season, things are looking spiffy for fans of Heidecker and Wareheim’s twisted concoction of silly jokes, manic comedy and grating awkwardness.

The Vanguard chatted with Tim and Eric by phone about their tour, why stupid is funny and the use of leopard-print panties, as the duo prepped for their month-long jaunt across the United States.

Stover Harger: So, you’re going to be in town here on Tuesday…
Eric Wareheim: Yeah, we love Portland!
Tim Heidecker: Sincerely…
EW: We thought about moving this whole production to the Northwest, it’s so fresh there.
TH: Probably not Portland, but the Northwest.

SH: What can people expect from this tour?
EW: This tour is 100 percent new content from last year. We’ve been calling this tour the “tour for the fans.”
TH: It’s sort of our fan appreciation show.

SH: So it will be free then…
TH: [laughs manically] Not quite. Daddy’s got to make a darduckle.

SH: Yes he does. Now, you’ve got this whole live thing down now, but was it difficult going out on the road at first? Transposing your show to the stage?
EW: No. It’s actually much easier when you have a TV show. It’s not like we are going out there as fresh faces. People are pretty accepting to almost anything we do out there. This particular tour is so silly, there are so many penis and poop jokes, it’s kind of embarrassing, but also really fun.

SH: And the new season is coming up too?
EW: Yeah, Feb. 8. Season four, a huge season.
TH: Oh lordy, we’re forty.…
EW: We got Alan Thicke coming out there and Frank Stallone.… 

SH: Playing live, does it free you up creatively, to push the envelope a bit more?
TH: You get into a zone. You just go out there and give it your best. We’re both fairly out of shape [Eric laughs], so it’s exhausting. We write bits that involve lots of running and dancing and jumping and screaming.
EW: We wear the tightest spandex outfits. I mean, you’ve seen our bodies. Tim in one bit wears these tiny leopard panties and that’s it and a rattail. You see a lot of man up there.

SH: There’s one thing that I’ve noticed in your show … the comedy doesn’t come from an angry place, like some other comedy shows.
EW: I’m glad you noticed that.
TH: It comes from a very silly place mostly. A very imaginative kind of place.
EW: We loved things like The Jerky Boys and that stuff growing up, but we always thought it was a little cheap. Even the crazy people on our show that you laugh at, we’re friends with them. We kind of support them and try to do it in an innocent way, rather than coming off like we are ripping into somebody.

SH: I think it does come across the more you watch. The first couple episodes I watched for the freak factor and it made me a little uncomfortable.
EW: Well we love that too. We love making people feel very uncomfortable. We’re not saints here.
TH: The question that goes with every bit we do is, “Why is this happening?” That’s usually the reason for its creation.

SH: You have a relatively small staff, right?
TH: Yeah, probably the smallest writing staff in the history of comedy. We have three guys that meet maybe twice a year or three times a year.
EW: Editors have a lot to do with it in the postproduction world, but the bits and the humor is very personal to Tim and I. It’s really not filtered through anything.

SH: Have you been surprised that you’ve been able to take this as far as you’ve taken it? I mean four seasons is a good run….
EW: I realized that this holiday. I showed the fourth season to my friends and they were just like, ” I still cannot believe this is on TV.” It’s so great for comedy that there is a venue for this offbeat humor. You don’t have to air it on cable access.
EW: We totally feel lucky; we would be doing this for free.

SH: A lot of people are huge fans of those commercial jingles you guys write.
TH: We are talented guys. I don’t think there’s any question of it at this point.
EW: People come up to us and they sing “Celebrex.” I can’t believe that hit on some level for these people. It might have been the video of the recording session where, Tim, you are shirtless….
TH: [laughs]
EW: We are obsessed with making something really dumb and taking it way too far.

SH: And double chins…
TH: A byproduct of our lifestyles.
EW: [laughs] They are huge this tour.

SH: There is some physical comedy you guys do. Do you work to perfect those poses and those faces?
TH: There is no work involved with that kind of stuff. That’s not work, that’s just playtime.

SH: Anything new coming up?
TH: We’re going to start writing season five of Awesome Show after we get back from the tour, and we’re working on a Dr. Steve Brule spin-off show that’s still just trying to find its way. And we’re writing a movie.

SH: How long do you think your show can go on for?
EW: We’re doing a fifth season and it could be the finale. I mean 50 episodes sounds pretty good, but who knows? We get bored of things really fast. Even the most popular characters on our TV show, we kill them off right away.

SH: Assuming season five is the last season, what would be your main goal if you were to stay on television? What kind of show would you like to establish?
EW: I think we’d like to move away from the sketch, you know? Do something long-form.
TH: Just keep surprising people, surprising us, surprising our audience. Making people laugh, or making people wonder.